Developer ROCKFISH Games recently announced their Kickstarter campaign for Everspace 2, sequel to the hugely successful interstellar rogue-like Everspace. This sequel will be different in a number of ways, all of which bring it close to allowing players to live the dream of exploring a vast galaxy full of discoveries.
Continuing the Story
While Everspace 2 will be different to the original in a lot of ways, but one thing that’s remaining the same is the story. Players will take on the role of a surviving clone from the first game a short time after the end of the story. As an illegal clone, since cloning has been outlawed, players are trying to eke out an existence as a miner until they can earn their passage out of the DMZ. The story will explore what it means to be human as a character who’s primary purpose is to be expendable. Making friends and saving the universe are all part of what players can look forward to in Everspace 2.
Changing the Game
Everspace 2 is an open world exploration title, while the original was a rouge-like. Players take on the role of a single character, and will follow their journey through a 20-30 hour story that includes both a huge main quest, as well as companion and side quests. With this switch to a single character comes a change to the universe as well. In Everspace 2 players will explore a persistent galactic map, with areas to explore that won’t change every time they’re defeated. The map evolve over time, with strange new creatures appearing, or outposts suddenly seeing a lot more activity than they were last time you were there.
However, there are still some random elements to Everspace 2. The procedurally created locations will return in the form of limited time events, offering loot for those willing to explore these anomalies.
Loot Overhaul
The loot system in Everspace 2 is being made to be far deeper than the original. The new loot system is inspired by Diablo, and will offer more opportunities for synergy between weapons and gear. Weapons and gear will also now not be lost upon death, thanks to the switch from the rogue-like formula. Even without the risk of losing items upon death, ROCKFISH Games says that there are some areas with great rewards that are extremely risky to fly into.
New Rides
The ship system is also seeing an overhaul in Everspace 2. Ships now have a class, with subclasses for each that will affect the items that can be equipped, and how they perform out in space. Every time the player levels up they will unlock more essential parts of their ship, meaning that there’s value to heading out and taking on the smaller side missions if you get stuck on a main quest. A perk system will also allow players to bring new ways to play into their character and ships.
ROCKFISH Games have chosen to use Kickstarter for Everspace 2, as they did for the first game, because of the invaluable feedback that Kickstarters provided during early alpha and beta phases. The creative ideas from those same supporters have also shaped many of the changes made between the Everspace games, and ROCKFISH Games wants that creativity in the early development stage of Everspace 2.
Everspace 2 is set for release in Q3 2021. Before then there will be a number of alphas and betas prior to the game entering early access on Steam ahead of this 2021 release. There’s a long path ahead for the game, and with a goal of £400,719 to get the game fully funded, there’s a chance the project might not see fruition. However, despite the budget for the game doubling from that of Everspace’s, fans of the franchise seem to be dedicated to getting Everspace 2 made, and have already pledged £49,690 at the time of writing with 32 days left to go on the campaign. Check out the Kickstarter trailer below, and the campaign here.