045PREVIEW
Rockfish’s first foray into infinity
and beyond debuted in 2016,
boasting a steep difficulty curve
sprinkled with frequent death.
But the studio’s second starbound
adventure is ditching the roguelike
elements in favour of something a wee bit more
approachable. Surprisingly, this shift in gears was
as fuelled by the series’ existing player base as it
was the developer itself.By the studio’s own account, the dev had always
wanted to fulfil fans’ requests for an open world
Everspace. Rockfish only had the resources to go
that route after the sequel’s successful Kickstarter
campaign, and the aim this time is to create a “more
hand-crafted, persistent” experience. Rockfish also
explains that the genre change complements the
start of a new chapter in the hero’s journey. The first
game saw you die, die, and die again as your
cloned protagonist searched for a cure for
what ailed him. Now they’re fighting fit,
albeit without any possibility of starting
over if they kick the bucket. Instead of
learning through death like in the roguelike
predecessor, you’ve got to learn through
living. It’s true there’ll be a bigger focus on
exploration this time round, but Everspace 2
will serve up a challenge, with high-risk-
and-reward areas begging for a hot-shot
pilot to delve into them.SHIP SHAPE
But you know what they say – the more
things change, the more they stay the same.
While the visual direction is stellar in every
way,yourship remains the true star of the show.
Everspace 2 presents even more options for sailing
the skies, with an all-new modular ship system
offering various specialisations and tiers to choose
from... not all of them purely functional. You’re not
merely swapping in bigger, better guns or a cosier
cockpit; randomised loot now offers new skins and
colourways to ensure your spacecraft is the best-
looking in the star system. The dev has always leant
towards more vibrant colour schemes, and Rockfish
tells us that the technical lead 3D artist picked
Guardians Of The Galaxy as a reference for colour
grading and lighting for the Everspace series. That’sdefinitely going to make for some
flashy ship looks.
There’s also plenty of new kit to aid
your sojourn among the stars, such as
the space grapple hook (you can tell
it’s nifty from the adjectival use of
‘space’). The developer pitches it as
a short-ranged tractor beam that you
can use to, say, hurl energy cores into
the sockets of powered-down gates or
out into the void of space to provide
a quick distraction while you flee
from the authorities.
This equipment can be upgraded
to become especially useful during
the new planet surface missions. As
you’d expect, greater gravity can make
an already tricky mission that much
more challenging – especially when
it affects any loot your enemies drop.
You’ll have to be quick to scoop up
dropped goodies before they burn up
in the atmosphere, and an upgraded
grapple or even smart fetch drones are
just the tech for the job.STARRY-EYED SURPRISE
This focus on your in-game hardware
doesn’t mean the story takes a back
seat. The studio wants its protagonist
to have an intense emotional journey
told through side-stories as well as the
main campaign. Rockfish worked with
Joshua Rubin, a story consultant who
previously worked on Assassin’s Creed
II and Destiny, who was intrigued
himself by the hero’s naïve beginnings
in the first game. We’re told that
over the last year of development
Rubin has not only assisted with the
game’s narrative design, but has also
been instrumental in helping the
team embrace the lore laid out in the
first Everspace. Here’s hoping it’s as
gripping as Ezio’s tale in ACII.
While fans will be relieved to learn
that not everything old is out, we’re
eager to blast off and see where this
sequel will take us next.EVERSPACE 2
There’s always space for course correction
FORMAT PS4 / ETA 2021 / PUB ROCKFISH GAMES / DEV ROCKFISH GAMESFACTRICK
Science fiction films like
Oblivion and Blade Runner,
plusgameslikeDestiny,
inspiredthevehicledesign.1.AIMHIGHThe Hamburg-based game
studio consists of 23
full-timeemployees,plus
threecontractors.2.SMALL&MIGHTY
Rockfish Games, after
having to start over as a
studio twice, is self-funded
and fully independent.3.DREAMWORK