That detonator drone. Cor! Drones can be a bit dull in games – stuff to swat away in annoyance in the latest Ubisoft offering, stuff you know is the sort of thing that can probably be picked up at Currys. But in Everspace 2, those drones. Those detonator drones. Lovely.
It’s a clever blend. They are Asimov and Popcap, Foundation and Peggle. They come at you and explode. So far, so drone. But as they approach they ring out these escalating notes. I’m back with Jimmy Lightning, the ball bouncing over pins one to three four – Ode to Joy! Except it’s inverted. I’m frantic to stop the escalation, to shoot it away or EMP it or dash to safety.
Everspace 2Developer: Rockfish GamesPublisher: Rockfish GamesAvailability: Out now for PC in Early Access, on PS4 and Xbox One later
Everspace 2 is the space game I didn’t know I wanted. Now it’s here I really want it. And I wonder why I wasn’t initially that excited.
I think it’s because it threatened a formula I loved. The first Everspace is a very beautiful space dogfighter wrapped up in a Roguelike structure. You’re a cloned pilot rushing from one end of space to the other, one hop at a time. It’s FTL but it’s also TIE-Fighter. You dash into a zone, try and grab some resources and make it out alive, while blasting anybody in your way to pieces. Meanwhile the backdrops offer up asteroid fields, glinting schists in the eternal darkness, or the sonorous coffee-surface rings of a gas giant, it’s noble bulk half-shadowed. What a game. So much beauty, but that hand always at your elbow. Forward! No time for this. Make it through! Get on with it!
EVERSPACE 2 | Early Access Release Trailer Watch on YouTube
Everspace 2, which has just launched in Early Access, is another very beautiful space dogfighter. But the Roguelike structure has gone. Your clone is down to his last life, so you’re save-filing your way through an expansive open-universe adventure. Still so cosmiscally pretty, but I worried: would the energy of the thing drift away without that hand at your elbow?