Roguelikes may have enjoyed their moment in the sun over the past few years (just ask Hades, our game of the year for 2020), but Everspace 2 shows that procedure generation is not the only way forward. The original Everspace is a cool astronaut, but the sequel has changed course to a more traditional RPG style, and its series of missions in an open space of space feels much more in the style of Freelancer or Rebel Galaxy Outlaw than a result. But it maintains its free movement system, which makes the battle stand out in the style of other space shooters. There is already a fair amount of it to explore during the onset of early access, and it keeps things interesting by mixing up a little puzzle solution to break up the flashy dog fights.
The story here is a pretty strong start: it takes our clone pilot from the first game, except with the interesting twist that we have his last life this time: if he dies now, he’s dead forever. So far, not much is being made of the fact that the galaxy now hates clones and most who learn its true identity will avoid it, but it feels like a setup that could contribute something to its quest to make it as a mercenary. and the lawless region to escape space in which he finds himself. Granted, the main character is a bit on the faint side, as you might expect from a disposable clone – he only really shows passion when he teases ramen. However, his companion characters – including the returning AI collaborator – have a bit more personality. Even the one-off characters you give commands to spacecraft have an above-average taste and voice acting. There are no opportunities to lead the story with dialogue, but at least it seems to be going to somewhat interesting places.
Everspace 2 is all about battles. After playing more traditional space fighting games like Star Wars: Squadrons and Rebel Galaxy Outlaw, it was a bit of a struggle for me to return to this particular flywheel: instead of opening a gas valve to continue with a constant speed like an airplane, here your ship moves much more like a character in a typical pound. If you do not press a button, you will come to a halt (unless you deactivate your inertia dampers, in which case you will keep moving, but will have to press to change direction). This Descent-style dogfight is a lot of fun once you get the hang of it and allow you to do a lot of maneuvers that you would not see anywhere else. Somewhat unusually, the Everspace 2 certainly looks much better suited for mouse and keyboard controls than game pads because of the amount of input required to make good use of it, but the game pad controls are definitely workable.
‘
Each weapon has an energy and kinetic damage rating, so battles are mostly about switching between them when needed to strike down enemy shields or armor, occasionally a missile, a dumb rocket or mine to spit. You must also manage your coolings effectively so that you can activate the ship’s special abilities at the right moment to explode or paralyze the most powerful enemies, or to escape quickly. Here’s a great variety that you can swap and customize your abilities: one of the starting forces is an EMP blast that deactivates all enemy vessels around you for 10 seconds so you can pick the most dangerous of them for free, and I replenished with a power generation that reduces the cooling by two seconds for each enemy I killed during its effects. The other starter is a free-from-prison card that lifts your ship at high speeds from danger so you can get going when things get tough; I juiced this one to go 80% faster, but only half as long. You unlock more of these abilities as you go, and I quickly learned that you can use them well to survive battles against groups of high-level enemies.
However, your ultimate ability is tied to your choice of ship, and at the moment there are a handful for sale after you have built up some credits flying your novice fighter. Your launch ship fires an electric beam that attaches to other targets and can wipe out a group of fighters and their drone escorts at once, while the shooter I upgraded activates a revolver that automatically fires at you for 20 seconds. on to blow forward. I was a little disappointed that the weapon did not handle significantly differently, but it did give me much more expensive armor stats and allow you to carry more primary weapons, at the expense of equipment for consumable items (although this is pretty pointless because you can stand still and exchange those at any time in the middle of a battle).Enemy variety is not great, but it’s good enough to stop things from getting too repetitive: I knew I had to fight differently when I spotted a heavily armored enemy with a space gun, or if I was drone- types before they can ensnare me or make self-destruction up close. Large capital ships are rare in the early missions, but it’s nice to take down their towers when they arrive.
Then, of course, you collect the sweet, sweet loot after the satisfying blast effects. There’s a pretty good range of pew lasers available, from quick-firing rifles that take a moment to sharpen to sniper and shotgun explosions, constant beams and more. It is very unusual, rare and superior equipment with many useful bonus effects. Some of my highlights were a shield generator that explodes a smaller EMP wave every time the shield collapses, eliminating anything around me just enough to lose a pursuer; and a superior Gatling track gun did more damage when my ship was in sunlight and even more so as I fought against enemies of a higher level. I also like the upgrade system that allows you to increase the level or scarcity of a piece of equipment you want to hold by removing other pieces of the same rarity, although levels come fast enough at this early stage and limit the equipment to just one upgrade limits its usefulness. Maybe it would be more important to upgrade the latter, but there is not enough content in Everspace 2 yet to take us that far.
‘
Aside from combat, the fine level of motion control Everspace 2 can do a lot more with puzzles than you see in most space shooters. Many of the outside rewards were hidden behind obstacle courses and stored in corners that an X-wing could not easily reach. You will be sent to do things like pick up key items and put them in position to unlock containers and aisles where you have to navigate through small spaces through your ship and roll through the locking doors, all on a ticking clock. Some of these puzzle activities have led to more downtime than I would have liked because your sensors are not very long distance at first, so you have to wander aimlessly looking for things to communicate with, and sometimes the areas are excessively dark and I had to use my weapons as sonar to see where the walls are. But it’s great to do something in a game like this, other than shoot everything I see.Everything looks and sounds amazing, including the all-new planetary environments. The visual variety and striking terrain detail they add is striking; if you’ve been staring into the void for a while, it’s a whole different look to fly low through a gorge in bright sunlight. This is not to say that the space areas are visually monotonous – far from it. Everspace 2 is excellent for beautiful viewing, with colorful backdrops and atmospheric effects highlighting large asteroids and platforms in the distance for you to explore, and you are regularly sent into caves and massive shipwrecks.
‘
What is frightening is the transition between zones. Jumping in and out faster than the lights causes a short loading screen – the kind of thing that hides most games these days with a flashy animation effect. It’s not a big deal, but I noticed it every time; Since No Man’s Sky was able to successfully switch the atmosphere and space smoothly five years ago, these seams are becoming harder to ignore.
In total, it took me about 13 hours to burn through Everspace 2’s early access story, and I regularly take into account XP and loot in unexplored places that appear on my map as I crouch between missions. It also suddenly comes to an end during a new mission instead of at a logical breaking point. The other obvious sign that this is a work in progress – apart from many occasional bugs and the watermark in the corner of the screen that says it – is that some of the cutscenes in the storyboard -style placeholders are what give you the essence of things. to let the voice actors play out. And although the end screen prompted me to explore the remaining side missions and activities, I definitely lost the motivation to grind for a better loot after the plot ran out and only managed a few more hours.This is also when it turns out that Everspace 2 does not have much of a commodity market. Yes, you can buy and sell small quantities of things like drinks and ramen at different prices at different ports, but there is no system to keep track of everything, so setting up a trade route does not feel like a practical way to make money. not right now. In addition, you are never attacked during transport between ports, so even if you could, it would be an extremely dull way to make a living.