The fact that 2003’s Freelancer never got a sequel is one of the greatest travesties in PC gaming. Digital Anvil’s third-person space shooter plonked you into a galaxy with a linear storyline but enough freedom to trade and fight as it suited you. PC Gamer gave it 90%, calling it an “expertly crafted space adventure” and “one of the best examples of this genre we’ve ever seen”. Remember that.
Everspace 2 is not. If anything, it’s better. It’s the same sort of third-person open worldish interplanetary adventure, in spaaaaaaace, an RPG in which you play a conglomeration of engines and lasers as much as its pilot, and a sequel to 2017’s . It’s different from its predecessor in one crucial way: the roguelike elements are gone. In, death was inevitable, baked into the game so that credits earned during a run could be used to buy perks and improve your character for the next one. Not so in , where death merely brings up the reload checkpoint screen and a chance to try again.
