Everspace 2 is fully funded on Kickstarter.
Are space shooters coming back into vogue? There has always been a core of gamers that yearn for the return of such space sim classics as Freelancer and Wing Commander but have been tragically unfulfilled by today’s developers.
However, they have gotten at least a taste of what might be over the past few years. Everspace first released in 2016 as a stripped-down, Roguelike space shooter where the player was tasked with proceeding through a tiered progression of increasingly difficult stages. The pilot must desperately scrounge, borrow, or steal as much equipment as possible to make themselves strong enough to handle ever more violent enemies.
Inevitably, you blow up, but that’s not the end. In Everspace, you simply hop back into another spaceship as a clone of your former self. You don’t keep much in terms of equipment, but you do get to keep adding additional skills to your character. Eventually, you gain enough loot and skill perks to make it all the way through on a single run.
Everspace got generally positive reviews upon its release, but it wasn’t what Freelancer fans really wanted. They wanted all the space shooting action and RPG elements combined with a go-at-your-own-pace (at least, when you’re not getting shot at) space exploration game with a ton of different ships and weapons to fit a diverse range of playstyles.
Developer Rockfish Games have heard those players loud and clear. In August, they announced Everspace 2, a direct sequel that will pick up exactly where the original Everspace left off, only now there aren’t any Roguelike elements. You just get in your ship and explore a vast, persistent world in a 20-hours-long campaign.
To get their new project off the ground, Rockfish started a Kickstarter campaign at the beginning of August with the goal of raising €500,000 (or roughly $550,000). They have reached that goal, and now Everspace 2 is officially happening.
The game is set to release on Steam sometime in 2021, with PS4 and Xbox One versions also planned. Everspace 2 will compete against Rebel Galaxy Outlaw on the Epic Games Store which released earlier this year, although it did so with only half a dozen ships and very little actual content.
Expect Rebel Galaxy Outlaw and Everspace 2 to be space shooter rivals when they’re actually both done in 2021.
(Source: Kickstarter)