Everspace 2

Everspace 2 (or EVERSPACE 2 as it's stylized) was on my list of most anticipated game releases of this year. I loved the first game: space combat is not a genre I usually play nor like but Everspace was a big exception. And so I hoped this second one would be more of that. Many rejoiced when Rockfish Games decided to abandon the roguelike structure of the first game and make this sequel to have more usual, static locations. I wasn't so sure that would be for the better, and as it turned out, it and other design decisions resulted in Everspace 2 being a stretched and tedious, 100-hour treasure hunt for a completionist like me.

Chorus

I was impressed by Rockfish Games' strong 2017 debut Everspace, but while it's indeed the studio's first title, I have later learned that the founders Michael Schade and Christian Lohr weren't exactly newbies at making space combat games. Back at their previous company, Fishlabs Entertainment, they had been releasing for good many years a similar game series for mobile called Galaxy on Fire. Fishlabs ran out of money in 2013 and after brief bankruptcy proceedings it was acquired by Koch Media (now Plaion) who placed the studio under their Deep Silver publishing arm. (And Schade and Lohr proceeded to found Rockfish.)

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.