In space, no one can hear you do much of anything. For that matter, in space no one can see much of anything beyond points of light, simply because everything is so incredibly far away. All the good views are at a bare minimum a couple hundred thousand miles apart, and when you get to planetary scales the mileage goes to tens of millions at a bare minimum. Space desperately needs an editor, and Everspace 2 has applied one with a vengeance. A hyperkinetic 3D space shooter probably doesn’t need to take place in environments that look so good, but whether flying through dense asteroid fields illuminated by the light of a ghostly blue sun, inspecting the wreckage of a derelict cruiser or massive skeleton hanging out in a nebula’s gaseous tendrils, or dropping down to a planet for a terrestrial dogfight, Everspace 2 has no use for the inky black void of space.
Everspace 2 is a massive expansion of the roguelike looter-shooter that was its prequel, having changed into a story-based adventure where the pilot Adam makes his way through the star system of Cluster 34. It’s not quite an open-universe game but fairly close, with the star map holding areas both plot-based and just there for the exploring, each filled with enemies, loot, and points of interest to investigate. The loot is what fuels the upgrade cycle, with weapons and gadgets of varying rareness turning up in large numbers, and the player’s hangar of ships is a constantly-evolving thing as bits and pieces get swapped out over time.
The 1.0 release came with a pile of notes explaining what’s added, changed, or been left behind as it became impractical. The big addition is the final chapter of the story, containing a new star system and boss fights to bring Adam’s
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