ROCKFISH Games has announced that their space action RPG, EVERSPACE 2 has now launched on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

With more than 100 handcrafted locations to explore in full 60 fps, space fans on both platforms have an exciting adventure amongst the stars ahead.

“With EVERSPACE 2 coming to Xbox and PlayStation today, we’re excited to see console space game fans headed to the stars in our sci-fi action RPG. This adventure has been more than six years in the making, and from beginning to finish an absolute passion project for everyone on the team,” says ROCKFISH Games CEO Michael Schade. “The journey for EVERSPACE 2 fans is not over. In addition to a free update coming later this fall, we’ve already started work on a sizable expansion to the game which will add more star systems, more story content, more characters, and most importantly, more loot to discover.”

Space holds no boundaries for Game Pass pilots—EVERSPACE 2 launches as a day one title on Xbox Game Pass supporting Play Anywhere, allowing space fans to explore star systems on both Xbox and the Microsoft Store. On Xbox Series X, EVERSPACE 2 runs at 60 fps, while Series S players will be limited to 30 fps.

On PlayStation 5, EVERSPACE 2 players enjoy special DualSense controller haptic feedback, adaptive trigger, and speaker features unique to the platform. ROCKFISH Games designers have tied gameplay with in-hand response by including haptic feedback on weapon and boost depletion, adaptive trigger-based boosting based on depth of trigger pull, and advanced haptic and speaker feedback when activating devices and consumables, and warning of incoming missiles, as well as a variety of other integrations. PlayStation 5 players can experience EVERSPACE 2 at 60 fps.

EVERSPACE 2’s exciting 30-hour single player campaign comes to consoles fully voiced in English and German. The entirety of the campaign and 100 plus hours of side missions, jobs, distress calls, location challenges, puzzles and other activities.

ROCKFISH Games is working with Maximum Games to release an out-of-this-world retail edition for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S worldwide on October 3, 2023. The EVERSPACE 2 Stellar Edition comes packaged in an attractive steelbook along with a 64-page artbook and digital soundtrack download.

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It isn’t often that a game series ditches its rouge-like elements and embraces more traditional gaming design. But that’s exactly what Everspace 2 has done.

Recently launched in its 1.0 state out of a period of early access, this space shooter has made me happy by taking the series’ excellent core combat mechanics and putting them in a narrative wrapping that works with the way that I prefer to enjoy games.

Everspace 2 starts with you being outcast from your mining gang, captured and then freed, forced to make it in the galaxy after thinking you were so close to retirement. It’s technically a continuation of the story from the original Everspace, but you don’t need to know a whole lot before starting this sequel.

The story is told through a combination of voice of radio while you undertake missions and dedicated comic book style cutscenes, which is a clever use of resources and breaks up the game’s otherwise standard spacefaring visual presentation. While the story itself didn’t really engage me, it did provide a nice context and motivation for each of the missions, something that is a welcome change from the rinse and repeat loops of rogue-likes.

Everspace 2 is instead a mission-structured game, focussing on certain objectives that ultimately amount to an excuse to engage in ship-to-ship 6DOF space combat. I played most of my time with Everspace 2 with a basic flightstick, and this felt the most natural way to work out how to manoeuvre my ship through each dogfight.

Dog fighting is fast, intense, and requires a good level of tactical thinking about what weapons are available to you and where your enemies are located in 3D space. I found myself in constant movement, chasing foes and trying to avoid their perilously accurate attacks. It’s not a simulation by any means, and the arcade action felt responsive and fluid without being weighed down by technical necessities. It lets you focus your approach to a fight, what strategy to use and which enemies to take out in what order.

Success isn’t built purely on combat skills though.

Much of your success will be measured by your loadout. See, enemies (and you) have both kinetic armour and energy-based shields, and you’ll need to set up your ship’s systems to be able to deal both types of damage. This is where some of the designs of the game rub up against it being a relatively long yet limited experience. There are entire, huge systems of loot, crafting, ship customisations (cosmetic and otherwise) and builds.

There’s plenty to manage, but I felt like these systems were far too complicated for a linear experience. I didn’t feel like this complexity served the ultimate experience, and more meaningful yet fewer upgrades would have made more sense. A Diablo or Destiny-like loot system makes sense for an endless game, but is necessary for a more defined experience?

Personally, I think not.

There’s a lot of busywork in constantly sorting through your inventory and upgrading weapons, which, yes, give you lots of options to play with but at a certain level takes away time from what the game’s best at – blasting enemies in outer space.

And you will need to engage with these systems, as your level and various ship power levels are extremely important for success. Go up against a foe a few levels above you and you’ll likely be destroyed in short order. This also incentives you to engage with the side missions.

The game looks excellent, with highly detailed ships, realistic asteroids and other interplanetary bodies, and when the action heats up the laser displays can be genuinely dazzling. I was also impressed with the performance of the game on my PC, and was able to run at full 4K/60 on an RTX 3070, and there were plenty of PC graphics options to tailor your settings to your desired PC specs. On an OLED monitor Everspace 2 looks fantastic, and the contrast between the ships and their armaments and the deep black of space was incredible.

Ultimately, Everspace 2 is a big improvement on its predecessor, and the developments seem committed to the game.

I love the emphasis on handcrafted environments in addition to the procedurally-generated ones. The only disappointing element is that due to some technical constraints, the planned native Linux version won’t be coming. Nevertheless, the game is playable through Proton for those going down that path.

While the looter shooter mechanics didn’t grab me, there’s plenty of game here for those who are craving some spaceship combat action outside of persistent, simulated worlds.

The post Everspace 2 (PC) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

After ROCKFISH Games landed a surprise hit on PC and consoles with its studio debut EVERSPACE, the independent developer from Hamburg has announced the official successor EVERSPACE 2 at gamescom: Opening Night Live.

In contrast to the roguelike concept of its predecessor, EVERSPACE 2 is an open world space shooter with classic RPG elements and persistent player progression, as well as many more player ships and significantly enhanced storytelling. EVERSPACE 2 has a planned Steam Early Access release in late 2020 with the full version arriving on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One at the end of 2021. 

The first trailer, which celebrated its premiere at gamescom: Opening Night Live, and is watchable above, was created exclusively from in-game pre-alpha captured video. Space game enthusiasts attending gamescom can get a first taste of the quality, gameplay and open-world feeling at the ROCKFISH stand in the Indie Arena Booth, where a polished prototype will be playable.

“With its innovative concept of rapid space battles with rogue-like elements and exciting storytelling,EVERSPACE was able to excite over a million PC and console players, but many of our fans and space game enthusiasts were still longing for an open world space shooter with classic RPG elements in the EVERSPACE™universe,” says Michael Schade, CEO and co-founder of ROCKFISH Games. “With EVERSPACE 2, we are making a big leap towards an open world space shooter, but will still remain true to our DNA and offer exactly what our fans love: a beautiful fantastic sci-fi world paired with uncompromising space action that gets down to business right away”.

EVERSPACE 2 will clearly surpass outperform its predecessor in terms of both audiovisual quality and scope, which is reflected in the significantly higher development budget.

ROCKFISH Games plans to launch a Kickstarter campaign on September 9th, 2019 with a funding goal of €450,000 for EVERSPACE 2. As with the successful campaign of its predecessor in 2015, the EVERSPACEcommunity will thus be involved in the development process as early as possible. Moreover, the financial independence of the studio will be further secured in order to ensure full creative control at all times during production and, if successful, to even increase the scope of the game by activating stretch goals.

After the world premiere at gamescom, ROCKFISH Games will present EVERSPACE 2 at Pax West in Seattle from August 29th to September 2nd, 2019 and at TwitchCon in San Diego from September 27th to 29th, 2019.

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Rockfish Games, founded by mobile games veterans Michael Schade and Christian Lohr, has provided the first information on the brand-new IP from the indie studio based in Hamburg, Germany. The Hamburg developers are staying true to their roots in the sci-fi genre and have announced the spiritual successor to the Galaxy on Fire series with EVERSPACE.

It is a rogue-like 3D space shooter for Windows PC, with a unique, non-linear story and fast-paced shooter gameplay which will thrill the hardcore gamer community.

In EVERSPACE, players awaken onboard a battleship in a remote corner of our galaxy. They receive a mysterious command to appear at a specific place. Searching for the origins of their own existence and the unknown commander, they must fight their way through more and more new, uncontrolled territories where they will encounter other skilled combat pilots, who range from cooperative to hostile.

Death will be a constant companion and constantly recurring flashbacks of the protagonist will gradually shine a light in the darkness of the mission.

During the course of the game, players will not only have to continually prove their combat skills, but also gather fuel and raw materials in order to travel to various star systems and repair and upgrade their equipment. The rogue-like character of the game offers a quick and easy entry to the game and adds constant twists and surprises to the game events.

Along with gameplaying skills, this also demands improvisation by players and provides an individual, always motivational game experience. Unlike in classic roguelikes, game progress is not completely lost at the moment of death, but rather remains available in the form of persistent upgrades.

“With EVERSPACE, we want to build on our successes with the Galaxy on Fire series and let our 30 million GOF fans experience an even more intense, action-packed outer space adventure with a really exciting story,” says Michael Schade, founder and CEO of Rockfish Games. “We consciously chose the PC as a platform, because there we can get the highest computing power for absolutely fantastic graphics and outstanding sound. For another thing, we are relying on players who are ready to pay once for high quality and then be able to play endlessly – and that business model simply works best on Steam.”

EVERSPACE for the PC is expected to be released second half in 2016 on Steam and other digital distribution platforms. The title is currently in the prototype phase.

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