Everspace 2 Galactic Edition Switch 2 Review
Version Reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
I’m quite a fan of the original Everspace, spending plenty of hours stuck in its roguelike loop of battling, dying, upgrading, and repeating in a space-faring adventure that I feel was very underrated. Now, Everspace 2 has shadow-dropped like an outlaw ambush coming out of hyperspace onto the Switch 2, bringing all of its DLC with it. What’s it like? Select your ship, equip your loadout, and prepare to blast your way out of any situation as we review Everspace 2 for Nintendo Switch 2.
Everspace 2 also puts a much bigger focus on its story than the original game. Rather than simply jumping from one run to the next, there’s a proper campaign here, with characters to meet, factions to deal with, and a story that takes you across the game’s various star systems. You play as Adam, a clone and former outlaw pilot, who finds himself caught up in a much bigger adventure than he probably expected (as well as much bigger than I expected…). Without getting into spoilers, there’s plenty going on as you travel from system to system, meet new characters, take on jobs, and slowly uncover more about the world around you. While it is slow to start with its storytelling, I did find myself enjoying the journey, and it gives you a good reason to keep pushing forward and seeing what the next part of the galaxy has waiting for you.
If you’re coming to Everspace 2 after spending time with the original, the first thing you’re probably going to notice is just how different this game is. While the first Everspace had me happily stuck in that roguelike loop of battling, dying, upgrading, and doing it all over again, Everspace 2 takes a very different approach. The roguelike elements are gone, replaced with a much more traditional action RPG structure, complete with a persistent world, quests, characters, ship upgrades, loot, crafting, and plenty of places to explore. It’s a pretty big departure from the first game, but the core idea is still here. You’re still flying around in a spaceship, shooting things, collecting loot, upgrading your gear, and generally getting yourself into situations where blowing everything up seems like the best solution.
This more linear approach to gameplay actually works really well in the game’s favour, and despite some slow pacing at the start, I found the structure change to be a welcome one. That said, there’s plenty of elements of the first game intact. You will constantly upgrade your ship, whether that means building upon the one you have or switching to a different class of ship. There are three main classes to choose from, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Light ships are all about speed and manoeuvrability, with the Scout, Vanguard and Stinger offering different ways to play. Medium ships are more balanced, with the Interceptor, Sentinel and Striker sitting somewhere between speed, firepower and defence. Then you’ve got the Heavy ships, which sacrifice speed and agility for plenty of armour and firepower, with the Gunship, Bomber and Vindicator. There’s also the Wraith, which arrives as part of the Wrath of the Ancients DLC, giving you another medium-class option to play around with. I personally stuck with the starting ship for the most part, mainly because I had liveries that matched the What’s It Like? colours, and I’m a sucker for branding. While you can stick with the starting Sentinel, eventually the higher-tier versions of ships offer significant advantages, so there is plenty of incentive to experiment with different ships as you progress.
With each mission or scrap you get into, you have the chance to pick up loot or equipment that can upgrade your ship, whether it be shields or firepower, and there’s also a crafting and wingman system that helps with bonuses and boons to make your space life a little easier. These can be things like having a specific teammate offer cheaper repairs, reducing cruise and hyperdrive cooldowns, while your main character has his own perk tree that can give you instant repair recharge upon defeating an enemy, reflect damage, and even double your ultimate move charging speed. Mission structure can be repetitive, and while some missions, like launching an assault on an enemy stronghold or attacking a fleet, can be fun and exhilarating, some of the quieter puzzle-based missions can be a little dull and repetitive by design. These typically involve exploring the wreckage of a freighter or base, finding a power source, taking that source to an input device, opening a new path, and rinse and repeat. At its best, gameplay is exciting and full of action, but then it can grind to a halt with these missions, which makes the pacing rather inconsistent. Travelling between locales can also drag on a little, with some long stints filled with exposition, while others are simply met with the electronic soundtrack to fill the void and silence of space.
Should you wish to take a break from the main story, there’s a huge galaxy out there to explore, offering plenty of sectors, points of interest, and side missions to tackle for extra credits. Many of these will appear while you’re travelling from one location to the next, and can be reached easily by dropping autopilot and selecting the newly revealed point of interest. These missions and POIs tend to hide some great loot, often defended by some dangerous foes, giving you plenty of reasons to take the scenic route rather than simply rushing from one story mission to the next.
Visually, Everspace 2 is a pretty impressive game, especially when you consider just how much is going on around you. Space can look fantastic, from the various environments and planets you’ll fly past, to the explosions and weapon effects that light up the screen when a battle kicks off. But thankfully, it’s not all just staring into the void of space. While much of your time is spent flying between planets, stations and asteroid fields, you’ll also get plenty of planetside missions that break things up and add a welcome change of scenery. These locations can feel like a real sea change from the darker expanse of space, with more varied environments to explore and plenty of detail packed into the world around you. It helps keep the visual experience from becoming too repetitive, and gives the game some much-needed variety as you’re moving between one location and the next. There’s also a nice amount of detail packed into the ships, stations and various locations you’ll visit throughout your journey, and I found myself occasionally stopping to take in the view rather than immediately rushing off to my next objective. It’s a big step up from the original Everspace visually, and while there are obviously going to be some compromises to get a game of this scale running on the Switch 2, I was genuinely impressed by how good it looks.
The game targets 30fps, and in my time playing, that framerate stayed consistently locked at 30. Even during some of the larger battles, where there’s plenty happening on screen, I didn’t notice any significant drops that took me out of the action. That’s not to say everything was completely perfect, though. I did have one or two battles where the audio briefly started to crunch, which was certainly noticeable when everything else was running so smoothly. Thankfully, these were isolated incidents and didn’t seem to have any lasting impact on the game. Outside of that, I didn’t run into any major bugs or crashes during my time with Everspace 2, making this a surprisingly polished experience on Switch 2.
For my freelancers looking into accessibility, there are a few options that can make your time in space more comfortable. These include visual options to disable motion blur, remove chromatic aberration, and disable lens flares. You can also isolate audio sources, toggle automatic rolling and boost behaviours, as well as slow time while selecting items and abilities. As always, I recommend further research into finding out if Everspace 2 suits your accessibility needs.
At just under $80 AUD, I think the price point may put off some people expecting a game similar to the first who don’t know entirely what they are in for… but there is plenty of content here to entertain. The main campaign will offer roughly 30 hours of action, while the two expansion packs add even more to the package. Titans can add another 4 to 6 hours of content, while Wrath of the Ancients brings over 10 hours of new story and side quests to the table. That means you’re looking at well over 40 hours of story-focused content before you even start taking into account the huge amount of side content, exploration, loot hunting, challenges, and everything else there is to discover across the galaxy.
Everspace 2 shadow dropping was a really pleasant surprise, both in terms of the package on offer and the departure from the original game. Sure, there may be some pacing issues where puzzle-based missions can’t quite live up to their more action-orientated counterparts, but they do little to take away from this adventure. The RPG and looter-shooter mechanics mean every engagement holds the possibility to be faster, better, or stronger. If you’re coming to Everspace 2 expecting another roguelike experience like the original, you may be surprised by just how much has changed, but if you’re willing to embrace that change, there’s a lot to like here.
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