A (hopefully) constructive criticism about Everspace 2.

[Gochisosama]

Alright, so i finally made the jump and tried out the game.
It is a long read, i know that most people on these forums won't bother reading the whole thing. It is primarily intended to be a feedback for the Devs.
I played it up to level 10. I went up to the Medic chick part of the story found in the container destined to save the main character's friend. I couldn't really play it past that point, and i'm going to explain why later in this post.
The machine i played the game on is a i9 9900k, RTX2080ti, 16Gig of ram @3600, evo SSD, 4k Acer Predator screen. Even though my screen supports 4k, the recuring performance issues i was having forced me to go down in resolution to 1440p.

I mostly didn't enjoy the game more than i enjoyed it. It is not a clear cut though, i have mixed feelings about many aspects, i'm going to try to go into details as much as i can, but keep in mind that English is not my first language. I'll try to convey my thoughts the best i can.
Another important thing : PLEASE DON'T TURN THIS THREAD INTO A FLAME WARS, THANK YOU. It is just my personal opinion about the experience i had while playing Everspace 2, and i'm just here to let the Devs know what i think about their game, and why, in a constructive manner.


- What i liked about the game:
It is graphically pleasing, that's the first thing that catches the eye obviously. The ships are well designed and show "personality" (not the starting ship though, but the other ones that you can find at the ship dealer). They move smoothly, and control well.
There are a plethora of weapons to choose from, the randomized loots ala Diablo help in that regard. There are light RPG elements that bring a welcome bit (a tiny bit though) of complexity to the game, such as the perks that are unlocked every 5 levels for the main character and other perks that are unlocked by gathering mats for other important characters. The game seems to have a lot to offer in terms of content (though with not a lot of variety), there are many "maps" to visit. (the world is not seemless, you hyperspace travel between maps, essentially)
The super ability that can be built up and then used in tricky situations is also interesting and nice to have.
The tactical aspect that forces the player to use 2 kinds of damage (kinetic and energy, if i recall) in order to damage and ultimately kill enemy ships is also a nice and well thought addition.
The UI is very well designed and intuitive, the menus are expertly crafted and they are easy to navigate through. Speaking of crafting, the crafting in this game is ok. It is a nice touch for sure, but not one that i find game changing, mandatory or life saving by any stretch.
Mouse and keyboard work well with this game, though i'm sure that the ultimate way to experience it is with one of those joysticks that cost a fortune. (i used to have one of those to play Freelancer, back in the days, and it was great)
The small puzzles where you have to find energy cells, then unlock a door in a derelict ship in order to access a container were nice. I wouldn't call them great, but they did their job.


- What i didn't like about the game:
I first intended to play the game with a gamepad, but i soon found out that it would be impossible. The base layout wasn't working at all for me and trying to remap the controls in the menu didn't work. More specifically, it was trusters up and down that i couldn't remap. A bug most likely. I'm well aware that the game is still in development however, so this bit doesn't really count towards what i didn't like, but i'm still pointing it out to let the devs know that it's there.

The story is barely serviceable. There is no character development like you would have in any RPG worth its grain of salt. I didn't really care about any of the characters at any point of the story. There is no real twist or other infamous tropes that would make me jump out of my seat and scream "What the hell?!!!" in a mixed feeling of surprise, shock and satisfaction. Moreover, i couldn't shake the feeling that the very light story was just there as an excuse to justify all the flying around and grinding. It never at any time came through and stood on its own 2 legs as a distinctive and remarkable part of the game. It was just there as a support for the missions. Collect 2 of these, 10 of those essentially and here is why you need to do it so that you remember the reason why you're still flying this ship if you feel bored. In fact, the story in this game functions more like it does in a hack n' slash such as Diablo rather than in a true RPG. However, if you look at a game like Diablo, there are many people that are extremely fond of the lore and could spend hours talking about it. Well, it's not gonna happen with Everspace 2 i feel, as everything story related (characters, events, etc) are all extremely forgettable.

The music... Gosh the music. I found it to be extremely generic and uninspired. Bland is another epithet that comes to mind. I really didn't like it at all. It is my personal opinion that for a game like this, a more sophisticated musical composition would definitely help give the game personality. It would give the game its own print, something that players would hum at work, or while cooking, etc. It would give it prestige in a way. That's how i feel. And the current music is very very VERY far from that.
The voice acting isn't great, but it isn't terrible either. I didn't find it remarkable.

A lot of the weapons implemented so far are similar. A lot of the time, you think you found a great new toy to play with, only to find out that it's nearly the same as the 3 or 4 other weapon modules with a different name that you already have sitting in the inventory, waiting to be dismantled.
... And this leads me to loots in general and inventory space. There are SO MANY loots and so LITTLE space, that inventory management becomes an absolute chore. Much more than it needs to be. So much so, in fact, that i had to buy the tankiest ship at the ship dealer mainly because it seemed to have the largest cargo space (compared to the other medium class ships available for sale). Its cargo space was definitely much larger than the starting ship anyway. But it didn't really help for long, as i found myself tearing my hair out again because of loot juggling and inventory management.
Now, i know for a fact that inventory management is something to be expected in anything RPG related, but this game doesn't have town portals like you would find in Diablo, there's no QoL feature here that you can turn to to quickly and easily sell all the garbage pilled up in the cargo bay. And the constant back and forths between whatever map your're in and the home base take a lot of time. A LOT OF TIME. It ends up being extremely tedious, and tiring.

The actual fighting now. By fighting, i mean the dog fights of course. To me, it got old extremely fast and became extremely boring. Here is why: the enemy fighters in this game have a way of flying around that truly defies all laws of physics. Think of it as a difference in maneuverability between a Tie fighter and an X-Wing multiplied by 100.
Those enemy fighters in Everspace 2, the way they switch their trajectories all the time, it makes up for fights that never end (or at least last much longer than they should) if they have enough shield and armor. The problem is that you also encounter those guys by groups of 3 or 4. While you're trying to chase one of them down and kill him, you've got the other ones shooting at you with deadly accuracy, one using tractor beams, etc. That constant chasing after those slippery bastards was extremely tedious. So i finally found a way to exploit the game and kill them before they could do anything, which also contributed to bore me of the combat: i started using a Rail Gun module that would allow me to shoot my targets from up to 3500m away. At that distance, they couldn't do anything at all. And most importantly, they couldn't zigzagzog all the time!
Step N°1, stand at a 3500m distance and start spamming the Rail Gun, Step N°2, keep pressing backward + afterburners so that they can never catch up. Step N°3, if you have the Mines module for the secondary weapon, then also shoot mines at the same time you're fast moving backward while spamming the Rail Run. That's how i ended up managing everything combat related in this game. The weapon was powerful enough that i didn't need to care about the kinetic / energy tactical aspect anymore. The Rail Gun was destroying every part of their life gauge anyway (shields, plating and hull), and they were too dumb to try and avoid the mines while trying to catch up with me.
Needless to say, it also completely killed the core gameplay of Everspace 2 for me, but at least i wasn't turning crazy trying to chase down enemy ships that were switching trajectories every second.

The locales now. During my experience playing the game, 99% of the places i visited were "maps" filled with asteroid fields and derelict ships. Ok, i get it, dog fighting in an asteroid field (if you can pull it off successfully) is extremely cool, but i would have hoped for a bit more variety. There was that planet i visited where i found the ship dealer, and it really was a nice change, but the planet surface available for exploration was somewhat small. So aside from that one planet, it was all very monochrome and linear. Maps after maps after maps after maps were filled with the same grey asteroids and the occasional ship wreck, and i finally reached a point where i just couldn't do it anymore. When i was hyperspace traveling and a new 'undiscored location' popped up, i knew what kind of place it would be and i truly just had completely lost interest at that point. So i didn't even bother anymore.

Another thing that impacted me personally (compared to most other players i presume) is the nauseating feeling that i had when playing the game for too long. I suspect it was some sort of motion sickness. It was the same feeling than when you're trying to read a book or when you're screwing with your phone while riding a car. There's that point where it's gonna make you want to throw up. That's what happened for me. I could only play it for short sessions, least i started to feel nauseous.
It happened very rarely in my gaming experience so far (30 years of playing video games), but when it did, it ALWAYS was with shooters, but then again, it's not with every shooter. It's only a few of them. Again, it's very rare, but Everspace did make me feel nauseous. I didn't feel that sickness though when i played games like Freelancer, or Macross titles (3D frantic space shooting), or FPS games such as Doom or Wolfenstein.
I suspect only a few people will be impacted by this, but i'm letting you know.

The grind to collect money and raise my levels was also tedious. The inventory management issues i mentionned above coupled with the never ending back and forths to the base certainly didn't help at all. And because the story was so forgetable and lackluster, i reached a point where i couldn't find any justification to collect whatever i needed, or to grind my levels.

A major issue that i was anticipating also happened. During my time with the game in its current state, i totally burned its replayability to the point where i really don't think i'll be coming back for the full release. Unless some dramatic changes happen with the gameplay or the game structure, i'm pretty sure that i've seen all i needed to see here.
If the story was engaging, or if the characters development was memorable, i probably would have liked to come back to know what would happen, but again, the story wasn't cutting it at all for me.
It's just about flying ships in distorted circles until the enemies drive you crazy, and managing a never ending flux of loots, the vast majority of them being useless in an inventory space that is so small that it turns into a painful chore. And this right here, amounts to about 90% of the gameplay. (the rest of it being puzzle solving, exploring similar asteroid fields...., pressing F to operate puzzle items, and hyperspace traveling between maps)
Even the great moment that i had when i got my new ship at the ship dealer faded away quite fast actually when i had to resume combat and loot management.

Perhaps if you implement some sort of super space combat scenario (kind of like the Death Star assult in RotJ), with massive capital ships, changing objectives during the combat, or some escort missions, or anything that brings some kind of variety in the gameplay, it's possible that i will reinstall the game and try to get to that point to experience it.


-Final thoughts:
A lot of people describe Everspace 2 as a shooter RPG with randomized loots, but it's actually closer to a hack n' slash (very light RPG elements) with some light action adventure elements (different weapons, a super attack, mini puzzles, a few perks).
The problem is, if you're making a game which is mainly that, a hack n' slash (though the game is lacking a never ending tsunami of enemies to be truly considered a hack n' slash, but you get my point), where the player is gonna repeat the same actions over and over and OVER, you need to make sure that the few core aspects of what constitute the game are all rock solid.
If you decide to have story elements, sure, it's welcome, but it needs to be good and enticing. The characters need to be likable, or at least, they need to be developped in such a way that we can relate to them and feel for what's happening to them. This is not the case at all here.
The music, if you have to listen to it for dozens of hours, needs to be good enough that you enjoy it and never want to turn it off. Again, for me that is not the case here either.
The core elements of the gameplay, the fighting / grinding and inventory management need some improvements too in my opinion. Without a good story to support that gameplay and keep us engaged, it all crumbles... mainly because of a lack of QoL features that would make all the repetition more bearable.

overall, it was an interesting experience nonetheless. I truly wish i could have enjoyed the game more. I really wanted to, but the points that i listed here prevented me from doing so.
I can't say i'll be returning to Everyspace 2 to play some more, if it mostly stays as it is now. Like i said, i think i exhausted its replayability down to 0, and it's regretable that it happened in the context of an Early Access, where the game isn't half complete yet.
This experience won't lead me to try other games in Early Access. After all, you can only play a game for so long, and if a game only has 20 or 30 hours worth of gameplay in it, i might as well try to enjoy it in its complete state.
It won't stop me from supporting Indy projects however (i supported Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2, and couple others), i think it's a great way to give truly creative people who truly give a sh!t about gaming an opportunity to shine and to make a living, and i fully support that. This being said, from now on, i'll wait until the game is done before i start playing.

I know it was a long post. If you managed to read this wall of text all the way down to this point, congratz, you earned a medal!

To the devs : even though i couldn't enjoy Everspace 2 as much as i wanted to, i do recognize the fact that you're putting your heart and soul into this project. I wish you the best of luck and a lot of success. I can see that a lot of people are really enjoying this game fully, and i want to believe that it will be well received by the press and the public when it finally gets released.

/cheers.

[briantherunner]

I did manage to read the whole thing and I am sure the developers will appreciate the detailed feedback and you do raise some good points. Many of the Quality of Life (QoL) points have been discussed in other threads. The railgun/mine exploit has been discussed quite a bit already too. There are some more interesting locales you missed out on by not getting past the doctor quest, since the game opens up after the first sector which is more of a tutorial.

I am sorry that the game made you feel physically sick/nauseous since that really sucks, but sounds like this happens to you in certain games. It sounds like you probably should wait to come back at the full release and keep the playtime down if it makes you feel sick since I think you will probably enjoy the complete game more as Early Access doesn't seem to be for you.

[Gochisosama]

Originally posted by briantherunner:

There are some more interesting locales you missed out on by not getting past the doctor quest, since the game opens up after the first sector which is more of a tutorial.

Perhaps i'll wait a few weeks to try to get back into it and push past that point, if it truly brings new and interesting places to visit. I'll see if the interest is still there, and most importantly if i can power through the grind and inventory management.
Thanks for letting me know.

[Friends with Benedicts]

Just a heads up on the story: they won't release the full version until 1.0 AFAIK. Many things will come on EA, but they'll purposely hold the story till 1.0.

[Handbanana]

If you feel sick while playing maybe turn off motion blur to start. It might help. Also adjust your FOV until you feel comfortable.

[Gochisosama]

Originally posted by Friends with Benedicts:

Just a heads up on the story: they won't release the full version until 1.0 AFAIK. Many things will come on EA, but they'll purposely hold the story till 1.0.

Hmmm, ok, i'll keep this in mind. I still think however, that the characters could use better writting, and the story a more elaborate and sophisticated plot.

[Khoren]

For the performance you should reduce certain options like shadows, ssgi and especially volumetrics, because these burn performance.

Edit: And I have to disagree in terms of weapons, if you find them to be all similar then you didn't really use them, because there are apart from maybe 1 no similar weapons and they all play and behave differently.

[DOGDOG]

try fighting with stabelizers off (b-key). it opens up and makes the combat more fun.
but i know what you mean the AI manuvers too quick and unrealistic

[Handbanana]

Originally posted by Gochisosama:

Originally posted by Friends with Benedicts:

Just a heads up on the story: they won't release the full version until 1.0 AFAIK. Many things will come on EA, but they'll purposely hold the story till 1.0.

Hmmm, ok, i'll keep this in mind. I still think however, that the characters could use better writting, and the story a more elaborate and sophisticated plot.

You don't even know what the plot is. Its not in the game yet. The cutscenes are all place holders. At best you get a general idea of where adam is and what he kinda has been doing since the first game. You have no idea what the total story will be. You are basically complaining that you don't like the plot of the tutorial.

[Holombo]

Originally posted by Gochisosama:

Another thing that impacted me personally (compared to most other players i presume) is the nauseating feeling that i had when playing the game for too long. I suspect it was some sort of motion sickness. It was the same feeling than when you're trying to read a book or when you're screwing with your phone while riding a car. There's that point where it's gonna make you want to throw up. That's what happened for me. I could only play it for short sessions, least i started to feel nauseous.
It happened very rarely in my gaming experience so far (30 years of playing video games), but when it did, it ALWAYS was with shooters, but then again, it's not with every shooter. It's only a few of them. Again, it's very rare, but Everspace did make me feel nauseous. I didn't feel that sickness though when i played games like Freelancer, or Macross titles (3D frantic space shooting), or FPS games such as Doom or Wolfenstein.
I suspect only a few people will be impacted by this, but i'm letting you know.

I also feel like throwing up when trying to read a book, books are godforsaken and created the WORLD WARS. Or maybe it is the boredom I feel when trying to hold and read one. Anyway books are depressing.

Maybe it can be the amount of blue lights in the game? Blue lights can trigger nauseating feelings. Blue light can cause headaches and migraines. Everspace seem to use alot of blue light rendered environments, blue neony spacy blue light. Try turning blue lights off in night light settings in windows.

This criticism was long like a book but better than a book, it didn't leave that depressing nauseating feeling lingering like a hook in the end of my spline.

[Spaaaaace!]

i somewhat agree with you. story is not the top aspect of the game. i really like the high risk areas. which is fighting for life and death because other sectors arent a real threat to me. its what is the best at what i takes from ES1. the different enemys and ways to approach them but sadly in ES2. (atleast in Ceto) enemys are quite dumb. its either shooting non guided rockets at on coming targets. or just a cluster ♥♥♥♥ of enemies having all aggro at the same time. even the weakspots of destroyers dont give any feedback. when hitting them.
for inventory management its doing 4-5 missions disassembling all weapons and utility equipment before going back to base but my route often ended there so it was no big deal. when ignoring the unknown signals in jump space. but otherwise it would be a real hassle.
when u get to union there is a perk u can invest in, to send back cargo to your base
crafting only came in handy once or twice for me. Once for a new set of 200 rockets and once trying out a new weapon.

[Friends with Benedicts]

Originally posted by The Funky Pulverpolizist:

Probably the bad side of playing EA-Games. As much as it helps the Devs, you have reminded me why i dislike this Concept.
But i found this long read very informative as/for a E1 Player.

If what you're calling "the bad side" is the fact that Early Access games are incomplete then it only means you're not someone who enjoys supporting EA titles, which is completely fine. Some people don't like the idea of supporting the devs and receiving a copy early on at discount price, and I understand that happens mainly due to most of the devs not delivering promises, lying about the game's development, not addressing the customers complaints and downright scamming people into more money, or breaking promises like going epic exclusive out of the blue.

BUT I feel the need to point that:

1. Rockfish has already done a successful EA title, the first of the franchise. While I didn't participate in the EA process, what I heard from people who did is that it was a success.

2. Rockfish is extremely communicative, they try to answer everything they can and they don't lie about it. Which brings me to...

3. They're honest about what is being done, what is intended to be done, what they don't plan to do right now and what they think it'll never be done.

4. The game is extremely well polished and bug free if compared to any day 1 EA I've ever came across. Seriously, if this was the bar for all the others, you wouldn't be so wary of EA titles. Unfortunately it isn't.

All these key elements could be called "green flags", and show that this is not your average EA title. While indeed the game is not finished, I find it unfair when people compare this work to other EA games that have much less of all key elements I pointed out above.

I apologize if it wasn't your intention to put ES2 in the same category as other EA titles, but if it was, you're simply wrong about it.

Again, I reiterate I completely support you not buying the game because of its unfinished state, but if possible don't label ES2 as any other EA title out there.

[teflonhotpocket]

More mission types is some thing game desperately needs. Escort missions, Racing through structures and caves against the clock, Mega bosses, Maybe some sorta squad battles where you are the front line and have a large fleet of NPCs fighting along side you, maybe some missions where you need to fly along a path on planet and blow up ground forces of tanks and turrets... as is everything is just a tiny bubble with a central fixture that you interact with. Devs need to think outside of the spherical sky box and think more in line with a race track, I'm in a space ship, I wanna go fast, I wanna weave and dodge and blow ♥♥♥♥ up at high speeds, can't really do that in a bubble. The sphere is fine for what it is, but it gets old and tedious when it's the only situation you'll deal with, the game has serious lack of diversity in that regard.

[Sparhawk122]

To sum up your issues.

You are not suited to Early Access. As it appears you expected a complete product with the fully fleshed out plot and optimised for all hardware.

Early Access is never any of the things you wanted. Not even closed betas just before a triple A game release...

[Gochisosama]

Originally posted by Sparhawk122:

To sum up your issues.

You are not suited to Early Access. As it appears you expected a complete product with the fully fleshed out plot and optimised for all hardware.

Early Access is never any of the things you wanted. Not even closed betas just before a triple A game release...

I totally didn't expect a finished product at all. I was well aware of what i was getting into: a game still in development prone to be buggy and incomplete in many aspects.
Asides from the bits i mentioned that i didn't enjoy, one of the main issues i had is that i exhausted its replayability.
Obviously, replayability in any game is not a number that everyone can agree on. Some people will find 30 hours of gameplay before they lose interest, some others will find only 10. I believe it's a blend of how much content, variety and quality the devs put into a game against how much interest a player can have for the game. You combine the 2, and it gives you more or less the amount of time a player is going to spend playing it.

For me, it was about 12 or 13 hours. Again, i do know that the game isn't finished and the Devs are going to implement additional things, but i think i've seen everything the core gameplay is about. And to me, it's either flawed in too many ways, or lacking.
Again, if the Devs make some interesting changes, i'll reinstall the game and try to rekindle the flame, so to speak. If not, i'll just move to something else.

Exhausting a game's replayability in the context of an Early Access, where the game is far from being complete, is something that bothered me. I didn't want it to happen, but that's how it turned out to be. In this sense, yes i'm not suited for Early Access. I might as well wait until the game is done and released so that i can truly enjoy it the way it's meant to.

[Gochisosama]

Originally posted by teflonhotpocket:

More mission types is some thing game desperately needs. Escort missions, Racing through structures and caves against the clock, Mega bosses, Maybe some sorta squad battles where you are the front line and have a large fleet of NPCs fighting along side you, maybe some missions where you need to fly along a path on planet and blow up ground forces of tanks and turrets... as is everything is just a tiny bubble with a central fixture that you interact with. Devs need to think outside of the spherical sky box and think more in line with a race track, I'm in a space ship, I wanna go fast, I wanna weave and dodge and blow ♥♥♥♥ up at high speeds, can't really do that in a bubble. The sphere is fine for what it is, but it gets old and tedious when it's the only situation you'll deal with, the game has serious lack of diversity in that regard.

This, is exactly what i meant about variety and additional content.
Thanks for your contribution.