There are clear nods to the original game here with you playing Adam Roslin, a fighter pilot who is a clone but remembers much of his previous lives, even encountering one at one point in a destroyed ship and recalling some horrible moments. That’s definitely a bit of meta-storytelling that hits home. Imagine if every death in a roguelike compounded the emotional state of the character you were playing! Lots of potential there, that’s for sure. Regardless, as Adam, you’re on a mission to save your friend and escape the demilitarized zone. Along the way you’ll make friends, find yourself, and all that other fun stuff that we do in RPGs.
That’s not to say that the plot is bad in Everspace 2, just that this isn’t Mass Effect. The storyline is serviceable and interesting but it isn’t particularly memorable for several reasons. First and foremost among those is that the way the story is presented is primarily with dialogue along the bottom of the screen playing while you fly around. This minimizes the impact of the storyline because it almost feels like an afterthought to the gameplay. Sure it’s all there but it’s hard to focus on what’s being said while you’re looking around in space and it’s easy to accidentally hit a button and skip dialogue. No log is included so if you miss something, it’s gone. Cut scenes are particularly weird too, with no full animation. Instead, Rockfish opted for a storyboard style approach with individual hand-drawn scenes that flicker uncomfortably from one to the next, creating jerky unfinished feeling that genuinely hurts the eyes. It’s a significant downgrade from the rest of the game visually and the design style really takes away from the impact of the cinema sequences.
Despite these flaws, the writing is overall pretty good and the plot itself is enjoyable enough that you won’t be groaning at the screen while playing Everspace 2. However, it’s incredibly clear here that the main focus of game design was on gameplay. There are no sections of the game where you get out of your ship and explore stations or planets. This is entirely a space shooting simulation with almost every mission comprising of an area in open space or on planet and you flying about and shooting almost everything that moves. Everspace 2 wears it’s pedigree on its sleeve and the end result is a glorious morass of dogfighting and explosions that’s unashamedly fun.
Combat in Everspace 2 consists of reaching your targets and blasting them out of the sky with your weapon loadouts. Initially you start out pretty underpowered, but as well as a space RPG, this is also a looter shooter and you’re going to scrounge up some quality weapons pretty quick. Not only can your ship equip anything that anyone else is carrying (as long as you’re at the right level) but you can buy and craft additional weaponry, allowing you to eventually vastly overpower the enemy, at least for a while. Everspace 2 is broken up into zones and as the story progresses and you move from system cluster to system cluster, old enemies upgrade too, becoming more powerful and dangerous. Rush enough through the main quest without taking time on some side quests and distress signals and you’ll eventually be so low-level that you’ll struggle to face even the weakest of enemies. Don’t get too attached to a particular weapon either because you’ll absolutely need to upgrade.
Combat is the heard of the game here and Everspace 2 managed to refine all the combat from the first game, making it approachable and fun for players of every skill level. You spaceship is responsive and easy to use, HUD icons are simple and understandable, and lock-ons are obtainable. Is this a realistic space simulation? Absolutely not. But it’s a fun video game version of one that’s entertaining and eminently playable and that’s something that’s been missing from a lot of games, especially ones that involve dogfighting. We’re not here to step into the shoes of a space pilot and manage all the electrical systems and work about the weight differentials in every ship type. We’re here to blast baddies and have a good time and Everspace 2 is the most good-timey game of this genre to come out in a long time.
Enemy ships leave trackable contrails, making it easy to orient yourself in fully three-dimensional space and follow them. On top of that, your guns are relatively effective most of the time and missile attacks typically hit enemy targets (unless they have anti-missile drones). There are a fair variety of enemy ship types and their assaults can definitely be overwhelming but Everspace 2 never feels impossible or unplayable. You can get lasers, railguns, gauss cannons, missiles, mines, and a whole host of other neat powerups. You can also augment your ship with upgrades to sensors, shield, armor plating and more. Play long enough and you’ve even got an ultimate attack (it takes a while to charge) that lets you electrocute enemies, destroying even bosses in seconds. It’s a frag-fest of epic proportions and a blast to play (pun intended). It’s hard to imagine combat being any better than it is in Everspace 2. You can even use terrain to your advantage, both on planets and in space, hiding behind asteroids or down tunnels and in ravines to bottleneck enemies so you can pick them off one by one. Guns blazing definitely doesn’t always cut it here and there’s a fair degree of strategy involved. Eventually you’ll scrounge enough cash to even upgrade to more powerful ships, making things even more fun!
While combat makes up the majority of gameplay, it isn’t all there is to do. You can also participate in a rudimentary commodities market (it’s simplistic which makes it less onerous), buy and sell weapons, and craft new weapons, armor and accessories (it’s hard to get the gear to do it though). Some missions require light puzzle solving too, but it’s mostly just blow up this panel or power this lock stuff and you’re not exactly going to strain your brain). The variety makes Everspace 2 seem a bit more immersive and your ability to go anywhere that’s discovered and investigate any area in any system means that there’s a virtual infinity of activities to participate in. Nearly every time you use the jump drives, you’ll encounter more unknown signals and distress calls and helping people and discovering new areas builds your reputation and renown, making you more famous. You get some gear for upgrading that renown too so it’s not entirely fruitless. You can also upgrade the skills of your various companions to provide additional boosts to your abilities.
So now we’ve got a decent script, a decent plot, a hell of a fun space combat game, and some light RPG elements. There’s honestly so much going on here that it’s hard to decide what to focus on and in this case, that’s a good thing. Flying about blasting stuff is fun and tossing in some story elements is great. But the game itself also looks absolutely stunning and it brings the whole experience together. Everspace 2 has insanely scenic space and planetary areas with detailed renders of ships, space debris, and planetary surfaces. Enemies look cool too and the whole thing honestly looks nicer than some AAA titles (*cough* Starfield *cough*) for space presentation. These are some advanced visuals and it’s almost like you’re playing a modern version of Freespace 2 when blast your way through the various scenery in Everspace 2. It’s a remarkably pretty game and just flying around at random to check stuff out is almost as gratifying as completing missions and advancing the story.
The sound mostly keeps up with the game as well. Sound effects are enjoyably blast-y and explosive with lots of pew pew laser sounds and hammering cannons. Missiles sound like missiles on earth (no sound in space is boring, right?) and the whole ship experience is pretty much exactly what it should be from an audio standpoint. The music on the other hand is a bit weak overall. There are a lot of repeated tracks, especially during the copious interstellar travel using the jump system and the tracks are definitely more repetitive than they should be, both in terms of use and looking at the music itself. That’s not to say that the songs aren’t perfectly serviceable…they absolutely are. But they’re not that extra level of impressive that would really kick things up a notch. Voicework on the other hand is excellent and the full voice acting for all major characters really stands out as a high point in the soundscape of Everspace 2.
There really aren’t any negatives here, other than slightly too long of transfer speeds for long distances and some music that could be just a bit more interesting. Everspace 2 is an incredible experience that’s well-balanced and allows for a number of different play styles without overcomplicating the game. It’s also a huge time suck, allowing you to blast away merrily until you realize you’re late for work or really should go to bed. It’s that addictive quality that really makes the game shine and fun factor is definitely front and center here. Everspace 2 is $50 and well worth the price of entry, but if you have Gamepass, it’s free there now and you should definitely commit some hard drive space to it. This is one heck of a fun ride and if you love space games, Everspace 2 is one you simply shouldn’t miss. Even if space combat isn’t your thing, the well-designed gameplay and interface make playing a snap and it honestly might be worth your time to give it a go! It’s the best time you’ve ever had being cloned so get to it!
This review is based on a digital copy of Everspace 2 provided by the publisher. It was played on an Xbox Series X system with a Sony 55” LED TV. Everspace 2 is also available for PS5 and PC on Steam.
Nate Van Lindt has been a gamer since the days of yore (aka Commodore 64), and has played a bit of virtually everything out there. He's also an avid comic book collector, both vintage and current, and reads a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy. On top of that, he watches a fair number of movies and TV shows as well. Oh, and he has a family, a full-time job, and lives somewhere in the urban wilds of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, foraging for old video cables and forgotten game soundtracks.
[…] interest in games of this nature has come about, and Everspace 2, which we released a review of here, is also a game along these lines worth checking […]