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EverSpace 2

Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X
Genre: RPG/Action
Developer: Rockfish Games
Release Date: April 6, 2023

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'EverSpace 2' Incursions Update And Unreal Engine 5 Upgrade Scheduled For Next Week - Trailer

by Rainier on April 19, 2024 @ 12:40 a.m. PDT

In contrast to the roguelike concept of its predecessor, EverSpace 2 is an open-world space shooter with classic RPG elements and persistent player progression, as well as a much larger number of player ships and significantly enhanced storytelling.

Set in a persistent open world, it is driven by a captivating sci-fi story that picks up shortly after the events of its predecessor, but instead of the previous roguelike game mechanics, the focus in EverSpace 2 will be on open world gameplay combined with classic RPG elements and extended storytelling. 

Thanks to the expanded perks and a brand new class-based player ship system with dozens of models, players can also fully customize their spaceship to their individual playing style with weapons, plating, and equipment, similar to classic RPG character development. Despite all the innovations, EverSpace 2 remains true to its space shooter core and presents fast-paced space action in the well-known EverSpace style.

The story of EverSpace 2 continues from its predecessor, as you continue the story of Adam Roslin, one of the surviving cloned military space pilot. The player is faced with the remnants of his past: the cloning program has been canceled, the colonial authorities have placed a bounty on him,

Players will experience Adam’s journey as he learns what it means to transition from a clone with unlimited lives, yet persistent memories, so now that dying means the ultimate death the search for the meaning of life suddenly takes on a whole new importance. Adam’s journey will be shaped through meaningful relationships with interesting companions as he discovers that life is only worth-living if there is also something worth dying for. Fate, however, has big plans and soon the player discovers what it means to evolve from a former military clone to a truly real person.

EverSpace 2 not only creates a powerful gaming experience, but also one that is visually impressive in the beautiful infinity of space where breathtaking cinematic scenery invites - encourages - exploration.

New Incursions Event and Revamped Rifts

Past a certain rift-related point in the EverSpace 2 story, beacons appear and unlock a new horde-mode style combat challenge. Pilots fend off incoming enemy ships to drain beacon shields and open up brief opportunities to strike. Defeating all the beacons in an area completes the Incursion and rewards players with a large loot drop including chances at new legendary gear and reliquary treasure chests.

New Legendaries and Reliquaries

Legendaries have mostly been exclusive to endgame content with the exception of a few granted as quest rewards. With the addition of so many new Legendary items in Incursions, we want pilots to find more of them during the campaign without jeopardizing game balance significantly.

A new "Radiant" class of Legendaries will be introduced with this update, allowing seasoned players to enjoy the new Incursions endgame content by offering additional room for gear improvement. Radiant Legendaries are stronger versions of the Legendary gear type with variable attributes that are roughly comparable to current Legendaries, but can potentially be even more powerful.

In the update, regular Legendaries will be weakened slightly compared to the ones available right now. Now, we know many of our veteran pilots have been stashing away Legendaries to use in a variety of ship builds and we don’t want your hard work to be diminished. All Legendaries currently in player possession will automatically be converted to Radiant Legendaries in the Incursions update. All those hard-earned Legendaries will remain roughly the same strength, suffering little-to-no nerf.

Reliquaries are another new addition coming in the Incursions update that can be found after completing an Incursions event. These are container items pilots keep in their cargo hold that can only be opened by finishing rifts or by investing Tears of the Mad—they guarantee a Legendary item reward and are the only way to acquire Radiant Legendaries.

These new Reliquary items come in two forms, a generic type that contains a random Legendary item, and rarer specific types that contain a Legendary item of a particular category (Cargo Unit, Sensor, or Plating for example).

Normal and Radiant Reliquaries require specific minimum Lunacy amounts to unlock and yield respective rewards. If a lower Lunacy is chosen instead, Tears of the Mad can be used to pay the difference. Once a rift is cleared, the item contained in the Reliquary will drop alongside the rest of the loot rewarded by the rift. If you find you're collecting more of these than you can open, Reliquaries can be dismantled for Tears of the Mad.

Beyond the Legendary item reward, Reliquaries are also a source of positive affixes applied to rifts called Blessings. Each Reliquary comes with a Blessing that will provide boons to the player while they are inside the rift that boost ship stats, increase rewards, modify secondary weapons, and add other bonuses. Normal Reliquaries provide normal Blessings, while Radiant Reliquaries provide both, a normal and a radiant Blessing.

Another major change coming is the distribution of Legendaries. With the exception of a few quest rewards, most Legendaries can only be found in ancient rifts or through nightmare gameplay. With Incursions, pilots will have more opportunities to discover Legendaries outside of Rifts—new Legendary Signal Decoders will now drop after Incursion events, opening up challenging High-risk Areas with powerful rewards including Legendaries, Legendary catalyst blueprints, and new crafting components. Legendaries will also have a very small chance of dropping in Rare and Superior High-risk Areas.

Scout Ultimate Change

Light fighters are an excellent, but significantly underused class in EverSpace 2—combined, the Scout, Vanguard, and Stinger make up less than five percent of all the time players spend in ships.

EverSpace 2’s RPG mechanics make light fighters an often overlooked choice. Why jump in the cockpit of a glass cannon with a hyper-specific ultimate ability when you can choose a tank fitted with terrifying main weapons that obliterate everything within its vicinity? In the hands of a skilled pilot, a light fighter ship can decimate swarms of enemies using speed and maneuverability that far outstrip the boosted shields and bulky armor of medium and heavy fighters, and—if used wisely—their ultimates can be extremely powerful, too.

Where light fighters really shine is in debris and asteroid fields, places where stray shots hammer into cover instead of your wispy shield and aluminum (or aluminium for our UK pilots) hull. Being capable of dodging shots with a quick boost-strafe is incredibly satisfying—they can’t kill what they can’t hit!

Right now, Shadowstrike renders the ship invisible to enemies and gradually increases primary weapon damage up to 300% which resets 1s after a shot was fired. Great for sniping, but it really puts a pause on the gameplay while the player waits for that bonus to build up which contradicts with the vessel’s high maneuverability, and is much less effective for mid and short ranged weapons, too.

In Incursions, the new Scout ultimate still renders the ship invisible to enemies and also grants +20% critical hit chance for any weapon type. Firing weapons or using devices breaks the invisibility, but killing an enemy restores it and extends the duration by 2 seconds to a maximum of 20 seconds. Quick kills mean your enemies won’t even know what hit them—perfect for pilots who enjoy high-speed attacks combined with highly effective cloaking.

Pilots who fully lean into this new ultimate should be able to chain together massive kill streaks against hordes of enemies. Sure, that Outlaw Destroyer may still be tough to take down, but with your invisible Scout you will have taken out its escorts and hammered in a devastating blow to its weak point before it even fires a shot. Not bad for a little ship!

Improved Controller Support on PC and Consoles

Many EverSpace 2 players love their controllers and we want to ensure they have the best experience possible. Incursions adds native PlayStation 4 Dualshock and PlayStation 5 DualSense support for PC players on Steam, GOG, and the Window Store. Console pilots will also soon have much-requested button mapping options similar to those available on PC.

Photo Mode Improvements

Virtual photographers have done wonders with EverSpace 2, capturing incredible cosmic events and incredible space battles. The Incursions update provides some changes and improvements that make this feature easier to use.

New Cosmetic Ship Modules

Longtime EverSpace 2 pilots have been asking for more ways to customize their ships and our designers have delivered. A selection of new ship front, rear, and cockpit modules will be found throughout the DMZ. Collect them all to ride in style!

That’s just a taste of what’s to come in Incursions. In addition to our migration to Unreal Engine 5, a full list of features, changes, and bug fixes will be available when the update goes live on all platforms April 29 at 10am PST / 7am EST / 6pm BST / 7pm CET.

See you in the stars!

Your ROCKFISH Games team

EverSpace 2 is available for PC (Steam/GOG), PS5 and Xbox Series X|S for $49.99 USD / £44.99 / €49.99 / ¥6930.


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