Thoughts on Everspace

Everspace is a roguelike space-arcade from (literal) Hamburgers, led by Michael Schade and Christian Lohr under the "Rockfish" imprint. They didn't have much capital to create the game they wanted, so went early-access. The Star Citizen jokes wore out after the two 'burgers slapped it out of early-access, at which point I bought it.

...for an earlier machine. That one couldn't handle the framerates when I was, say, inside one of those polygon-rich abandoned crates. So I gave up on this game, still mired in sector-two, after being killed like sixty-five times. You'll be aware that I'd got a newer machine but this was not a better machine until recently.

Anyway: I've been enjoying the game since last June. I've got to further sectors, got introduced to some more of the lore; there are some events which still jank my screen but these are fewer now.

Everspace proper has a DLC, "Encounters"; and - lately - a sequel. So the game is popular.

One thing I notice after playing for awhile, both in getting-gud and getting more upgrades, is that I'll be getting through higher sectors so playing... longer. Runs through earlier sectors get a bit same-ey.

There's an artifact which allows to skip that first sector. This effectively makes a game a bit more difficult on account, although the first scene in sector-two will give you more fuel, you won't start with any other loot you might have got back there. A lot of artifacts have a give-and-take thing going on.

The experience changes with the Encounters DLC. The universe feels more crowded, at least the midsectors do, as you meet more characters with their own little sidequests. Kind of like how Starflight 2 presented a different experience than the lonely Starflight.

Is E1+E a better gaming experience than E1 alone...? If it unbalances the game, then it's a pay-to-win scam and we hate those. If it introduces lore you want for this game, it's a Zaeed scam. I can report at least that Encounters does not do this to us.

Still - I'm going with, "not at first". At first, you'll be going through the sectors, learning the lore, finding the new perils in the original game. But: as you keep going through sectors 1-4 over and over again, or maybe just 2-4: the mainline gets kind of boring. The Encounters DLC gives reasons to play through those sectors again; you might be doing something new this time.

Also this DLC is cheap now.

Get the Interceptor into Sector 7 and then put Encounters into the play, is my advice.