EVERSPACE 2: An Indie Triumph

Over the course of the last few years, games big and small have ventured out into the infinite darkness of space. Whether that focus is on getting there, moving through it, escaping it, or building within it, space has always been a clean slate that inventive developers can use to create their own stories and create a narrative that—from top to bottom—embodies everything that video games have been trying to be for the last four decades.

Between the horrors of Dead Space, the exploration of No Man’s Sky, and the RPG wackiness of The Outer Worlds, games centred around space have been some of the most unique experiences in gaming. With titles like Starfield and Homeworld 3 around the corner, it doesn’t appear the space race is slowing down.

While most of those are experiences from gigantic studios with tons of manpower, sometimes the indie space dives in with the juggernauts of the industry, and they put the love and care into their titles as necessary to make something exceptional and wholly unique. EVERSPACE 2 is one of those games, featuring some of the best space flight combat available. Whether you’re someone who grew up with titles like Star Fox or simply saw Luke take down the Death Star and wanted to follow suit, EVERSPACE 2 looks to give players ground-breaking experiences—all from the pilot’s chair.

Boasting over 5,000 reviews in Early Access with a “Very Positive” rating and over 2 million views on its early access trailer, developer ROCKFISH Games is making some noise in the industry with the upcoming full release right around the corner. As the team looks to build on the success of the first release with this sequel, EVERSPACE 2 is crediting fans with making it very clear when they’re missing something, and the demand for thrilling space shooters of old allowed the team at ROCKFISH to fill that void and gamers all over jumped in.

“EVERSPACE 2 looks to give players ground-breaking experiences—all from the pilot’s chair.”

“We kicked off 2023 with release date news for the PC launch of EVERSPACE 2, and our community was gushing all over the story trailer, clocking four million views across Twitter and YouTube, which is incredible,” CEO and co-founder of ROCKFISH Games, Michael Schade, stated while discussing the games upcoming release.

“As fans of space shooters as far back as the original Wing Commander and Freelancer, it’s amazing to see that the genre is seeing a resurgence, and it’s incredible to be a part of it. With the console launch later this year, a massive free update coming soon after, and our next big expansion, we’ve got a lot of work to do, but with our fantastic team full of fresh ideas, I’m space-pumped for the future.”

“EVERSPACE 2 is the game we wanted to make when we first started ROCKFISH Games,” Schade stated while discussing the changes from the first EVERSPACE release to the sequel. “With the first game, we turned to roguelike mechanics to save on development costs and timelines, but Adam’s story as a clone really captured us. As we moved to more of an open-world action RPG, we continued to explore what it means to be a clone in a galaxy full of human and alien kind.”

As an indie success story, EVERSPACE as a franchise is growing and expanding, with tons of support from fans, as well as the German government, who is offering a grant to the development team to continue working on this ambitious project.

“As the majority of the development team polishes for our 1.0 release, our creative team has already started work concepting what’s to come,” Schade mentioned while talking about the future for ROCKFISH Games. “We recently received a 1.65 million Euro grant from the German government, supporting the creation of a massive post-launch expansion which we’re aiming to release in mid-2024. Much of Cluster 34 remains unexplored, and there are many stories left to tell as tensions run high between corporations like G&B, Colonial troops, the Okkar, and many regional overlords.”

While the future looks bright for this fast-paced, single-player space shooter, EVERSPACE 2 looks to offer players dozens of hours of fun while taking them through different war-torn star systems with so much content to experience and explore. Dangers await in every corner of the universe—level up, mine, craft, and loot better gear to survive on the edge of space.

EVERSPACE 2 will launch on PC platforms on April 6th, 2023. A console release on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 is planned for Summer 2023. EVERSPACE 2 is currently in PC Game Pass Game Preview and will continue on the service with the full title after launch.