very fun. hoping for new ship models at some point. can be pretty addictive, havent really had any problems with the game at all. but can feel a bit repetitive a bit later on. really looking foreword to the future content.

Kinda comparing this to Chorus as I just finished that.

Combat is much more involved (in a good way) and many options of weapons to choose from to suit your style.
with a good variety of possible ways to upgrade, none of which you could to with Chorus.

The cut scenes do have have value and are easy to listen to, unlike Chorus, however I do hate the comic book page-by-page animation they use. Still, I find it more enjoyable to watch then the hideous visual of the main character in Chorus in their cut scenes.

Although the graphical detail is quite good, Chorus seem slightly better but I feel that's because the Everspace 2 seems to have invested far more into the overall game play.

On that same note, Everspace 2 seems far larger in scale and allows for much more freedom to pick and choose your missions, their order and regions that you want to play in at any given time.

In the time I finished Chours (granted I skipped 95% of all of the cut scenes and kinda wanted to just "get the missions over with") I feel like I've only relaxed my way though a 1/3 (?) of the game so far and I like that.

It's sort of fun and the art is very nice but Webber Drones are just game design for the sake of game design (you've got to have CC because it's a video-game?) and it basically completely derailed my interest in playing further.

Too much stuff that is just there because designers like to make games *less* fun in order to prove that they're doing design work. Space ships have Ultimates, weapons stop firing extremely often, speed and extreme range are basically required, and it's possible to waste a LOT of time exploring levels only to find that stuff is sealed off for a later sidequest.

Would have been a better game with half the design and twice the testing.

It's fun for a while, but there is too little emphasis on realism and simulation, and too much focus on trying to make a space sim into a looter shooter. The story is also quite bad. Graphics are amazing though, and the ship controls are rather good. While playing this game I am constantly reminded that I am in a game, which sounds like an odd criticism but it's the immersion-breaking design choices that really detract from the experience for me. I also found the many side activities (such as the mini quests you get to explore areas and find loot, or the optional side missions that pop up in space when travelling) and minor gameplay mechanics (such as trading) either instantly repetitive or as deep as a puddle.

I am recommending against this game because I dropped out of it.

This would have been SO much better as a 12 hour linear game. The controls are AWESOME, dogfights are AWESOME, even the story is... servicable.

However, there is so much padding! Most of your time is spent flying around and collecting things. or just idling to travel between locations in hyperspace. And it is not like you can just ignore the grind either, the main story does jump several levels, and you have no chance in hell of beating several ships even a little higher level than you. Then you lower the difficulty, go to grind reluctantly and it takes FOREVER because there are hardly any enemies around and the game showers you with loot, so you have to keep managing it.

cringey dialogues, bad story, boring gameplay

If you're looking for the next Freelancer game, this hit the spot for me.
Things I enjoyed:
Exploration, cool enviroments both atmospheric and deep space
Progression, good progression curve with fine rewards along the way
Loot variety, tiers and affixes makes for an interesting itemization
Classes, easy to try new classes and fun difference between them
End-Game activities, Rifts and incuirsions to test your new op weapons and armor

Things that could improve:
Puzzles, become a bit teedious after a while. And you need the for progression.
Abruption from NPC's, While traveling betweein locations, NPC chatter stops you from time-warping. This will stop after a while, but is anoying...

But all and all, this is a Good Game in my book!

Spiritual successor of Galaxy on Fire, wonderful game!

Two Words to describe this game

Ludonarrative dissonance

You could be incredibly powerful and do everything perfectly then SUDDENLY , CUTSCENE PLAYS WHERE YOU GET YOUR ASS KICKED AND GET NO CHANCE TO FIGHT BACK... This happens several times, so many times that i do not care about this game , the story , the anything it has so utterly torn me out of this "looter shooter" Experience that i downright don't want to touch the game , would not recommend just go play Elite Dangerous.

Everspace 2 feels like a love letter to the old Wing Commander series of games but with a relatively interesting but unintrusive storyline that gives you that Skyrim vibe in that you can ignore it for as long as you want while you gallivant about and do a billion side missions to level and gear up before eventually wandering back to check in on the story. Mix all that in with the sensibilities of a modern looter shooter and Bob's your uncle, you've got yourself some hot Everspace 2 action.

I've read other reviews that say the main campaign is relatively short, and I can't speak to that as I have had an absolute blast exploring all the nooks and crannies of the game so far and am still in only the second of seven systems in the game after 50 hours of gameplay (I play slow and enjoy the experience, what can I say). The side missions are fun, nothing's too frustrating or hard to overcome with a little bit of perserverance, and you always feel like the time you spend doing the thing was adequately rewarded. That's pretty much all I ever ask for from side content in games: make the time between story beats worth spending.

And speaking of the story: the voice acting is serviceable, not particularly inspired but inoffensive and occasionally even charming in spots. There's very little animation in the rare cutscenes that play during story beats, most of the storytelling happening in hand-drawn graphic novel style frames with voiceover that do the job just fine. The story itself, however, won't keep your attention firmly gripped for very long. Again, think Skyrim here: there's a story, and you'll eventually get around to doing it, but first you can do these bajillion other things to get better gear, earn money, get a cooler ship, find rare upgrades, etc. So yeah, I suppose you could do the campaign quickly if you wanted, but you'd be cheating yourself out of the bulk of what the game is trying to offer you...

... which is this: the actual flying your ship. Flying around is extremely intuitive, with controls that are very easy to customize in as much detail as most sane people would possibly want. Not only can you rebind keys to your heart's content, but you can adjust dead zones, adjust sensitivities, and all kinds of other nonsense that I won't bother going into insane detail about. There are lots of different styles of ships to fly with various advantages, perks, and special abilities, and you can customize the look of your ship at home base with more options you'll continue to find as you explore the universe, so you can even fly in style if that's your thing (and it's definitely mine).

I run this game on a pretty old computer: i5-6500 CPU @ 3.20GHz, 16.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 on High graphics settings, and it runs pretty smooth for me most of the time until I enter a couple specific locations with a lot of stuff going on when it starts to get pretty choppy. (Use that information how you will.) When not in those specific places, though, this game is gorgeous. The various space locations I've visited so far have been well thought out, interesting (even the "boring" ones), and had enough variety that I didn't find myself visiting recycled locations very often even when hitting random encounters. Very good level design overall.

The only serious concern I could see the average player having with this game might be with the price tag. $50 for a game that has great gameplay but no real story-based animation to speak of and only mid voice acting might be a turnoff when there are compelling AAA games out there at similar price points that can offer all that and more. I picked this game up when it was on sale for 50% off, so for me I felt immediately satisfied with my purchase and went back and bought the Supporter Pack (again, I like to ride in style!), but I could see a lot of people finding a $50 pill hard to swallow. I wouldn't blame you if you did what I did and waited for a sale, but it's a fantastic game worth playing.