Had a lot of fun with this for a while but after about 20 hours I lost the will to go on. If the game's main story had been 20 hours long I think it would have been a good length, but it just kept going - I still had three full star systems yet to explore!

The combat is fun and I enjoyed the traversal for a while, but after a time it just began to really drag. Progression seemed far too slow as well, basically forcing you into grindy and generally underwhelming side-content, while being under-levelled for a mission/area was often seriously punishing.

It's a shame because I really liked the game for a good while, but after 20 hours I was very much done. A solid 7 of a game, for sure, and one I may come back to again in the future, but for now I'm happy to shelve this at about 2/3 through the main story.

Un buen híbrido de RPG/batallas espaciales al que lastra un poco ser demasiado largo y no tener suficiente variedad para rellenar esas horas.

La historia es sencillita pero no está mal, visualmente es muy bueno y los combates en sí son muy divertidos, pero el loot es algo insípido (casi todo son cosas ligeramente mejores que no cambian tu forma de jugar) y es tan difícil probar distintos tipos de naves sin pararte a farmear como un loco que arruina un poco un posible punto de variedad.

Me lo he pasado bien y lo recomendaría, pero siempre a sabiendas de que le falta algo más de chicha en algunos aspectos.

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A good RPG/space dogfighting hybrid that's a bit dragged down by it being a bit too long and not varied enough to fill those hours.

The story is simple but it's not bad, it's visually great and the dogfighting itself is really fun, but the loot is kinda bland (almost everything is just slightly better stuff that doesn't change the way you play) and it's so hard to try different kinds of ships without stopping to farm like a madman that it kinda ruins that possible source of variety.

I had a good time and I'd recommend it, but always with the caveat that it's a bit lacking in some aspects.

When I bailed on Everspace 1, I remember saying that it felt like a great game trapped in the confines of a roguelike that it just didn't belong in. While I do think I was correct in that since I have several times as many hours in Everspace 2 as I do in the first game, neither game managed to hold my interest for long enough to see it through.

The main crux of the issue for me has to be how, similar to ES1, ES2 seems to want to drag itself on much longer than it has any right to. Where ES1 had you dying and retrying to build up incremental stats, ES2 has you grinding to build up individual stats using a handful of different systems. This does freshen things up considerably, but once the initial appeal wears off, you're essentially doing the same thing. It isn't helped by the fact that getting better gear feels less like gaining power, and more like sprinting to keep up with your opponents.

As the Steam reviews show, that has an appeal to some people but not to me. The whole numbers game to me just makes improving your shift devoid of any surprise. Sure, you could argue different weapons and abilities do give some degree of shakeup, but even that doesn't last too long (especially when a lot of the abilities aren't that exciting to get).

It doesn't help that the story is far from anything to write home about. I expected as much after my time with ES1 and it's something I can generally forgive, but when paired with a gameplay loop that doesn't excite me, the lack of interest erodes any reason for me to keep playing. Adam continues to be impossible to connect to, given he can swap between showing compassion and being an ass at the drop of a hat.

Again, I have to give credit where it's due. ES2 did hold my interest for around 20 hours or so this time around and I made it just past the Zharkov system in my time. It's once again a beautiful game, paired with some well-done music (albeit songs that get old quickly) and a combat flow that initially feels great. However, the result for me is still the same.

Only reason I'm putting this on shelved is cause I may come back to see it through at some point. It never frustrated me, just bored me to the point of not wanting to return

"Everspace 2 is a fast-paced single-player spaceship shooter"

Wäre es das mal, dann wäre alles gut.
Wie in Teil 1 ist die Kontrolle über das Schiff absoluter Wahnsinn.

Man kann jede Bewegung, die der Kopf abspielt mit dem Schiff ausführen.

Teil 1 hatte das Problem, dass es zu große "Level" gab in den zu wenig passiert ist.
Das war der Hauptnegativpunkt.

Die cleveren Entwickler von Everspace sehen hier also eine Möglichkeit statt eines anspruchsvollen Roguelites ein semi open World Lootshooter zu machen, den sie noch größer und noch so viel leerer gemacht haben.
... was ein Geniestreich.

Anfangs musste man das Spiel direkt auf den höchsten Schwierigkeitsgrad stellen, damit der Hauch von Herausforderung aufkommt.
Der verfliegt dann aber nach einigen Stunden. Das Spiel wird nicht mehr schwerer, die Gegner halten einfach mehr aus.
Das ist das Problem an mehreren Schwierigkeitsgraden.
Die funktionieren beinahe nie, sofern man nicht auch mehr belohnt wird, stellt man es denn schwerer als man müsste.
Leicht ist zu leicht, schwer ist nie so anspruchsvoll wie man es gerne hätte. IMMER. Macht einen Schwierigkeitsgrad und balanced ihn. Wenn 10 Hausfrauen lieber bei Candycrush bleiben, weil sie Super Mario zu schwer finden, sollen sie das Spiel halt nicht kaufen. Ein Spiel für alle ist am Ende kein gutes Spiel für irgendwen.

Die Upgrades sind nicht der Rede wert, looten macht daher keinen Spaß.
Die Rätsel sind ganz nett, Massenschlachten sind geil (passieren aber so gut wie nie) und der Rest ist Mist.
Die Story ist Mist, dass man ständig warten muss oder mir einer Hand fliegt, weil der nächste Gegenstand 20 Sekunden entfernt ist oder der nächste Planet 2 Minuten weg ist.

Sowas wird nur eingebaut um künstlich die Spielzeit zu strecken und ich weiß nicht, warum das jemals akzeptiert werden sollte.

Das Spiel hätte so viel besser sein können.
Unterteile es in Level und baue es auf wie Earth Defence Force.

Belasse es bei Roguelite/like und mache kleinere Level.

Alles wäre besser gewesen als dieser halbgare Mist.

This is just... fine.
I was excited for this but after 5 hours I feel a bit underwhelmed and... bored. And it's not a great feeling so early in a game. The combat feels great, all the pew pew pew and explosions can keep me entertained for a while but that's all it is: a time killer and not really a rewarding experience that feels worthy of my time. It gives you the illusion of variety with all the different weapons, ship types, enemy types but when it comes down to it translating in actual variety of gameplay it's just not there, it all feels inconsequential and not that different from each other. So, after a few hours when the novelty wears off I feel like I'm just doing the same things over and over again, go here, shoot that, get this power thing in the power socket (the puzzles are really tedious). The story is, again, fine, does the job but not enough to keep me playing waiting for what happens next.
I don't know, maybe it's just not for me. I do love a good game set in space with good visuals and maybe this is fine if I want to just relax and do some mindless shooting. But I guess I expected more. With so many games coming out and on my backlog I don't really have time for such a time consuming game that doesn't seem to go anywhere beyond its initial gameplay loop

Everspace 2 is a fun space shooter that reminded me a lot of Freelancer. I ultimately shelved it just because of lack of variety, but I had a good time with it.

Everspace looks really great. The ship designs are cool and the ability to swap out parts and paintjobs to customize how your ship looks gives the game a ton of personality. Environments are varied and cool with each major area having its own style that helps make the universe an interesting place to explore.
Cutscenes are done in a simple, lightly animated, comic book style that works well for the story they are telling and appealed to me throughout.

The story is fairly by the book, though it is refreshingly low stakes (for at least as much as I played). For most of the game you are just trying to get by and land a big score to escape the DMZ (the part of space you are in that definitely isn't demilitarized, so I don't know what the name means). There are a lot of references to alien races and political tensions that might be related to the first game, but aren't that well explained, so I didn't get a lot out of them.
You sort of collect various crew members as you progress through the story, each of which end up crashing at your headquarters and providing you with upgradable bonuses. This is a cool feature and I like the light community building it provides, even though all the crew interactions are story driven and seem to just be them whining at each other.

This is space combat almost exactly as I remember Freelancer being, and it plays very well. Flying is responsive, aiming is straightforward, and blasting enemy ships out of the sky is satisfying. Unfortunately, missions themselves are all pretty samey, which is why I ended up shelving this one. Combat is very one-note even though there are a number of different enemy types, they don't have enough of an impact to really factor into how you approach things.
There are a ton of weapon and equipment options, allowing you to approach combat however you want and upgrading your guns and armor feels pretty good throughout the game. I didn't get as much out of the different ship types, mainly because they didn't seem to have that much differentiation (general stats plus one special ability) and changing ships is prohibitively expensive. I only ended up using better versions of the starting ship.
I would have liked this aspect more if there were fewer ships and you ended up purchasing a bunch of different chassis to change how you approach any particular mission, but things aren't really designed that way.

Travel in Everspace 2 was one of the major reasons I shelved it, as it is tedious and takes much too long by about the middle of the game. You do eventually unlock minimal fast travel, but it happens too late and it is too annoying to actually set each fast travel point up. You have an HQ you can return to, but there isn't really a reason to (besides narratively) and it doesn't serve enough purpose. The game, in general, wants you to prove you have earned the right to do things quickly, which is just punitive and dumb.
There is even a nomadic trader ship that you can call to certain areas that functions exactly as you would want a base to function, with a place to repair your ship, buy upgrades, and eventually, buy better ships. Writing the narrative such that your group of renegades is laying low on this ship would have made more sense and been better gameplay.

I like Everspace 2, it is fun and satisfying to blast your way through this universe. I wish travel was less tedious and combat had a bit more variety, but I still enjoyed my time playing the game.

At first, I was really happy with this game. It is the closest I got to that classic Freelancer feeling, linking arcade space combat with simple trading and story-based main- and side-missions. The universe is beautiful, the vistas varied and the action simple, but gripping. There are plenty of ships and load-outs to choose from to tailor the experience to your play style. The story, which is told mostly through dialogue and sometimes through static picture cutscenes, seemed interesting enough at first, too.

But the longer I played, the more tired I got of the game. I lost interest in the mostly generic story, the universe doesn’t feel alive. The enemy variety is limited, most encounters feel the same. The game lacks bigger battles with capital ships and bigger fleets. Another problem is all the back and forth between the systems. I spent so much time just warping between the systems and whenever I entered or left a location there was a small loading screen which really makes the universe feel disconnected.

But my biggest gripe with the game is that the developers tried to force variety into the missions by implementing tiresome puzzles. Searching switches, moving energy cells, searching for clues, powering up forsaken generators or activating explosives under time pressure gets old so incredibly fast. While the side-missions that feature these mechanics can be skipped, these mechanics are also often part of the main missions which sucked the fun out of the game for me.

All things considered, this is not a bad game. Heck, it probably is a good game with all the positive reception it gets. So what do I know? I can just speak for myself and I didn’t like the pacing, the puzzles, the repetitive gameplay and the story/lore enough to stick up with it. As far as similar games go, that aren’t ancient, I even enjoyed the often scolded Rebel Galaxy Outlaw more. And if you are looking for better space combat, give Star Wars: Squadrons and Chorus a try. Even when the latter also implemented freakin’ puzzle mechanics in a space game - please, devs, just stop that nonsense - it felt way less invasive for my enjoyment of the game.

https://pressakey.com/game,2008,6377,Everspace-2-Early-Access-Preview,.html

Schon die Demo, welche Rockfish Games Ende 2019 bereitgestellt haben, machte Lust auf mehr. Mit dem Early-Access von Everspace 2 haben mich die Hamburger jetzt komplett am Haken. Nicht nur will ich wissen, wie die Story um Adam, Dex und Ben weiter geht, sondern auch mein Schiff erweitern und neue austesten sowie mächtigere Waffen ausprobieren. Ich will noch ein paar Upgrades kaufen, um schneller Erze und Kristalle abbauen zu können und ich will endlich in Gebiete vordringen können, in denen das richtig große Geld zu scheffeln ist. Und das am liebsten jetzt.

Den Vibe des Kultklassikers Freelancer haben die Entwickler in vielerlei Hinsicht eingefangen, auch wenn ein Multiplayer wohl nicht zum fertigen Spiel gehören wird. Dennoch, ich habe schon lange auf einen arcadigen Space-Looter-Shooter gewartet und ihn hiermit so gut wie bekommen. Jetzt nur noch ein paar Sternensysteme einbauen und die Texte von den jeweiligen Sprechern synchronisieren lassen, dann kann es schon bald losgehen. Ich bin sehr gespannt.