EVERSPACE™ 2 Reviews

Apart from some Fatal Error crashes now and then.. game is fantastic! having tons of fun just exploring and blowing stuff up.. so much so im 12 hours in and I'm only on the 4th mission.. I don't like to compare eggs to eggs, but the game plays very much like a modern SPG game with absolutely fantastic graphics and combat.

A surprisingly good game! Movement is quite well done. Your ship always has the ability to move in any direction (up down forward back strafe left and right, boost and spin) so you have full control while flying in all environments. Flying around feels pretty good and pointing and shooting with the mouse is easy. The physics are not realistic in the slightest - if you stop accelerating then your ship slowly glides to a stop, which is not at all what would happen in space, but the less realistic mechanics feel better to move with. Most impressive is when your ship has to go into enclosed spaces, you can really squeeze into some tight areas without a problem and the camera is shockingly good at staying behind you. You can smash your ship into walls at a pretty high speed and only take shield damage so total precision isn't required. It's a space shooter but really more of an RPG. There's an impressive amount of exploration and treasure hunting in the many locations you visit. While you may not think there can be puzzles in space, the game is packed full of them. Pressing buttons, finding passwords, hidden containers, flipping switches, powering generators, opening doors, moving energy balls to locks, there's just a ton of things to do and stuff to find. There's a lot of sidequests and many are interesting. There's randomly generated side jobs you can do for cash. There's random encounters on the world map. It plays a lot like an RPG just...in space. Combat feels pretty good too. You have two primary weapons that recharge if you're not shooting, so you fire with one until it runs out of power and switch to the other and back again. You have subsystems, devices which refresh on cooldown, and sub weapons which are limited. Depending on what kind of ship you use your strategy might change a lot. I played a long range sniper type, but everything seems viable. Some weapons are much better close up. Your weapons shield scanners boosters and other equipment have rarities, levels, and modifiers and enemy ships have levels too so while you can overcome things with skill you aren't gonna get far without improving your gear. A lot of enemy ships have hitscan type attacks if they get close enough so you can't avoid ALL damage. Boosting and juking wildly shakes off missiles and most shots but then it's hard to aim and fire back while doing so. You get the same interesting problem that's been present in most space shooters from way back in the X-Wing/Tie Fighter games where you deal the most damage to each other while flying into attack range because you're driving straight at them and can't really see them firing at you, but also all your shots are gonna land too because the enemy isn't dodging either. There's a very nice amount of aim assist in the game too which is very necessary. For your weapons that hitscan, pointing into a little circle around each enemy ship will usually guarantee the shot lands, and for weapons that shoot a projectile you instead aim at a projected path circle in FRONT of the enemy, and if you shoot in that circle your shots bend and land. It's a nice system. The main story is decent overall. Voice acting quality is hit or miss but the VAs of your main character and his ship AI are the best and they're the ones you hear most often. The one downside with the game is that is has level scaling and leans into it too much. Everything you pick up is scaled to your level so you get the infamous problem of "I shouldn't open that chest because it'll have better stuff if I come back later" and which is something that should never happen in an RPG. You also have the "I leveled up and got weaker" problem because enemies upgrade but you don't because most of your power comes from equipment, and you need to find or upgrade pieces to your current level to see improvements. Graphics and weapon effects aren't amazing but look good enough. I was really impressed by this game. It has an impressive amount of content and will keep you occupied for a while.

Everspace 2 is a game whose shortcomings are noticeable but ultimately forgiven, thanks to everything it gets right. If you like excellent graphics, space combat, dogfights, adventure, upgrading, customizing, a little humor, lots of action, and an open world that lets you feel a sense of challenge while also feeling the power of your latest ship upgrades, this game will be the perfect answer for you. With Diablo-like looting, the game has a decent-sized story (most estimates placed it around 40 hours from what I've seen), but the game can easily be played for hundreds and hundreds of hours, if you like completing side quests and getting all the best gear. I would say the areas it comes up short are in the limited resources spent on developing cut scenes. Some folks may like the indie style. But for me, I am a sucker for a game that invests in great storytelling and special effects. So The cut scenes were fine for me, but I did find myself wishing there was a bit more invested in these scenes. I also found the game's core content to just overall be a bit lacking, in the way that you basically have a single playthrough of the main story, and then you're running rifts and spamming loot drops until you get bored. I do like that the zones level up to stay current with you for the first part of the game, though. But I think the biggest shortcoming is just the linear nature of the story - despite the open world vibes and expansive realm to explore, you ultimately are on a railroad with the story, where nothing you do has any impact on the end result and you are given zero choices about how to get to the end. For many who may be drawn to the more open-world elements of space-faring games like this, a story that you have zero say over may feel disappointing. But as I mentioned, with everything this game doesn't have, it's loaded with fun overall gameplay itself that will keep you entertained for a long time. So, while it seems that the genre is sorely lacking in a "perfect" game, one where the budget and vision allowed them to give you the best of everything, Everspace 2 is by far the best looking game with the level of depth it offers. While some other space games have a lot more complexity, story, and depth, most of those games are sadly very dated looking. So if you're wanting to enjoy a solid entry into the genre that can also wow you visually, I have not yet found an alternative that can rival Everspace 2. P.S. I did not get the expansion packs, as there's just way too much cost for a few extra hours of content (at least, according to several reviews stating as much), so this review is for the base game only.

[b]🚀 Everspace 2 – A Loot Shooter Trapped in Space, Without the Depth to Match[/b] If I had to sum this one up, it’s: [i]“The first ten minutes of combat... is the rest of the game.”[/i] That’s not me being cheeky. That’s me staring at my ship, ten hours in, wondering why nothing has evolved except the enemy health bars and the number of lasers I have to dodge. [b]🔬 Systems Breakdown[/b] [b]• Space Combat?[/b] Yeah, it’s slick. Tight controls, flashy dodges, lots of pew-pew. The problem? That’s it. You’ve played 80% of the combat in the first 30 minutes. Bigger battles come later, sure. You get more weapons, abilities, and a few new tricks. But the way you [i]engage[/i] never really changes. There’s no transformation. No escalation. Just stat inflation and more visual clutter. [b]• Ship Variety?[/b] There are multiple ships, yes. But don’t get excited—they’re sidegrades, not actual upgrades. You’re not building toward a heavy frigate, a stealth recon build, or squad command. You're just choosing which flavor of the same loop you want. Stats shift, abilities rotate, but nothing fundamentally reinvents your experience. [b]• Upgrade System?[/b] It’s wrapped in the illusion of depth. You contribute resources to vendors or characters, unlocking perks that mostly amount to [i]+2% to something you won’t notice.[/i] You’ll pick up junk, donate it, and tick boxes, but it rarely feels like you're progressing—it just feels like you’re maintaining. [b]• Exploration?[/b] Technically yes. Spiritually? Nah. The world looks great, but what you [i]do[/i] in it doesn’t justify the beauty. It’s mostly linear point-to-point traversal with flavor text and loot chests. The wonder wears off fast, and what’s left is a pretty loop of sameness. [b]• Progression Curve?[/b] Flatlined. You start strong, plateau early, and coast. You don’t become something [i]more[/i], just something [i]repeated[/i]. No ship evolution, no strategic turning point, just more of what you already had. [b]✅ Pros:[/b] • Combat feels great (for the first few hours). • Visually stunning. The environments are AAA-tier screenshot bait. • Good “shut-your-brain-off” game in short bursts. • Solid performance and polish. It’s technically well-made. [b]❌ Cons:[/b] • Combat loop plateaus almost immediately. • Ships are mostly sidegrades—variety without transformation. • Upgrade paths are shallow; progression is mostly cosmetic or statistical. • Exploration lacks depth and payoff. • Not built for long sessions; the fun burns out quickly. [b]🎯 Do I recommend this game?[/b] Kind of. If you want arcade dogfighting and some sci-fi loot polish, it’ll scratch the itch. But if you’re chasing systems depth, evolving builds, or that “climb from scrappy pilot to galactic legend” fantasy—this ain’t it. [b]Score: 6/10[/b] [i](7/10 if you go in knowing exactly what you're getting: short bursts, light systems, big explosions)[/i]

[b]Everspace 2: A Great Game Missing Its True Potential Without VR[/b] Everspace 2 is a well-crafted game with gorgeous visuals, engaging combat, and plenty of exploration. It certainly works, and there's a lot to enjoy about it. In many ways, I think this game would have been even more successful if it had been released a decade or two ago, it has that classic space shooter charm. However, one of the biggest missed opportunities here is the lack of VR support. The first Everspace embraced VR, and it was a key part of the immersion for many players. Without it, Everspace 2 feels like it’s missing that extra layer of magic that could have made it truly exceptional. As a result, it’s a solid game, but it doesn’t quite reach the heights it could have.

Everspace 2 is a good looking space shooter looter game. Still it is an arcade style game. There is no combat skill involved. No maneuver. To survive, just need shield, armor, hull and high damage output destroy the enemy as fast as you can, because there are too many of them in High Risk Areas and Rifts. You can't dodge anything, the roll is useless. The boost is slower than the enemies. The crafting system seems appealing, but not better than the drops, so is quite useless. You think you can upgrade your favorite gear? You can't upgrade legendaries. Don't bother with the Ancient Altar upgrade. It is a tiny upgrade after fighting the ancients each time. What good are the rifts? Enemies with huge health and damage, circle you and shoot you down in no time. I have 100K shield still is no better than 50K. Is pretty useless at Luancy more than 500. The rift does not allow breaks to charge shield. There is a timer. Is tough just to use nanobots. Once you notice armor is gone, your ship is destroyed before you try to use nanobots. That is the amount of incoming damage. Just ridiculous. The game is good for some arcade action. The end-game rift is really bad. There are lots of guns but most of them is useless here, especially the sniper and slow firing ones. The lunacy level does not show the real difficulty because there are modifiers you must choose in each 4 stages of the rift. You can't get any better by repeating the rift. The drop chance is so low, and no better gear drops. I can't really say the game is a RPG. There is only level 30 and that is the limit. what good is that? There is only a tiny percentage of players pass 500 or 1000 lunacy. Good features of the game are hindered by the progression design. The progression is limited. You should be awarded better gear for completing higher rifts, but not. I get several duplicated legendaries just by repeating rifts. Is good the buy the game on special for some fast action shooting. Not for any serious build or progression.

Good story, hand-drawn art is great, fun space combat, fun puzzles.

In Everspace 2, you will: + Fly, shoot, and loot like there's no tomorrow. + Equip your dream ship with a mountain of choices. + Enjoy the accompany of a sarcastic on-board AI. + Forget your time at the edge of the universe. = Go through an okay storyline. - Get annoyed by some optional challenges.

Not sure why this genre isn't more popular. This has an ARPG in space focus and it's done extremely well.

9/10 Surprisingly good, the demo does not do it justice. It is important that you also like solving space puzzles to enjoy this game. It has ship combat, yes, but often times you find yourself trying to figure out various puzzles to move forward and if you don't enjoy that, it can be quite frustrating. ============================================================================= A few reasons why it does not get a 10 from me: 1. although it has several nice components (such as ship types which play differently and many types of modules and modifiers and a decent leveling system where you don't need to grind endlessly to grow), when you combine these, you get a bit of a messy situation where you find yourself a nice combination of modules with the modifiers that work for you but you level up quickly and they become obsolete and updating them or finding replacement of higher level can be quite difficult so you don't get to enjoy for too long that sweet setup that you just built. in the same category, if you are missing one item from a set, then you might find it only after you leveled up enough that at least one of the existing items is obsolete so, once again the set is sort of incomplete.. 2. you need to fly all the way back to your base to see what items you have in storage (so if you are missing one module to complete a set you need to remember which module you are missing from that set or fly to your base) 3. you cannot sell items directly from the base hangar but you have to load them in your ship and fly to a system with a shop (although you have NPC's who have ships, just sitting around in your base) 4. it is hard to remember where you are most likely to be able to buy items belonging to a certain set. => all these points combined, means you end up spending more time sorting through items and reading their stats than you might like ============================================================================= that being said... it is still 9/10 for too many reasons to list them all. So, here are a few: 1. it is beautiful without forcing you to get a high end graphics card (given the level of technology we have today, I am tired of developers dropping ugly looking games "because they want to make them look retro". also tired of nice games with lazy developers that just force you to buy high end computer for them..) so yeah, this one is great!!! 2. it has a nice balance of repetition and new stuff so the game does not get too repetitive (and boring) but also not exhausting and overwhelming due to having too many changes thrown at you. Considering the high number of mmo's built in the last decades with the same "go there and collect 10 things" quests, this solo game is a nice change 3. it starts nice but it gets even better over time (the more you play it, the more interesting it gets) -> moving to a new area means finding new types of enemies with new techniques that you need to adapt to. 4. high risk areas can be a lot of fun if you can handle your ship properly (play things right and it is intense, entertaining and fun; make two or three mistakes, and you blow up..) 5. so many different locations that you are going to find at least a few that you will enjoy navigating and exploring.