Thursday, May 2, 2019

EVERSPACE

The last space combat game I had played previously was Freelancer many years ago. Its story ended all of a sudden and I was left on my own to do repetitive randomly generated tasks, which were alike to Skyrim's "radiant" quests -- the same dogfights over and over again. Or at least so I vaguely recall. It gave me a slight distaste for the genre and I hadn't touched it again until now.

Beauteous space combat


Everspace (or EVERSPACE as it's stylized) managed to lure me in with its striking visuals. Making a beautiful space game is probably relatively easy. Populate the vast emptiness of space with plenty of objects and have good lighting with lens flares, and you're already a good way there. That doesn't make the game any less prettier though; Everspace definitely looks like an Unreal Engine 4 title. The game's locations have nice variety to them too.

It also has a fitting and extensive soundtrack to go with the graphics. I tried to find one particular track on YouTube and discovered that it would take some time as there is so much music in the game. I wish Everspace's sound effects were as good as the soundtrack though. While they're adequate, I think guns could sound meatier. The lasers need more bass.

Everspace isn't a hardcore space flight simulator. I mean, you can play it in first person and engage in dogfights too: chase that HUD marker that shows where to lead your shots in order to hit that fleeing fighter. But I think the game plays better as an arcade 6-degrees-of-freedom shooter in third person.

With roguelike elements


Everspace borrowed features from Faster Than Light. You move through sectors by jumping between randomized locations while managing your fuel and keeping ahead of a hostile fleet. You find weapons plus other gear on the way and unlock new starting loadouts. Dying ends your current run as well. (I wouldn't outright recommend the game for an FTL fan though since the moment-to-moment gameplay is so different. Why do I see people doing that in Steam reviews and such?)

Unlike in FTL (and more like in Rogue Legacy), there's also an upgrade system that persists through death. With credits earned from a run you upgrade your ships' speed, durability, weapons, scanners, etc. Thus the game over time becomes easier and easier while in the beginning it's quite challenging. I played largely on Normal, temporarily switching to Hard for an achievement.

There are three different ships to fly and the Interceptor is unlocked by default. Encounters DLC adds a fourth one, the Sentinel, which is available straight up as well. Each ship has some exclusive gear they can use, like stealth cloak that only goes in the Scout. The Gunship also differs from the rest by having very high hull hit points but no shield at all.

The Interceptor looked good enough to focus on and so I did. I wasn't a huge fan of its starting weaponry though -- Pulse Laser and Gatling Gun didn't feel effective. Early game got a lot smoother once I unlocked the ship's Loadout B which has Beam Laser M3. Beam laser has no travel time, meaning you don't need to lead your shots. I think it also has a slight locking mechanism as most of the time the beam stayed on a target even when I certainly wasn't being that accurate.

And a hefty amount of content


Even with all the pilot and ship upgrades, late game locations can get hectic. You start seeing more environmental hazards like black holes and dark systems. And bigger enemy ships: corvettes and frigates. The Mk2 version of the Okkar corvette is probably the most difficult one as it has a weapon that fires two large projectiles in short succession. The second one tends to come right to where you dodged away from the first one. On hit the projectiles throw your ship back violently and you lose all sense of direction while the corvette is still firing at you.

Some systems have a jammer that stops you from jumping until it's destroyed (or you use a helpful consumable). They can be found on the bigger enemy ships too. In the final sector you can stumble upon a really "fun" combination of a hazard and enemy: ship components overheating star and a drone carrier with a jammer.

A drone carrier is protected by an impervious shield as long as any of its drones are functioning. Upon destroying the last one, the shields go down temporarily till a new drone swarm flies out. With the overheating star you pretty much need to destroy the carrier in one quick cycle or things get hairy with your ship's systems failing one by one. It's the kind of a situation where you should rather consume a jump stabilizer and get the fuck out right away.

I like how Everspace's story is tied to the death mechanic. It works surprisingly well. The plot progresses each time you get farther. And then it keeps going even after you've beaten the game. For the real ending you will need multiple victorious runs -- which I didn't mind doing as there are a lot of stuff to see and try. At this point of time I seem to have played the game for a total of 54 hours.

There are side missions too whose progression carries through death. The Encounters expansion adds at least two new ones (among other things). I would go so far as to say it's a must-have addition to Everspace. The more content, the more systems there is to randomize from, the better the game is.

Very few negatives


In addition to the challenging no-upgrades early game, I have only two other minor complaints about Everspace -- both also related to difficulty. Firstly, you can use devices and consumables via equipment screen and the game pauses while you're in it. Thus if you're in a tight spot, you can bring up the screen and with all the time in the world use everything you need to give you the required edge to win.

Secondly, if that wasn't enough, you can simply quit to the main menu and load back in to find yourself back in time, just entering the system. In my opinion the game should at least save your ship's state upon exit. Such a built-in way to savescum shouldn't be in a title that tries to utilize the elements of a roguelike.

And maybe I'd also add a minuscule complaint about the red color used in the HUD for weapon/device statuses. It's the same color used for enemy markers and I kept mistaking the OKs and numbers at the top of the screen for hostiles. Eventually I learned to ignore them but still, maybe an alternative color or something would be better.

I'm interested to see what Rockfish Games come up with after so strong a debut.

Edited 2023-04-12: Minor text fixes.











1 comment:

  1. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rockfishgames/everspace-2/description

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