EVERSPACE 2 Review (Xbox Series X)

STAFF REVIEW of EVERSPACE 2 (Xbox Series X)

Tuesday, September 26, 2023.
by Brent Roberts

Kickstarter games are usually synonymous with the phrases such as "lackluster" or "disappointment", where the promise of a quality gaming experience is met head on by the freight train of reality, which usually produces an experience that is sub-par at best. And then there is the company Rockfish Games and their game Everspace 2. If you've been living on Earth for the last couple months you may have heard about another space game that has been released, and while going up against such a giant may not be the most ideal launch, when you have a quality product, you just showed the world why you can go toe to toe with one of the biggest releases in the modern age and produce a product that will happily suck weeks of your time into utter oblivion and leave you smiling all the way to the nearest spaceport. Make no mistake, Everspace 2 is a serious contender for Game of the Year, and normally I do not look at games that way, as I see them as more entertainment value for dollar invested, but wow. If quality Kickstarter games are a diamond in the rough, Everspace 2 is the best of the best.

Starting out, I was excited to see a game utilize the almost comic panel type of cinematic layout and delivery. It allows the game to be presented in a way that minimizes the risk of deliverance, and at the same time allows the message to be understood. The game itself boasts an incredibly dynamic story arc that is very well written and provides some mystery and insight which is what is needed when you spend over 99% of your time flying your ship. Throughout the missions you will not only unlock the story, but other crew as well that have their own specialties and bonuses, which will get to here in a moment. It really is a breath of fresh air when you get the ability to enjoy a very long and in-depth story arc that does a great job pulling you from one area to the next.

While the story is top notch, the gameplay itself is some of the best you will ever get to experience. It could easily be argued that the flight mechanics of this game allow for some of the most enjoyable experiences of any space simulator game ever. Utilizing the methods of 3D spatial awareness, Everspace 2 takes a while to master your navigational controls, but once mastered, they will allow you to do tremendous things within your ship. There is a type of starship that could be argued is a direct rip off of the X-Wing, using the lateral thrusters and the flight mechanic buttons, I can strafe and alter my elevation in the blink of an eye and really maneuver the ship in ways that have yet to be replicated by any space flight game.

This is because the mechanics of the Left and Right Stick impact the X and Y axis of the 3D space, however the Left Trigger and Left Bumper work the Z axis. When you combine that with the pressing in of the Left Stick for your thrusters AND to the left while ALSO pressing the 'LB' button, and you will climb up while moving forward and strafing to the right. After a few moments of getting used to the controls you will be amazed at the maneuverability and navigation of the spacecraft. This reality is going to come in handy when you start realizing the balance of the ship traits themselves.

When you navigate the systems, you will see that the systems you can explore are all going to be interconnected through jump rings, and that each system contains a plethora of explorable areas. Each planet, space station, asteroid system, etc. that you explore involves using the gravity jump to propel you to the next target. What sets Everspace 2 apart though is the ability to control your own ship while flying at this rate of speed, not only that you will have spontaneous "pop up" missions such as distress calls or unexplored signals that will give you the option to find more loot/resources while on your way to your goal. It is not uncommon to have several of these side missions pop up on your way to an objective, but these do offer a great way of building cash and finding more items and resources to use. It may be worth your while to steer your ship into these and lock on to these side quests, but if your ship is not very strong, then combat may be best avoided all together.

There are multiple classes of starships that range from small, lightweight craft that are very fast and agile, to those who are large, slow, but can absorb a ton of damage. You can start to see how Everspace 2 sets the vehicles up. Each of these crafts has their own unique loadouts, traits, as well as an "Ultimate" weapon. When you are small and nimble you may only get a couple of weapons at your disposal, but when you are as big as a barge, you have a lot more real estate to pack on additional firepower. Early on I was adamant about saving and stockpiling as much cash as I could, and when I went to my ship vendor I came across Everspace 2's version of their X-Wing and I could not hit buy fast enough.

This ship came packed with three primary weapon slots, two secondary and on the slider between tiny+quick and large+slow, this fell right in the sweet spot of in the middle. While I will always have a soft spot for my starting ship, once I found this beauty I never looked back. Each ship comes equipped with primary and secondary weapons plus combines a booster (how fast your ship can move), radar (scan for loot, ships, resources), shield, power source (everything in the game takes power, how much power you have to spend on your weapons, shields, etc. is determined by this), armor plating, and multiple consumable items that you can use such as additional shields, nanobots for repair and more.

When in flight your ship will have three meters when fully outfitted. Blue is your shield, Orange is your armor, and Red is your health, and they operate in the similar way you would expect. Your shield takes damage until it is done then goes your armor and finally your health. Now you may think, 'oh that is a nice cushion', until you are at the tail end of a long combat streak of enemies and an enemy carrier warp in, unloads missiles and fighters at you, and opens up every turret it has. Your ship is not mint, you are down several missiles, and now this? Welcome to Everspace 2.

This reality is why outfitting your gear is going to be so critical. As you level up, not only do you have to concern yourself with the overall performance of your gear, but also the class of item itself. For example, if you have a rare sonar that offers you a 1KM scan for resources, you could find one that is less quality but offers greater distances for scanning. It is moments like this where you have to abandon what you typically know about RPG layouts and opt for a strategy of what is actually best for your playstyle.

How can you get this new upgraded gear? You have several options: fight for it and hope you get it, or create it yourself. Yes Everspace 2 also offers a tremendously deep crafting system that allows you to craft items from your grey common/standard items to your purple epic gear. Not only that, but you can even upgrade your components as well. By gathering resources throughout the game you can craft weapons, shields, power cores, and even upgrade components for your team skills, but we will get to that here shortly.

This is why scavenging for resources is critical. For example, if you need pure titanium, you can scan asteroids for various mineral deposits based on the scanning range of your equipped scanner, and then when you see the resource, open fire to collect it. You have to be relatively close in order to automatically draw in the mineral, and out of, let's say 10 units of titanium that you get from the asteroid, you may get one or two pure titanium while the rest is regular ore. This is how Everspace 2 keeps you hunting for more than just gear and weapons. Now, while you may want to go all gear heavy, just note that your cargo container that you have equipped will determine the number of available slots within your storage. Get too full and you will have to dismantle for parts or destroy it to make room. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a way to NOT have to do that? This is where your team skills come into play.

Now you read that I mentioned something about team skills, and this is critically important. Throughout the story you will get team members who will offer abilities and skills that can assist you in and outside of battle. Such examples of skills would be the ability to send items back to your home base so you can either collect them or sell them at a later time. A good rule of thumb is to start gathering resources as soon as possible and do not stop gathering. You can also mark the resources you need and even upgrade a team skill that allows you to see what elements are within the planet/system you are flying into.

Once you start getting to the higher levels of play you will want to start breaking down purple gear in order to gain the components you need to craft more purple gear. I found myself switching up to this after I started getting more and more blue items and started crafting from there onward. While crafting grey and green items is all well and good, you can find a lot of amazing items and once I had a blue shield that got absolutely smashed by a grey version, so that is when I only started looking at crafting higher quality of gear.

Everspace 2 has provided a quality example of how a sequel can excel from the original. While the game may be overshadowed by another recent space adventure game out there, Everspace 2 is so good and well-built that people may start to be saying "Star what?". While I still hold the belief that the majority of Kickstarter games either under deliver, fail miserably, or even cheat their backers out of money, when games like Everspace 2 come around, it's no surprise why these are the titles that deserve to be highlighted as examples of near perfection that, unlike the Easter Bunny, do exist. If you are looking for a highly polished, incredibly fluid and well-developed space combat game, don't look to the stars, look to Everspace 2.

**Everspace 2 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**

Overall: 9.5 / 10
Gameplay: 9.8 / 10
Visuals: 9.9 / 10
Sound: 9.0 / 10

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STAFF REVIEW of EVERSPACE 2 (Xbox Series X)

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