Everspace 2 arrives in early access this month
Get stuck into some lootin', shootin' and spaceflight shenanigans
If you fancy some new space flight shenanigans to kick off your 2021, then you might be pleased to learn Everspace 2 comes out in early access soon. Moving away from the roguelike style of the first Everspace, the sequel is a single-player looter shooter that plonks players into a big open-world campaign. It hits early access on Steam and GOG on January 18th.
Developers Rockfish Games say the early access launch comes with the first 12 or so hours of the story campaign, as well as some side missions in the game's first two star systems. They add that the initial early access version will have around 25 hours of gameplay to get stuck into, letting players try out space combat, exploration, mining, puzzle-solving, traveling, trading, itemization, crafting, ship customisation and more.
"Of course, the game is far from being finished," they say. "On top of the two star systems pilots will be able to explore in Early Access at launch, we plan to have four to six more as well as several additional player ship subclasses beyond the Interceptor, Sentinel, Striker, Gunship, and Scout at launch, to be gradually added on a quarterly basis. In the final game, players will also be able to enjoy twice as much story content plus lots of worthwhile endgame activities."
I have to say, for an unfinished game it looks rather lovely in that trailer. I'm a big fan of sci-fi that uses lots of pretty colours for their space-scapes, rather than boring old blues and greys all the time.
Everspace 2 was supposed to hit early access late last year, but was delayed (as were a bunch of others) to avoid coinciding with the release of Cyberpunk 2077. It look like the cyber-hype has died down a little now though, so a January release seems like a pretty good call.
It'll be available in Steam Early Access and GOG Games In Development on January 18th, and cost you £32/$40/€38.
The devs say the game will be fully released on Windows, Mac and Linux "at a reasonably increased price in the first half of 2022".