The best sequels obey a simple formula: give players more of what they loved from the first game, and less of what they found tedious and frustrating. By that measure alone, Everspace 2 is a solidly successful sequel.
The Story So Far
Everspace 2 picks up the story of Everspace’s protagonist Adam Roslin after the events of the first game. With rapid cloning now a treaty-restricted technology, Adam finds himself in a position he’s never been in before, mortal. With cloning banned, and former clones not welcomed among the civilized parts of the galaxy, where does an ex-military clone go to earn a living? Back to the DMZ, trying to scratch out a living as an itinerant fighter pilot, while avoiding the scrutiny of the colonial fleet, the Okar, pirates, or G&B, the largest human-owned interstellar corporation in the galaxy.
The biggest change in Everspace 2 is the story construction. Gone are the rogue-like trappings of the first game. Instead, players have access to a fairly linear main story, plus a number of side stories and additional random missions. However, the looter-shooter style mechanics for ship and equipment upgrades remain and have even been enhanced. Although the player can purchase new ship types, most ship parts are not exclusive and can also be cosmetically added to any ship type, allowing players to customize their ships to their hearts’ content while still customizing the functionality as they see fit.
The game offers a larger world with higher stakes and more options for customizing the player’s ships. Additionally, there is a significant improvement in location diversity. The traditional respawn system has been replaced by a classic save system. Players will autosave when moving between locations and can manually save at any time when enemies are not nearby.
The world of Everspace 2 can be a very pretty place.
Visual Flair & Performance
Everspace 2‘s graphics look sharp on the PS5. It was easy to distinguish enemies, spot targets, loot, find mining opportunities, as well as to find and read important information. One flaw that sometimes comes up during cluttered combat, however, is that the main screen can be very busy at times. This is due to the complex UI, multiple enemies on the screen and/or off-screen with directional indicators, floating loot, and various bits of space debris, asteroids, and the like. However, Everspace 2 does an excellent job of making most of the space locations feel like unique locations, rather than merely Generic Asteroid Field #369. The game also runs well on the PS5. Considering that the first Alpha build for previews came out in 2019, one would hope that sufficient optimization for next-generation hardware had occurred, and that does seem to be the case.
Customize your craft to your heart’s content with an array of parts, colors, and decals.
PS5 Exclusive Audio Submersion
In-game audio makes some interesting use of the PS5’s Dualsense controller speaker for small things such as weapon changes. The use of the haptic trigger as the throttle had a noticeable difference between normal throttle and boost throttle. This is a feature exclusive to the PS5 version of Everspace 2. Beyond that, the game’s sound design is competent. Different weapon types each have their own distinct sounds, character voice actors have solid performances, and in-game music complements the big areas of space that players often find themselves in.
Plenty of Content
Most players are going to spend around thirty hours playing through Everspace 2’s main story. With all the side missions, secret locations, and end-game gauntlet content, it may take around ninety hours to see everything that the in-game universe has to offer. While the loss of the rogue-like elements reduces replay value, there are enough challenges, bounties, and random corners of the universe to explore to make up for its loss. PlayStation trophy hunters will undoubtedly spend a good amount of time working on the ever-elusive Platinum trophy.
As you travel through space, you’ll need to upgrade your ship to face the challenges that come your way. Luckily, there are various ways to do this. You can either purchase parts from vendors, hunt for parts scattered across the galaxy, or craft them using resources you collect during your journey. Also, leveling up your character can unlock new skills and abilities that can help you with ship improvements. Additionally, collaborating with friendly companions who have unique skills will provide you with additional support.
Heading out into the black. The complex UI is has a lot of information to convey.
Closing Thoughts
With its greater focus on story and loot/upgrade mechanics, Everspace 2 attempts to occupy a unique niche as something akin to the Borderlands franchise, but in space. Old-school space sim fans may find the Descent-style 6DOF controls off-putting, and overly complex for use on controllers, but will enjoy the vastly-improved story and varied environments. Looter-shooter players will find themselves instantly at home, obliterating pirates and space bugs with a variety of missiles, projectiles, and energy weapons. With plenty to explore and do, Everspace 2 weaves lore, plenty of action, and an improved story into a fun entry in the space combat genre.
