Everspace 2 is a fun space shooter that reminded me a lot of Freelancer. I ultimately shelved it just because of lack of variety, but I had a good time with it.
Everspace looks really great. The ship designs are cool and the ability to swap out parts and paintjobs to customize how your ship looks gives the game a ton of personality. Environments are varied and cool with each major area having its own style that helps make the universe an interesting place to explore.
Cutscenes are done in a simple, lightly animated, comic book style that works well for the story they are telling and appealed to me throughout.
The story is fairly by the book, though it is refreshingly low stakes (for at least as much as I played). For most of the game you are just trying to get by and land a big score to escape the DMZ (the part of space you are in that definitely isn't demilitarized, so I don't know what the name means). There are a lot of references to alien races and political tensions that might be related to the first game, but aren't that well explained, so I didn't get a lot out of them.
You sort of collect various crew members as you progress through the story, each of which end up crashing at your headquarters and providing you with upgradable bonuses. This is a cool feature and I like the light community building it provides, even though all the crew interactions are story driven and seem to just be them whining at each other.
This is space combat almost exactly as I remember Freelancer being, and it plays very well. Flying is responsive, aiming is straightforward, and blasting enemy ships out of the sky is satisfying. Unfortunately, missions themselves are all pretty samey, which is why I ended up shelving this one. Combat is very one-note even though there are a number of different enemy types, they don't have enough of an impact to really factor into how you approach things.
There are a ton of weapon and equipment options, allowing you to approach combat however you want and upgrading your guns and armor feels pretty good throughout the game. I didn't get as much out of the different ship types, mainly because they didn't seem to have that much differentiation (general stats plus one special ability) and changing ships is prohibitively expensive. I only ended up using better versions of the starting ship.
I would have liked this aspect more if there were fewer ships and you ended up purchasing a bunch of different chassis to change how you approach any particular mission, but things aren't really designed that way.
Travel in Everspace 2 was one of the major reasons I shelved it, as it is tedious and takes much too long by about the middle of the game. You do eventually unlock minimal fast travel, but it happens too late and it is too annoying to actually set each fast travel point up. You have an HQ you can return to, but there isn't really a reason to (besides narratively) and it doesn't serve enough purpose. The game, in general, wants you to prove you have earned the right to do things quickly, which is just punitive and dumb.
There is even a nomadic trader ship that you can call to certain areas that functions exactly as you would want a base to function, with a place to repair your ship, buy upgrades, and eventually, buy better ships. Writing the narrative such that your group of renegades is laying low on this ship would have made more sense and been better gameplay.
I like Everspace 2, it is fun and satisfying to blast your way through this universe. I wish travel was less tedious and combat had a bit more variety, but I still enjoyed my time playing the game.
Everspace looks really great. The ship designs are cool and the ability to swap out parts and paintjobs to customize how your ship looks gives the game a ton of personality. Environments are varied and cool with each major area having its own style that helps make the universe an interesting place to explore.
Cutscenes are done in a simple, lightly animated, comic book style that works well for the story they are telling and appealed to me throughout.
The story is fairly by the book, though it is refreshingly low stakes (for at least as much as I played). For most of the game you are just trying to get by and land a big score to escape the DMZ (the part of space you are in that definitely isn't demilitarized, so I don't know what the name means). There are a lot of references to alien races and political tensions that might be related to the first game, but aren't that well explained, so I didn't get a lot out of them.
You sort of collect various crew members as you progress through the story, each of which end up crashing at your headquarters and providing you with upgradable bonuses. This is a cool feature and I like the light community building it provides, even though all the crew interactions are story driven and seem to just be them whining at each other.
This is space combat almost exactly as I remember Freelancer being, and it plays very well. Flying is responsive, aiming is straightforward, and blasting enemy ships out of the sky is satisfying. Unfortunately, missions themselves are all pretty samey, which is why I ended up shelving this one. Combat is very one-note even though there are a number of different enemy types, they don't have enough of an impact to really factor into how you approach things.
There are a ton of weapon and equipment options, allowing you to approach combat however you want and upgrading your guns and armor feels pretty good throughout the game. I didn't get as much out of the different ship types, mainly because they didn't seem to have that much differentiation (general stats plus one special ability) and changing ships is prohibitively expensive. I only ended up using better versions of the starting ship.
I would have liked this aspect more if there were fewer ships and you ended up purchasing a bunch of different chassis to change how you approach any particular mission, but things aren't really designed that way.
Travel in Everspace 2 was one of the major reasons I shelved it, as it is tedious and takes much too long by about the middle of the game. You do eventually unlock minimal fast travel, but it happens too late and it is too annoying to actually set each fast travel point up. You have an HQ you can return to, but there isn't really a reason to (besides narratively) and it doesn't serve enough purpose. The game, in general, wants you to prove you have earned the right to do things quickly, which is just punitive and dumb.
There is even a nomadic trader ship that you can call to certain areas that functions exactly as you would want a base to function, with a place to repair your ship, buy upgrades, and eventually, buy better ships. Writing the narrative such that your group of renegades is laying low on this ship would have made more sense and been better gameplay.
I like Everspace 2, it is fun and satisfying to blast your way through this universe. I wish travel was less tedious and combat had a bit more variety, but I still enjoyed my time playing the game.
When I bailed on Everspace 1, I remember saying that it felt like a great game trapped in the confines of a roguelike that it just didn't belong in. While I do think I was correct in that since I have several times as many hours in Everspace 2 as I do in the first game, neither game managed to hold my interest for long enough to see it through.
The main crux of the issue for me has to be how, similar to ES1, ES2 seems to want to drag itself on much longer than it has any right to. Where ES1 had you dying and retrying to build up incremental stats, ES2 has you grinding to build up individual stats using a handful of different systems. This does freshen things up considerably, but once the initial appeal wears off, you're essentially doing the same thing. It isn't helped by the fact that getting better gear feels less like gaining power, and more like sprinting to keep up with your opponents.
As the Steam reviews show, that has an appeal to some people but not to me. The whole numbers game to me just makes improving your shift devoid of any surprise. Sure, you could argue different weapons and abilities do give some degree of shakeup, but even that doesn't last too long (especially when a lot of the abilities aren't that exciting to get).
It doesn't help that the story is far from anything to write home about. I expected as much after my time with ES1 and it's something I can generally forgive, but when paired with a gameplay loop that doesn't excite me, the lack of interest erodes any reason for me to keep playing. Adam continues to be impossible to connect to, given he can swap between showing compassion and being an ass at the drop of a hat.
Again, I have to give credit where it's due. ES2 did hold my interest for around 20 hours or so this time around and I made it just past the Zharkov system in my time. It's once again a beautiful game, paired with some well-done music (albeit songs that get old quickly) and a combat flow that initially feels great. However, the result for me is still the same.
Only reason I'm putting this on shelved is cause I may come back to see it through at some point. It never frustrated me, just bored me to the point of not wanting to return
The main crux of the issue for me has to be how, similar to ES1, ES2 seems to want to drag itself on much longer than it has any right to. Where ES1 had you dying and retrying to build up incremental stats, ES2 has you grinding to build up individual stats using a handful of different systems. This does freshen things up considerably, but once the initial appeal wears off, you're essentially doing the same thing. It isn't helped by the fact that getting better gear feels less like gaining power, and more like sprinting to keep up with your opponents.
As the Steam reviews show, that has an appeal to some people but not to me. The whole numbers game to me just makes improving your shift devoid of any surprise. Sure, you could argue different weapons and abilities do give some degree of shakeup, but even that doesn't last too long (especially when a lot of the abilities aren't that exciting to get).
It doesn't help that the story is far from anything to write home about. I expected as much after my time with ES1 and it's something I can generally forgive, but when paired with a gameplay loop that doesn't excite me, the lack of interest erodes any reason for me to keep playing. Adam continues to be impossible to connect to, given he can swap between showing compassion and being an ass at the drop of a hat.
Again, I have to give credit where it's due. ES2 did hold my interest for around 20 hours or so this time around and I made it just past the Zharkov system in my time. It's once again a beautiful game, paired with some well-done music (albeit songs that get old quickly) and a combat flow that initially feels great. However, the result for me is still the same.
Only reason I'm putting this on shelved is cause I may come back to see it through at some point. It never frustrated me, just bored me to the point of not wanting to return
As much as I (used to) love roguelites, I really only had one thing in my mind when I was playing through, and enjoying, the original Everspace. This game really ought to be an RPG and not a linear roguelite type thing. I was obviously quite excited that the sequel was going to be what I hoped for, and then disappointed to find that they were going to spend several years in early access, and then excited again when I finally started the finished game and realized that this is more or less exactly the game I was hoping for, and that it is very good.
The original game was a roguelite where you jumped from map to map, in which you could do some dogfighting, explore for loot and sometimes perform a little map-specific tasks for some bonuses. This sequel takes that and builds upon it by retaining the level structure while also building an open world around it. So, to be clear, this isn't a "true" open world game and the game is divided into individual maps with quests, side quests, hidden loot and even races in them, but also a zoomed out map of the whole solar system (of which there are five) that you can fly around freely. However, to be clear; flying around freely between systems really mostly only looks and feels cool and doesn't serve much gameplay purpose as you cannot perform combat or find loot in open space. It's really just a travel route that makes you feel like you're zipping through a system.
Once inside one of the individual maps, it's a full-fledged 3D environment where you can fly around freely and perform quests and find secrets that are often very sneakily hidden. You even fly into houses and tunnels, and there is everything from asteroid fields to massive space stations to mining colonies on the surface of planets and so on, all of which are flown around freely and have little things hidden everywhere, both in the form of having them hidden in a sneaky and hard-to-see crevice and in the form of having little puzzles. Tons of little puzzles. Pushing buttons (with your guns) in sequence, pulling items around using the tractor beam, figuring out what piece goes where.
But most important is, of course, the core, which in this case is the flight and combat controls, and they are nothing short of excellent. On a PS5 controller, at least, this game plays like a dream and I often found myself having to remind myself that I'm actually enjoying how very smooth of an experience this game mostly is. The controls are so perfect that it's easy to forget them and take them for granted, and that's what I had to remind myself about as I was at times getting a little bored of the unfortunately repetitive combat. Just as I was getting a little frustrated with a certain task, I realized that it was actually enjoyable because everything about controlling this game just works. There's nothing about the core controls that feel sloppy, poorly designed or in any other way bad to me and a game's controls are at their very best when you kind of forget about them and have to remind yourself of how good they actually are. Even though I will be getting into negative points later in the review, the core of the game is so very good that I was always entertained and I did actually enjoy myself even if I felt frustrated with something on a more surface level.
The second biggest thing for me is the exploration, which this game offers so much of that it actually became exhausting in the end. There are something like 50 individual maps to explore, and the smallest ones have about 5 secrets to find while the bigger ones have upwards of 25. There is so much to see and do in this game, and all of it is delivered with remarkable and very striking visuals. This game looks damn good, and the controls and visuals combined lead to a very enticing and addictive exploration experience as you try to find secret loot while slowly sneaking through asteroids or blasting full speed through a mechanical tunnel that twists and winds as you boost through it, like you're playing a (good) Star Wars movie. You'll see things you wouldn't believe, like attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion, or C-beams glittering in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. There is so much cool space shit to see that every new map is exciting and impressively beautiful and even the maps that end up being the worst to play are still an impressive experience as you load into the map. Even more impressive is that the game does load you into an area from the direction you entered it, as in you don't always enter a map from the same angle, but the maps still look incredible from any viewpoint.
Other than that, this is your typical space freelancer type game, except maybe on a more slimmed scale and with more of a focus on dogfighting action. You partake in a story campaign of intergalactic warfare, perform side quests for a wide (but perhaps shallow) variety of characters, act like a trader who buys materials that are cheap in one system and sell them in a system where they're expensive, recruit companions and work on upgrading or replacing your ship (as there are about 10 or so different ship types). Pretty typical RPG fare, except in space and with striking visuals and a great feeling of being the kid in The Last Starfighter, blasting away at outlaw fools and earning XP while doing it. There's also a surprisingly deep crafting system, where materials feel like they matter and where many things can be crafted. Those space crystals you mined earlier will be useful for crafting that one item you need to upgrade a companion perk. Oh, and yeah, some of the companion perks as so satisfying and good that I don't think I would've completed this game if it wasn't for at the very least the companion that has perks that help with finding secrets and making sure you've cleared a map completely.
However, as much as I loved zipping around the various and visually distinct solar systems, blasting any outlaw fool enough to stand in my ship's way, tinkering with especially the looks of my ship (since the customization options are great), running a few trade routes and just generally inhabiting this game's world, there are a few glaring flaws that prevent me from giving it a perfect score. The big one being the fact that there's just simply too much of everything. There's too much combat and it's just annoying when enemies absolutely refuse to stop spawning when you're just trying to explore a series of asteroids and find some secrets, and the secrets themselves can also be too much in how often they are hidden in the deepest, darkest crevice, at times making me wonder how anyone ever found some of these secrets without internet guides, both of which combining into making me exhausted with the game at times and making me have to stop playing it because my brain was tired from all of the combat and how incredibly difficult that one secret in the last map was to find even with the help of internet guides and videos. At almost 65 hours, the game is just plain too long, since the story isn't good enough to sustain that much game and the just mentioned fact that both combat and exploration can be so much that you end up drained and unexcited to keep playing. For story hounds, the plot of the game is okay, and I do appreciate that it's a direct story sequel that even has an explanation for why the game isn't a roguelite anymore ("cloning was abolished"), but the writing was clearly created by a german guy who is pretty good at english but isn't quite at a native level and the dialogue is often stiff even when it's not meant to be. Also, the cutscenes that are barely animated motion comic style with unfinished-looking concept art-level drawings are really just unfortunate and should've been left on the cutting room floor. Just do dialogue boxes if you can't do better than concept art motion comic. I'd also like to underline, and be very clear, that this is a more lightweight game than I might have made it sound. It does have all of the elements of Freelancer and similar games, but on a smaller scale and the game is overall more action-oriented than some other games in the genre. This game is great, but it's not as deep as some might hope.
In summary, this was the game I wanted, and I'm very happy with it and had an overall great time, even if there was too much of the game I wanted and I felt like the game dragged pretty badly towards the end. The endgame content with rifts and incursions and all isn't especially fun either, and I truly hate the boring design idea of only being allowed 1-3 legendaries (when your ship has something like 15 different equipment slots that you are not allowed to fill with legendaries), but the journey towards the endgame is consistently fantastic and just the near-perfect controls, the visually striking maps, the engaging exploration and a little bit of the cool dogfighting leaves me very satisfied with this game and I really hope that they keep doing what it seems like they've been doing for hte past decade, which is to keep iterating on their space dogfighting game starting from Galaxy on Fire to now. I hope they keep expanding their game code and skills and that their next game is an Everspace 3 that maybe offers a little bit of on-foot controls, because I had a fantastic time with this game and I hope they keep building towards bigger and better with each new game.
The original game was a roguelite where you jumped from map to map, in which you could do some dogfighting, explore for loot and sometimes perform a little map-specific tasks for some bonuses. This sequel takes that and builds upon it by retaining the level structure while also building an open world around it. So, to be clear, this isn't a "true" open world game and the game is divided into individual maps with quests, side quests, hidden loot and even races in them, but also a zoomed out map of the whole solar system (of which there are five) that you can fly around freely. However, to be clear; flying around freely between systems really mostly only looks and feels cool and doesn't serve much gameplay purpose as you cannot perform combat or find loot in open space. It's really just a travel route that makes you feel like you're zipping through a system.
Once inside one of the individual maps, it's a full-fledged 3D environment where you can fly around freely and perform quests and find secrets that are often very sneakily hidden. You even fly into houses and tunnels, and there is everything from asteroid fields to massive space stations to mining colonies on the surface of planets and so on, all of which are flown around freely and have little things hidden everywhere, both in the form of having them hidden in a sneaky and hard-to-see crevice and in the form of having little puzzles. Tons of little puzzles. Pushing buttons (with your guns) in sequence, pulling items around using the tractor beam, figuring out what piece goes where.
But most important is, of course, the core, which in this case is the flight and combat controls, and they are nothing short of excellent. On a PS5 controller, at least, this game plays like a dream and I often found myself having to remind myself that I'm actually enjoying how very smooth of an experience this game mostly is. The controls are so perfect that it's easy to forget them and take them for granted, and that's what I had to remind myself about as I was at times getting a little bored of the unfortunately repetitive combat. Just as I was getting a little frustrated with a certain task, I realized that it was actually enjoyable because everything about controlling this game just works. There's nothing about the core controls that feel sloppy, poorly designed or in any other way bad to me and a game's controls are at their very best when you kind of forget about them and have to remind yourself of how good they actually are. Even though I will be getting into negative points later in the review, the core of the game is so very good that I was always entertained and I did actually enjoy myself even if I felt frustrated with something on a more surface level.
The second biggest thing for me is the exploration, which this game offers so much of that it actually became exhausting in the end. There are something like 50 individual maps to explore, and the smallest ones have about 5 secrets to find while the bigger ones have upwards of 25. There is so much to see and do in this game, and all of it is delivered with remarkable and very striking visuals. This game looks damn good, and the controls and visuals combined lead to a very enticing and addictive exploration experience as you try to find secret loot while slowly sneaking through asteroids or blasting full speed through a mechanical tunnel that twists and winds as you boost through it, like you're playing a (good) Star Wars movie. You'll see things you wouldn't believe, like attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion, or C-beams glittering in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. There is so much cool space shit to see that every new map is exciting and impressively beautiful and even the maps that end up being the worst to play are still an impressive experience as you load into the map. Even more impressive is that the game does load you into an area from the direction you entered it, as in you don't always enter a map from the same angle, but the maps still look incredible from any viewpoint.
Other than that, this is your typical space freelancer type game, except maybe on a more slimmed scale and with more of a focus on dogfighting action. You partake in a story campaign of intergalactic warfare, perform side quests for a wide (but perhaps shallow) variety of characters, act like a trader who buys materials that are cheap in one system and sell them in a system where they're expensive, recruit companions and work on upgrading or replacing your ship (as there are about 10 or so different ship types). Pretty typical RPG fare, except in space and with striking visuals and a great feeling of being the kid in The Last Starfighter, blasting away at outlaw fools and earning XP while doing it. There's also a surprisingly deep crafting system, where materials feel like they matter and where many things can be crafted. Those space crystals you mined earlier will be useful for crafting that one item you need to upgrade a companion perk. Oh, and yeah, some of the companion perks as so satisfying and good that I don't think I would've completed this game if it wasn't for at the very least the companion that has perks that help with finding secrets and making sure you've cleared a map completely.
However, as much as I loved zipping around the various and visually distinct solar systems, blasting any outlaw fool enough to stand in my ship's way, tinkering with especially the looks of my ship (since the customization options are great), running a few trade routes and just generally inhabiting this game's world, there are a few glaring flaws that prevent me from giving it a perfect score. The big one being the fact that there's just simply too much of everything. There's too much combat and it's just annoying when enemies absolutely refuse to stop spawning when you're just trying to explore a series of asteroids and find some secrets, and the secrets themselves can also be too much in how often they are hidden in the deepest, darkest crevice, at times making me wonder how anyone ever found some of these secrets without internet guides, both of which combining into making me exhausted with the game at times and making me have to stop playing it because my brain was tired from all of the combat and how incredibly difficult that one secret in the last map was to find even with the help of internet guides and videos. At almost 65 hours, the game is just plain too long, since the story isn't good enough to sustain that much game and the just mentioned fact that both combat and exploration can be so much that you end up drained and unexcited to keep playing. For story hounds, the plot of the game is okay, and I do appreciate that it's a direct story sequel that even has an explanation for why the game isn't a roguelite anymore ("cloning was abolished"), but the writing was clearly created by a german guy who is pretty good at english but isn't quite at a native level and the dialogue is often stiff even when it's not meant to be. Also, the cutscenes that are barely animated motion comic style with unfinished-looking concept art-level drawings are really just unfortunate and should've been left on the cutting room floor. Just do dialogue boxes if you can't do better than concept art motion comic. I'd also like to underline, and be very clear, that this is a more lightweight game than I might have made it sound. It does have all of the elements of Freelancer and similar games, but on a smaller scale and the game is overall more action-oriented than some other games in the genre. This game is great, but it's not as deep as some might hope.
In summary, this was the game I wanted, and I'm very happy with it and had an overall great time, even if there was too much of the game I wanted and I felt like the game dragged pretty badly towards the end. The endgame content with rifts and incursions and all isn't especially fun either, and I truly hate the boring design idea of only being allowed 1-3 legendaries (when your ship has something like 15 different equipment slots that you are not allowed to fill with legendaries), but the journey towards the endgame is consistently fantastic and just the near-perfect controls, the visually striking maps, the engaging exploration and a little bit of the cool dogfighting leaves me very satisfied with this game and I really hope that they keep doing what it seems like they've been doing for hte past decade, which is to keep iterating on their space dogfighting game starting from Galaxy on Fire to now. I hope they keep expanding their game code and skills and that their next game is an Everspace 3 that maybe offers a little bit of on-foot controls, because I had a fantastic time with this game and I hope they keep building towards bigger and better with each new game.
Basically an arkade space shooter. But I would also go so far as to say this is a spiritual successor for Freelancer.
I never played Everspace 1, so I have no idea where that game comes from.
I played the demo of this, until level 5, and then I bought it. I loved Freelancer, so this should be a game for me. And it definitely was.
Performance of the game is not the best. If you have 8GB VRAM only and more than 1080P screen then you will probably get crashes due to VRAM leakage. Also some parts of space can have performance differences ranging from 15-50 FPS on older cards. During my playthorugh I changed GPU from 2070 Super to 4070 Ti which was noticable. But even then I saw framerate drops shortly to 25 after loadscreens, but no more crashes as I now have more VRAM. It is GPU hungry it seems.
I played with mouse+keyboard. I did try with controller which worked fine, but I needed buttons. Plenty more than the controller could give me, for the ULF, consumables and even though you could cycle through your primary and secondary weapons I want to be able to choose exactly the weapon I need and not cycle in blindness.
While on weapons, this part of the game was IMO made spot on. Different types of weapons for different playstyles and enemy types. That is some good RPG mechanics. And then on top of that have an itemization system for other RPG stats, including a crafting system and boosting system for existing modules. I loved it.
The RPG mechanics was only topped by the sweet core gameplay of space flying and shooting enemies in dog fights, but also huge destroyer like spaceships.
The balance of the game was really good. You shifted and weaved between being the underdog to being the supreme being, just ever so slightly all the time, which made combat very fun, exhilarating and often challenging.
Many deaths my Adam has seen. Many many many. But I never got bored because most of the time I knew why, and just needed to adjust my playstyle or weapon choices and it was in the bag. A few times I stumbled upon very challenging scenarious, but those I felt were too tough so I bailed and went back when I leveled once or twice and then it was much easier.
The story was the lacking part as it was very plain. I really got bored with most of the conversations. It is also easy too see that the presentation of the story was not the teams priority as it was just still images with voiceover. The style of still images even more resembled story board quality and style which could be on purpose or a choice of necessity if the team lacked the funds and or skills to do more with it. Well I could be completely off but that is how I feel about it.
There is much to do in the game with many sidequests. I did not finish everything, but I think I am close. Maybe 20 hours more and I would have everything cleaned out.
I never played Everspace 1, so I have no idea where that game comes from.
I played the demo of this, until level 5, and then I bought it. I loved Freelancer, so this should be a game for me. And it definitely was.
Performance of the game is not the best. If you have 8GB VRAM only and more than 1080P screen then you will probably get crashes due to VRAM leakage. Also some parts of space can have performance differences ranging from 15-50 FPS on older cards. During my playthorugh I changed GPU from 2070 Super to 4070 Ti which was noticable. But even then I saw framerate drops shortly to 25 after loadscreens, but no more crashes as I now have more VRAM. It is GPU hungry it seems.
I played with mouse+keyboard. I did try with controller which worked fine, but I needed buttons. Plenty more than the controller could give me, for the ULF, consumables and even though you could cycle through your primary and secondary weapons I want to be able to choose exactly the weapon I need and not cycle in blindness.
While on weapons, this part of the game was IMO made spot on. Different types of weapons for different playstyles and enemy types. That is some good RPG mechanics. And then on top of that have an itemization system for other RPG stats, including a crafting system and boosting system for existing modules. I loved it.
The RPG mechanics was only topped by the sweet core gameplay of space flying and shooting enemies in dog fights, but also huge destroyer like spaceships.
The balance of the game was really good. You shifted and weaved between being the underdog to being the supreme being, just ever so slightly all the time, which made combat very fun, exhilarating and often challenging.
Many deaths my Adam has seen. Many many many. But I never got bored because most of the time I knew why, and just needed to adjust my playstyle or weapon choices and it was in the bag. A few times I stumbled upon very challenging scenarious, but those I felt were too tough so I bailed and went back when I leveled once or twice and then it was much easier.
The story was the lacking part as it was very plain. I really got bored with most of the conversations. It is also easy too see that the presentation of the story was not the teams priority as it was just still images with voiceover. The style of still images even more resembled story board quality and style which could be on purpose or a choice of necessity if the team lacked the funds and or skills to do more with it. Well I could be completely off but that is how I feel about it.
There is much to do in the game with many sidequests. I did not finish everything, but I think I am close. Maybe 20 hours more and I would have everything cleaned out.
This is just... fine.
I was excited for this but after 5 hours I feel a bit underwhelmed and... bored. And it's not a great feeling so early in a game. The combat feels great, all the pew pew pew and explosions can keep me entertained for a while but that's all it is: a time killer and not really a rewarding experience that feels worthy of my time. It gives you the illusion of variety with all the different weapons, ship types, enemy types but when it comes down to it translating in actual variety of gameplay it's just not there, it all feels inconsequential and not that different from each other. So, after a few hours when the novelty wears off I feel like I'm just doing the same things over and over again, go here, shoot that, get this power thing in the power socket (the puzzles are really tedious). The story is, again, fine, does the job but not enough to keep me playing waiting for what happens next.
I don't know, maybe it's just not for me. I do love a good game set in space with good visuals and maybe this is fine if I want to just relax and do some mindless shooting. But I guess I expected more. With so many games coming out and on my backlog I don't really have time for such a time consuming game that doesn't seem to go anywhere beyond its initial gameplay loop
I was excited for this but after 5 hours I feel a bit underwhelmed and... bored. And it's not a great feeling so early in a game. The combat feels great, all the pew pew pew and explosions can keep me entertained for a while but that's all it is: a time killer and not really a rewarding experience that feels worthy of my time. It gives you the illusion of variety with all the different weapons, ship types, enemy types but when it comes down to it translating in actual variety of gameplay it's just not there, it all feels inconsequential and not that different from each other. So, after a few hours when the novelty wears off I feel like I'm just doing the same things over and over again, go here, shoot that, get this power thing in the power socket (the puzzles are really tedious). The story is, again, fine, does the job but not enough to keep me playing waiting for what happens next.
I don't know, maybe it's just not for me. I do love a good game set in space with good visuals and maybe this is fine if I want to just relax and do some mindless shooting. But I guess I expected more. With so many games coming out and on my backlog I don't really have time for such a time consuming game that doesn't seem to go anywhere beyond its initial gameplay loop
Elite Dangerous lite, but with a main story. The story itself is forgettable, but it's a good space fighter sim with some light puzzles.
15 mins in and it already asked me to do fetch quests, collecting random junks floating in the space. Probably would have liked it if it were my first space open world game. But I've gotten so tired of the same formula.
https://pressakey.com/game,2008,6377,Everspace-2-Early-Access-Preview,.html
Schon die Demo, welche Rockfish Games Ende 2019 bereitgestellt haben, machte Lust auf mehr. Mit dem Early-Access von Everspace 2 haben mich die Hamburger jetzt komplett am Haken. Nicht nur will ich wissen, wie die Story um Adam, Dex und Ben weiter geht, sondern auch mein Schiff erweitern und neue austesten sowie mächtigere Waffen ausprobieren. Ich will noch ein paar Upgrades kaufen, um schneller Erze und Kristalle abbauen zu können und ich will endlich in Gebiete vordringen können, in denen das richtig große Geld zu scheffeln ist. Und das am liebsten jetzt.
Den Vibe des Kultklassikers Freelancer haben die Entwickler in vielerlei Hinsicht eingefangen, auch wenn ein Multiplayer wohl nicht zum fertigen Spiel gehören wird. Dennoch, ich habe schon lange auf einen arcadigen Space-Looter-Shooter gewartet und ihn hiermit so gut wie bekommen. Jetzt nur noch ein paar Sternensysteme einbauen und die Texte von den jeweiligen Sprechern synchronisieren lassen, dann kann es schon bald losgehen. Ich bin sehr gespannt.
Schon die Demo, welche Rockfish Games Ende 2019 bereitgestellt haben, machte Lust auf mehr. Mit dem Early-Access von Everspace 2 haben mich die Hamburger jetzt komplett am Haken. Nicht nur will ich wissen, wie die Story um Adam, Dex und Ben weiter geht, sondern auch mein Schiff erweitern und neue austesten sowie mächtigere Waffen ausprobieren. Ich will noch ein paar Upgrades kaufen, um schneller Erze und Kristalle abbauen zu können und ich will endlich in Gebiete vordringen können, in denen das richtig große Geld zu scheffeln ist. Und das am liebsten jetzt.
Den Vibe des Kultklassikers Freelancer haben die Entwickler in vielerlei Hinsicht eingefangen, auch wenn ein Multiplayer wohl nicht zum fertigen Spiel gehören wird. Dennoch, ich habe schon lange auf einen arcadigen Space-Looter-Shooter gewartet und ihn hiermit so gut wie bekommen. Jetzt nur noch ein paar Sternensysteme einbauen und die Texte von den jeweiligen Sprechern synchronisieren lassen, dann kann es schon bald losgehen. Ich bin sehr gespannt.
Long gone are the heydeys of space adventure games, so it is always exciting when there is any activity. This one is arcadey and shooty with a ton of loot, meandering low-budget story and some annoying performance issues.
EverFetchQuest 2 amirite. Not for me.
Despite the game settings page seeming to think that the game supported joystick controls as a possibility, and despite forcing the control mode into joystick+keyboard, the game wouldn't respond to my joystick at all.
Had a lot of fun with this for a while but after about 20 hours I lost the will to go on. If the game's main story had been 20 hours long I think it would have been a good length, but it just kept going - I still had three full star systems yet to explore!
The combat is fun and I enjoyed the traversal for a while, but after a time it just began to really drag. Progression seemed far too slow as well, basically forcing you into grindy and generally underwhelming side-content, while being under-levelled for a mission/area was often seriously punishing.
It's a shame because I really liked the game for a good while, but after 20 hours I was very much done. A solid 7 of a game, for sure, and one I may come back to again in the future, but for now I'm happy to shelve this at about 2/3 through the main story.
The combat is fun and I enjoyed the traversal for a while, but after a time it just began to really drag. Progression seemed far too slow as well, basically forcing you into grindy and generally underwhelming side-content, while being under-levelled for a mission/area was often seriously punishing.
It's a shame because I really liked the game for a good while, but after 20 hours I was very much done. A solid 7 of a game, for sure, and one I may come back to again in the future, but for now I'm happy to shelve this at about 2/3 through the main story.
Bland, poor story, shallow. Very pretty though. Could possibly scratch that itch for a good freelancer-like space sim. But you gotta REALLY need that itch scratched.
At first, I was really happy with this game. It is the closest I got to that classic Freelancer feeling, linking arcade space combat with simple trading and story-based main- and side-missions. The universe is beautiful, the vistas varied and the action simple, but gripping. There are plenty of ships and load-outs to choose from to tailor the experience to your play style. The story, which is told mostly through dialogue and sometimes through static picture cutscenes, seemed interesting enough at first, too.
But the longer I played, the more tired I got of the game. I lost interest in the mostly generic story, the universe doesn’t feel alive. The enemy variety is limited, most encounters feel the same. The game lacks bigger battles with capital ships and bigger fleets. Another problem is all the back and forth between the systems. I spent so much time just warping between the systems and whenever I entered or left a location there was a small loading screen which really makes the universe feel disconnected.
But my biggest gripe with the game is that the developers tried to force variety into the missions by implementing tiresome puzzles. Searching switches, moving energy cells, searching for clues, powering up forsaken generators or activating explosives under time pressure gets old so incredibly fast. While the side-missions that feature these mechanics can be skipped, these mechanics are also often part of the main missions which sucked the fun out of the game for me.
All things considered, this is not a bad game. Heck, it probably is a good game with all the positive reception it gets. So what do I know? I can just speak for myself and I didn’t like the pacing, the puzzles, the repetitive gameplay and the story/lore enough to stick up with it. As far as similar games go, that aren’t ancient, I even enjoyed the often scolded Rebel Galaxy Outlaw more. And if you are looking for better space combat, give Star Wars: Squadrons and Chorus a try. Even when the latter also implemented freakin’ puzzle mechanics in a space game - please, devs, just stop that nonsense - it felt way less invasive for my enjoyment of the game.
But the longer I played, the more tired I got of the game. I lost interest in the mostly generic story, the universe doesn’t feel alive. The enemy variety is limited, most encounters feel the same. The game lacks bigger battles with capital ships and bigger fleets. Another problem is all the back and forth between the systems. I spent so much time just warping between the systems and whenever I entered or left a location there was a small loading screen which really makes the universe feel disconnected.
But my biggest gripe with the game is that the developers tried to force variety into the missions by implementing tiresome puzzles. Searching switches, moving energy cells, searching for clues, powering up forsaken generators or activating explosives under time pressure gets old so incredibly fast. While the side-missions that feature these mechanics can be skipped, these mechanics are also often part of the main missions which sucked the fun out of the game for me.
All things considered, this is not a bad game. Heck, it probably is a good game with all the positive reception it gets. So what do I know? I can just speak for myself and I didn’t like the pacing, the puzzles, the repetitive gameplay and the story/lore enough to stick up with it. As far as similar games go, that aren’t ancient, I even enjoyed the often scolded Rebel Galaxy Outlaw more. And if you are looking for better space combat, give Star Wars: Squadrons and Chorus a try. Even when the latter also implemented freakin’ puzzle mechanics in a space game - please, devs, just stop that nonsense - it felt way less invasive for my enjoyment of the game.
Un buen híbrido de RPG/batallas espaciales al que lastra un poco ser demasiado largo y no tener suficiente variedad para rellenar esas horas.
La historia es sencillita pero no está mal, visualmente es muy bueno y los combates en sí son muy divertidos, pero el loot es algo insípido (casi todo son cosas ligeramente mejores que no cambian tu forma de jugar) y es tan difícil probar distintos tipos de naves sin pararte a farmear como un loco que arruina un poco un posible punto de variedad.
Me lo he pasado bien y lo recomendaría, pero siempre a sabiendas de que le falta algo más de chicha en algunos aspectos.
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A good RPG/space dogfighting hybrid that's a bit dragged down by it being a bit too long and not varied enough to fill those hours.
The story is simple but it's not bad, it's visually great and the dogfighting itself is really fun, but the loot is kinda bland (almost everything is just slightly better stuff that doesn't change the way you play) and it's so hard to try different kinds of ships without stopping to farm like a madman that it kinda ruins that possible source of variety.
I had a good time and I'd recommend it, but always with the caveat that it's a bit lacking in some aspects.
La historia es sencillita pero no está mal, visualmente es muy bueno y los combates en sí son muy divertidos, pero el loot es algo insípido (casi todo son cosas ligeramente mejores que no cambian tu forma de jugar) y es tan difícil probar distintos tipos de naves sin pararte a farmear como un loco que arruina un poco un posible punto de variedad.
Me lo he pasado bien y lo recomendaría, pero siempre a sabiendas de que le falta algo más de chicha en algunos aspectos.
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A good RPG/space dogfighting hybrid that's a bit dragged down by it being a bit too long and not varied enough to fill those hours.
The story is simple but it's not bad, it's visually great and the dogfighting itself is really fun, but the loot is kinda bland (almost everything is just slightly better stuff that doesn't change the way you play) and it's so hard to try different kinds of ships without stopping to farm like a madman that it kinda ruins that possible source of variety.
I had a good time and I'd recommend it, but always with the caveat that it's a bit lacking in some aspects.
Despite some excellent visuals and environments, an interesting story, and a decently fun core game loop, Everspace 2 wears on for far longer (30+ hours!) than it should. There just isn't enough juice to squeeze for that long from this game. It wants to straddle the line between a space action game and a Diablo-like loot game, but the "builds" were never really there. Just an increasing level of loot rarity that has you swapping equipment to the bigger number 95% of the time. There's a decently large diversity in terms of ship archetypes, but it's not enough to make a difference. Also, the game makes moving and travelling to be laborious to the point of boredom, and fun action moments are often beset by travel times of up to a minute or more. Also, this game doesn't need puzzles. Way too many of them and they were never engaging. Overall, the core of what's here is decent, but it needs a lot of work and its runtime amputated.
Galaxy on Fire II if it was developed with a better budget. For a looter shooter, it has considerably less options than expected.
6/10
"Everspace 2 is a fast-paced single-player spaceship shooter"
Wäre es das mal, dann wäre alles gut.
Wie in Teil 1 ist die Kontrolle über das Schiff absoluter Wahnsinn.
Man kann jede Bewegung, die der Kopf abspielt mit dem Schiff ausführen.
Teil 1 hatte das Problem, dass es zu große "Level" gab in den zu wenig passiert ist.
Das war der Hauptnegativpunkt.
Die cleveren Entwickler von Everspace sehen hier also eine Möglichkeit statt eines anspruchsvollen Roguelites ein semi open World Lootshooter zu machen, den sie noch größer und noch so viel leerer gemacht haben.
... was ein Geniestreich.
Anfangs musste man das Spiel direkt auf den höchsten Schwierigkeitsgrad stellen, damit der Hauch von Herausforderung aufkommt.
Der verfliegt dann aber nach einigen Stunden. Das Spiel wird nicht mehr schwerer, die Gegner halten einfach mehr aus.
Das ist das Problem an mehreren Schwierigkeitsgraden.
Die funktionieren beinahe nie, sofern man nicht auch mehr belohnt wird, stellt man es denn schwerer als man müsste.
Leicht ist zu leicht, schwer ist nie so anspruchsvoll wie man es gerne hätte. IMMER. Macht einen Schwierigkeitsgrad und balanced ihn. Wenn 10 Hausfrauen lieber bei Candycrush bleiben, weil sie Super Mario zu schwer finden, sollen sie das Spiel halt nicht kaufen. Ein Spiel für alle ist am Ende kein gutes Spiel für irgendwen.
Die Upgrades sind nicht der Rede wert, looten macht daher keinen Spaß.
Die Rätsel sind ganz nett, Massenschlachten sind geil (passieren aber so gut wie nie) und der Rest ist Mist.
Die Story ist Mist, dass man ständig warten muss oder mir einer Hand fliegt, weil der nächste Gegenstand 20 Sekunden entfernt ist oder der nächste Planet 2 Minuten weg ist.
Sowas wird nur eingebaut um künstlich die Spielzeit zu strecken und ich weiß nicht, warum das jemals akzeptiert werden sollte.
Das Spiel hätte so viel besser sein können.
Unterteile es in Level und baue es auf wie Earth Defence Force.
Belasse es bei Roguelite/like und mache kleinere Level.
Alles wäre besser gewesen als dieser halbgare Mist.
Wäre es das mal, dann wäre alles gut.
Wie in Teil 1 ist die Kontrolle über das Schiff absoluter Wahnsinn.
Man kann jede Bewegung, die der Kopf abspielt mit dem Schiff ausführen.
Teil 1 hatte das Problem, dass es zu große "Level" gab in den zu wenig passiert ist.
Das war der Hauptnegativpunkt.
Die cleveren Entwickler von Everspace sehen hier also eine Möglichkeit statt eines anspruchsvollen Roguelites ein semi open World Lootshooter zu machen, den sie noch größer und noch so viel leerer gemacht haben.
... was ein Geniestreich.
Anfangs musste man das Spiel direkt auf den höchsten Schwierigkeitsgrad stellen, damit der Hauch von Herausforderung aufkommt.
Der verfliegt dann aber nach einigen Stunden. Das Spiel wird nicht mehr schwerer, die Gegner halten einfach mehr aus.
Das ist das Problem an mehreren Schwierigkeitsgraden.
Die funktionieren beinahe nie, sofern man nicht auch mehr belohnt wird, stellt man es denn schwerer als man müsste.
Leicht ist zu leicht, schwer ist nie so anspruchsvoll wie man es gerne hätte. IMMER. Macht einen Schwierigkeitsgrad und balanced ihn. Wenn 10 Hausfrauen lieber bei Candycrush bleiben, weil sie Super Mario zu schwer finden, sollen sie das Spiel halt nicht kaufen. Ein Spiel für alle ist am Ende kein gutes Spiel für irgendwen.
Die Upgrades sind nicht der Rede wert, looten macht daher keinen Spaß.
Die Rätsel sind ganz nett, Massenschlachten sind geil (passieren aber so gut wie nie) und der Rest ist Mist.
Die Story ist Mist, dass man ständig warten muss oder mir einer Hand fliegt, weil der nächste Gegenstand 20 Sekunden entfernt ist oder der nächste Planet 2 Minuten weg ist.
Sowas wird nur eingebaut um künstlich die Spielzeit zu strecken und ich weiß nicht, warum das jemals akzeptiert werden sollte.
Das Spiel hätte so viel besser sein können.
Unterteile es in Level und baue es auf wie Earth Defence Force.
Belasse es bei Roguelite/like und mache kleinere Level.
Alles wäre besser gewesen als dieser halbgare Mist.
It looks pretty nice and it hits all the checkmarks but I'm immediately bored by it.
I'm honestly kind of frustrated that Freelancer is still one of the better open world space games, because it's a pretty weak game with a pure genius world structure that deliberately encourages and surprises you. Meanwhile this game is fetch quest after cutscene after boring dogfight with RPG shit tacked on.
You'd be better off playing the X series (if you're interested in the world simulation aspect) or Deathwar 3030 Redux (if you want the trade lane action combat) or NeonXSZ (for the 6dof dogfight ARPG grinder) than this. Nice looking but empty.
I'm honestly kind of frustrated that Freelancer is still one of the better open world space games, because it's a pretty weak game with a pure genius world structure that deliberately encourages and surprises you. Meanwhile this game is fetch quest after cutscene after boring dogfight with RPG shit tacked on.
You'd be better off playing the X series (if you're interested in the world simulation aspect) or Deathwar 3030 Redux (if you want the trade lane action combat) or NeonXSZ (for the 6dof dogfight ARPG grinder) than this. Nice looking but empty.
This game was made for me
Jogo excelente, um pouco longo, e difícil pacas, principalmente os boss.
It could be a lot shorter, but good combat.
Great gameplay but only on ship. Reminds me of Freelancer like a lot. But story is in drawings, hence the 4 stars. On pause because of Starfield.
Started off fun, but once the game puts all its cards on the table it gets boring and bland relatively quickly. Pretty to look at, not a lot underneath, which isn't a big deal sometimes but it didn't mesh with me. Combat was fun, just too simple. Pretty much my thoughts on everything in this one.