Platform: Nintendo Switch
Publisher: ROCKFISH Games
Developer: ROCKFISH Games GmbH
Release Date: Dec 11, 2018
There I was, Minding my business harvesting gas and ore when suddenly out of nowhere a pair of ships come up from behind me and start to shoot at my ship. I had recently upgraded my shields and my Gatling gun, so odds were in my favor. I respond to their volleys, the dogfight begins. And without fail, I take out the last ship with a few extra shots, but mistakenly one of them soars off into the distance hitting a giant G&B trade ship. Let’s just say they didn’t take that well and proceded to send every ship in the sector after me. Trying to fight them off was pretty fruitless. They destroyed my new shield, and I had to tuck my tail between my legs and run off to the next sector.
Everspace is a game adjacent to things like No Man’s Sky or StarLink. It has similarities but stands on its own with an interesting story and an intense atmosphere. Plus tons of harvesting. And all that harvesting leads to upgrades and when you upgrade your ship, you’re then able to traverse sectors more easily. Everspace pulls no punches, and it’s better for it. This can be a calm and quiet experience gathering ore and materials but that can all change quickly within the blink of an eye, and you will get wrecked if you aren’t prepared. Dogfights are really fun, Chasing around enemy ships trying to get a good angle while also trying to make sure they don’t shoot out your shields is a fun chess game. and if any of your weapons get damaged in the fight. Fixing that should be your top priority, jumping around space without a gun is a dangerous proposition.
Each sector you enter is procedurally generated which adds to the sense of discovery and gathering. Every once and a while you’ll come across some rare shield upgrade, or sometimes you stumble upon some ore, and all of it is helpful. There is also a limited sense of customization present whenever you’re in the hanger getting ready to depart. upgrading your accesories or switching out your guns along side maybe getting a new paint job. Having to repair your ship is the ever-present loop if you’re looking for trouble in the deep reaches of space. And even if you aren’t looking sometimes.
After each jump to a new sector, the difficulty also increases. You’ll find more items and resources, but the odds of being surrounded by Okkar (antagonist race of aliens) ready to rip your ship apart increases as well. There is no planet hopping you can’t jump down earth-side to check on a base or anything like that this game is strictly space bound and sometimes the procedurally generated maps can give some boring looking vistas but the further you venture the more dynamic they become. The story is a prolonged process, you die and repeat so often that it’s tough sometimes piece together the drawn-out plot, that being said it’s pretty well explained in the opening minutes.
The general concept is to learn from mistakes and shortcomings so that you’re better off for the next time. Early on I learned to take my time going through each map scavenging for every little thing I could find. Blasting through sectors doesn’t do you any favors. Everspace is a massive grand looking adventure, but I wouldn’t say you need to play it on the big screen, in the portable mode the game ran just as well if not better at times and oddly controls a bit better than the pro controller due to the sticks.
Combing space for resources is a frequent topic for games these days trying to stand out can be tough, but the benefit of Everspace is the die-hard nature that it’s trying to gather. This game is tough, and it means to be tough, I hate comparing games, but if the ‘Souls’ games can have a large enough fan bases to spawn a whole generation of followers, then I’d say Everspace is trying to cover the spaceship market of the Soul’s genre.
Awesome dogfights, battles you should run from, mining ore, upgrading your ship to fight another day, and then dying to then respawn. all of this adds up to time well spent jumping from sector to sector even if a few of them are baron looking. Everspace is a constant learning expierence that demands you stay on your toes at all times. cleaning up the universe one scavenger at a time.
