EVERSPACE

 PlayStation 4
User Score
6.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 34 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 34
  3. Negative: 9 out of 34
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  1. AnimalMother
    Jul 27, 2018
    9
    The best roguelike I've played in a long time!

    Gorgeous graphics, some of the environments are spectacular. One moment that was particularly awe-inspiring was when I warp-jumped dangerously close to a star, my whole view dominated by it's undulating, apocalyptic surface; unfortunately I had no time to admire the view as my ships systems started to progressively malfunction from the    The best roguelike I've played in a long time!

    Gorgeous graphics, some of the environments are spectacular. One moment that was particularly awe-inspiring was when I warp-jumped dangerously close to a star, my whole view dominated by it's undulating, apocalyptic surface; unfortunately I had no time to admire the view as my ships systems started to progressively malfunction from the heat.

    The developers have really captured the danger inherent to space exploration with numerous kinds of natural hazards that can really change the dynamic of an environment. Some of them I only encountered once in 40+ hours of play, like the aforementioned warp-jump into a star.

    The narrative is very flimsy, essentially just a contrivance to frame the gameplay. Fortunately the gameplay itself is fantastic, with a huge amount of content to explore and secrets to uncover. There are 24 primary weapons, but there are a huge range of modifications that can be used to tailor them to suit your play style. Coupled with 4 different ships, myriad secondary weapons, devices (both active and passive) and consumables you really can play the game however you want. From a sneaky cloaked scout that snipes enemies from afar, to a turreted heavily armoured gunship that charges into the midst of enemy formations, there is as much variety in ship specification and loadout as you would expect from a deep RPG.

    Initially the controls felt a bit awkward, but after a few hours of play I genuinely feel that these are the best 3-axis spaceship controls I have ever experienced. It feels so natural zipping around asteroids and boosting into a roll to avoid a missile. Movement is key to surviving your encounters, especially with larger ships, so it's important that the controls feel intuitive.

    Like all rougelikes there is a degree of repetition, I would say the game is at it's best when you only play it for a few hours a day, although it can absolutely be addicting if a run is going well. The learning curve isn't especially steep if you play cautiously, but half of the fun is taking risks in order to potentially find that elite enhanced weapon or ancient glyph. There is almost always a temptation to push your luck just that little bit further, sometimes with disastrous results; anyone who enjoys rouguelikes will know that this is an essential aspect of the genre.

    It took me 40+ hours to complete the game and get the 'true' ending, I took my time and explored thoroughly, experimenting with different play styles and loadouts. Ironically after 35 hours of play and after settling into what I expected to be my end-game ship configuration, loot preference etc I stumbled on to whole new way to play the game. Not only did this end up being more fun than anything I had experienced before, but it also completely changed the way i approached every obstacle! This game always has something new to discover, as long as you are willing to experiment.    … Expand
  2. tomvs123
    Sep 9, 2019
    5
    Everspace is an alright rogue-like arcadey space combat game, but offers very little in terms of a compelling story, ship management, or variety. It's essentially an action-based dumbed-down FTL.

    Like in FTL, you're going from sector to sector where you gather materials, fight, or participate in events. Most locations have a time limit, where if you don't jump out, you'll be attacked by    Everspace is an alright rogue-like arcadey space combat game, but offers very little in terms of a compelling story, ship management, or variety. It's essentially an action-based dumbed-down FTL.

    Like in FTL, you're going from sector to sector where you gather materials, fight, or participate in events. Most locations have a time limit, where if you don't jump out, you'll be attacked by the enemy fleet. Unlike FTL, there's no good reason why or how this fleet is tracking you, so it seems to be put in just to imitate FTL, or to possibly cover up how empty some of the locations are.

    The story is serviceable and provides a basic excuse to go though the same sectors over and to continue retrying after you've died. Your primary goal is to get to sector 7. The story expands from there, and you get a cut scene for each new sector you reach.

    The game is based around getting as far as you can, dying, and spending the money you earned on new ships (only 4 ships) and passive upgrades. After 10-15 runs for upgrades, I eventually got to sector 7, where I got a story reason to repeat going to sector 7 over and over. This would be okay if there was more variety in the game.

    Combat is good overall, but is lacking enemy variety and their AI is easily exploitable. Enemies can't anticipate you moving in curves or circles, so you can avoid 99% of all damage if you just move in circles during combat. So if you want to take on an overpowered battleship with a weak weapon, it's no problem: Just shoot at it for 10 minutes while you move in circles.

    The only difficulty I had in combat was enemies coming at me from multiple directions. I normally resolved this by boosting out to get all enemies on one side of me. Boosting is a pain because it requires holding down either R3 or L3 (can't be changed). Holding either of those buttons is hard on your carpel tunnel, so if you've got issues there, you'll need to take breaks often. Also, boosting is the best way to get to the various resources in a section, so you'll be using it a lot out-of-battle.

    Ship upgrades between runs aren't very interesting. They consist of things like more hit points, increased energy (needed for weapons), and more money gained. You'll eventually upgrade them all. There's 20 or so primary weapons in the game, but only a few are worth using. You'll find one that works well in most situations and likely use it throughout the run. Secondary weapons are primarily missiles. There's only a few good ones here too, and they're typically only useful when surrounded.

    There's drones in the game, though they're hard to find/create and they don't last long since enemies always attack them first. I primarily used them as decoys.

    As for other things to do, there's upgrade shops, traders, raw materials, locked chests, and events. Raw material gathering isn't very fun. You basically find a rock, shoot at it, and materials pop out. Use materials to trade for other materials (at traders), or to upgrade/create weapons. For locked chests and doors, you must find a key dropped by an elite enemy. Finding one is much harder than killing them, but when you do, you get a one-time key for opening locked things, which yield better-than average weapons and items.

    There's a variety of rare bonuses and blueprints (for weapon/item creation), but it will take a lot of grinding to find them all, and they aren't necessary to beat the game. There's other items you can find and use, but they're not interesting enough to mention here.

    The events in the game are interesting, but they're available only as DLC or with the complete edition. They consist of about 5 different people who you can find randomly. You do quests for them, such as scanning life forms, killing outlaws, or collecting items. If you complete all of a person's events, you normally get something useful, such as having that person randomly jump in to help you fight.

    All of the above might seem like a lot, but it got old for me quick. My gameplay sessions consisted of going to a sector, killing all enemies, collecting as much materials as I could, and then jumping out when the enemy fleet was about to jump in. Repeat that about 25 times to get to the end (if you survive). And if I was lucky, I'd get an event or a battleship to fight (for 10 minutes in circles) to break up the monotony. Well, at least looking at the pretty planets and ring systems was okay..

    After nearly fully upgrading one ship, getting to sector 7 and seeing that the game wants me to do the same thing over and over to unlock the last bit of story content, I've decided that it's not worth irritating my carpel tunnel even more and will move on to the next game.    … Expand
  3. Ldt1
    Jun 23, 2019
    9
    Wanting something unique to play and being a cosmology/ universe nut lol my brother picked this up, first thing is this game is jaw dropping beautiful, it looks ridiculously good in 4k, the lighting effects and little details with everything is amazing, the controls are tight and work really well in the fast paced dogfights, the default control scheme is a little weird but u can configureWanting something unique to play and being a cosmology/ universe nut lol my brother picked this up, first thing is this game is jaw dropping beautiful, it looks ridiculously good in 4k, the lighting effects and little details with everything is amazing, the controls are tight and work really well in the fast paced dogfights, the default control scheme is a little weird but u can configure whatever buttons you want on ps4 through accessibility/ custom button layout so that isn't a problem, i love the unique missions/ npcs they have added, and really like the resource gathering/ crafting side of things, i spend hours scouring the environments, you get so far with your setup, fail then get to use the credits/ blueprints you collected for upgrades, to then try again, in a rougelike playstyle, to see if you can get further and uncover more of the story. i have been desperate to find an original / unique title to play recently and found it with this, it literally puts to shame some of the so called aaa titles that have come out recently considering the little developer this came from, this isn't just a shallow shooter, if you are looking for something original/ different then this is worth a look, great job by rockfish… Expand
  4. Rbox
    May 19, 2019
    3
    If you'd look up "grindfest" in, well, anything, you should see Everspace written allover. Because that's what it is. A tedious and enervating grind. From start to finish. Not that you will reach the finish. Ever. At first I thought it was me who was just bad at this game. But after dying numerous times, I'm certain it's the game that is broken. Now the idea of the game is that you shouldIf you'd look up "grindfest" in, well, anything, you should see Everspace written allover. Because that's what it is. A tedious and enervating grind. From start to finish. Not that you will reach the finish. Ever. At first I thought it was me who was just bad at this game. But after dying numerous times, I'm certain it's the game that is broken. Now the idea of the game is that you should die plenty and often and that whatever little progress you made is carried over to your next spaceship. But that progress is negligible and you never get anywhere near a decent build. And the actions you take/perform are always the same. So those characteristics combined make it a very tedious grindfest that does not get you anywhere. Gameplay is a little more elaborate than what I've written here, but not much. The game is pretty, but in a sparse way. I wanted to like this game so much, but I cannot recommend this to anyone.… Expand
  5. Cells_R_Dead
    Aug 7, 2018
    7
    I love space sims or shooters. And Everspace made me curious how good of a shooter it could be both in the sim, action and not to mention loot department. And I did not get disappointed. However. This is a so called Rouge-elite-esque game. So that excitement did not last very long. Its a beautiful shooter with great graphics and fluidity. However i am a completion-ist as i love to exploreI love space sims or shooters. And Everspace made me curious how good of a shooter it could be both in the sim, action and not to mention loot department. And I did not get disappointed. However. This is a so called Rouge-elite-esque game. So that excitement did not last very long. Its a beautiful shooter with great graphics and fluidity. However i am a completion-ist as i love to explore and upgrade and buy stuff. And in Everspace you can do it all. But when you die its back to square one. It's a real shame. I can't imagine how developers want to tank their own games so hard. Cause if i were in their shoes i would think of the other guys as well. Sure go "Rouge" if you want but let the other guys have their fun as well. Give us a exploration or action mode. Where you can buy and upgrade and all that stuff remain if you die. Disable achievements if you want. I do not care. That would keep the lifespan of the game so much longer. Just be able to kick of an hour or two. Blasting every ship in the sector and having fun. "Rouge" esque games are for the kind of person that have all the patience or time in the world. Not my cup of tea at all! And no No mans sky is nothing like this. This game has awesome action where it counts.… Expand
  6. steelgrey75
    Jul 29, 2018
    5
    The game has crashed on 3 separate occasions, each time corrupting my save file and all the hours I have spent upgrading. I’m sorry but my interest died completely the third time this happened. Starting from scratch for the fourth time is unacceptable. The game was starting to get old after a while to be honest, very repetitive, same enemies and things to do in most sectors, does get oldThe game has crashed on 3 separate occasions, each time corrupting my save file and all the hours I have spent upgrading. I’m sorry but my interest died completely the third time this happened. Starting from scratch for the fourth time is unacceptable. The game was starting to get old after a while to be honest, very repetitive, same enemies and things to do in most sectors, does get old very quickly. Unless they fix the game save corruption issue then my advice is 100% do not buy or prepare for total frustration… Expand
  7. Snyx
    Aug 1, 2018
    5
    The game looks nice and polished enough, but the controller scheme and button configuration feel odd and takes some getting used.
    Combat is unfair, you are underpowered and supposed to die, which sends you back to the home screen. There you can slowly level up your ship after each death with the credits you've amassed by shooting a few rocks and enemies before you watched your ship    The game looks nice and polished enough, but the controller scheme and button configuration feel odd and takes some getting used.
    Combat is unfair, you are underpowered and supposed to die, which sends you back to the home screen. There you can slowly level up your ship after each death with the credits you've amassed by shooting a few rocks and enemies before you watched your ship explode.
    You are then put back into some random space scenery and the cycle continues.

    This game is mediocre at best and left me with no real desire to play it again.    … Expand
  8. Mnobody
    Jul 26, 2020
    1
    A great game for neanderthals in between playing FIFA repeat-garbage and DarkSouls-it-must-be-good-cause-its hard genres. If you want monotony and difficulty, get outside and try deadlifting your daddy's pickup truck - at least then you'll get muscles and can have a chance to land a date rather than play this time vampire.
  9. Porcypine
    Jun 11, 2019
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The game loop is fly die loading screen buy meaningless upgrade repeat. Theres a very shallow story about unique clones. A very strange button format. It was a great idea for a game with stunning graphics but its just boring and repeative. The game also has a mocking attitude, actually numbering each ship with your total deaths and keeping track at the bottom of the upgrade screen. Super hard no deaths roguelike procedurally generated slop… Expand
  10. BubaMan
    Aug 29, 2019
    8
    Great space shooter with a cheesy but fun story - The graphics, sound and gameplay are spot on!
    The control takes a little getting used to (type C layout is best) but it doesn't take very long to acclimatise.
    Considering the game can be picked up for about a fiver (it's included in Game Pass), it's a whole lot of enjoyable gaming for the money... I just wish it had a VR mod because I    Great space shooter with a cheesy but fun story - The graphics, sound and gameplay are spot on!
    The control takes a little getting used to (type C layout is best) but it doesn't take very long to acclimatise.
    Considering the game can be picked up for about a fiver (it's included in Game Pass), it's a whole lot of enjoyable gaming for the money... I just wish it had a VR mod because I enjoy playing ES more than Eve Valkyrie!    … Expand
  11. CoreGamer1408
    Jan 17, 2020
    6
    I do have the stellar edition so I do have the content in full to game on. Hard to find space dog fighting games on console in general. PC gaming really owns in this department for sure.

    Ok the bad...Technically this game has poor optimization and performance. With really unplayable crappy frame rates at times, but I have seen worse on the PS4 with KCD. Oh wow I came across such a cheap    I do have the stellar edition so I do have the content in full to game on. Hard to find space dog fighting games on console in general. PC gaming really owns in this department for sure.

    Ok the bad...Technically this game has poor optimization and performance. With really unplayable crappy frame rates at times, but I have seen worse on the PS4 with KCD. Oh wow I came across such a cheap death mechanic no spoilers ha ha. You can have the same WTF face I had when it happens.

    Very pretty to look at full of beautiful colors and lighting. Rinse permadeath die repeat space dog fighting through mostly copy/paste scenarios. Collecting cash, resources, new weapons, tech and blue prints. Cash seems the most important after death to buy one of the roster of ships and/or pay for perks. The perks is what make the redo runs more interesting.

    I just thought initially wow a crappier live action take on FTL, but with far less to do and encounter. I zoned out of this one pretty quick due to the repetitive nature of the gameplay with crappy starting stuff. Then I picked it up again later. After I died a few times got better stuff end up loosing total track of time playing this one.

    The Permadeath in this game is not even annoying in this game. It is like oh wow I get to spend the cash on that failed run for better upgrades for the fresh next run and to pick up to three of the many available unlock-able boost buffs. Maybe I even try a new ship or give a ship a fresh coat of unlocked paint

    The overall low score is due to performance issues on the legacy PS4. Again another game like KCD that looks like it needs a PS5 tech upgrade just to run properly. Fun factor wise I'd give this a 8/10.    … Expand
  12. Yojimbo2015
    Jan 25, 2023
    6
    Although superficially looking like a grand space opera in the Elite mould, Everspace is actually a pretty shallow rogue-like shoot 'em up. Pretty to look at but little in the way of depth.
  13. Kinobesucher
    May 30, 2023
    9
    Mit eines der besten roguelike Titel die ich spielen durfte! Es spielt sich schnell, abwechslungsreich und vor allem motivierend, sodass man immer noch einen run versuchen will. Für ein Entwicklerteam, was gerade einmal 20 Personen Stark ist einfach eine wucht - zudem sieht es halt auch noch fabelhaft aus. Freu mich sehr auf den zweiten Teil!

Awards & Rankings

75
#75 Best PS4 Game of 2018

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 10 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 10
  3. Negative: 0 out of 10
  1. Video Chums
    Jun 10, 2018
    90
    Everspace does so much right. It has an engaging story and immersive visuals that make you feel like you're in a Star Wars film and combat that always keeps you on the edge of your seat because even the weakest enemies can overwhelm you.
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  2. PlayStation LifeStyle
    Jun 4, 2018
    80
    While I can’t help but feel I’d rather boot up Steam and play my PC copy, Everspace still occupies a meaningful spot on any PS4 hard drive. It’s enough of a roguelite as to give people a taste of the wild side while not offending their modern sensibilities, and fans of the genre will find great creativity in applying the dungeon-crawling formula to the backdrop of outer space.
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  3. DualShockers
    Jun 4, 2018
    80
    If you can get past Everspace’s few flaws, a game that merges the best parts of roguelikes and space shooters exposes itself. The game manages to stand on its own as a unique entity within both the above genres, so Everspace should have no problem finding an audience in the sea of modern roguelikes and space shooters.
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