Independent AA developer ROCKFISH Games is excited to share that their final major Early Access update for EVERSPACE 2 is now live on Steam, GOG, and soon on the Microsoft Store. Titled Ancient Rifts, this update features a slice of endgame content, the debut of the long-awaited legendary items, new missions, a major level-scaling overhaul based on community feedback, and much more.
Much like in the original EVERSPACE, where players could increase the difficulty for each run and pick handicaps between sectors in Hardcore mode, they can now ramp up Lunacy before opening a rift and picking a portal with different modifiers leading to the next stage to define their individual challenge. Of course, bigger risks will yield greater rewards, like a higher legendary drop chance and better loot overall.
As a challenging endgame activity of a fast-paced space shooter, the team wants players to dive right into the battle with an optimized build and unleash mayhem on their enemies rather than camping behind an asteroid and picking one target after the other from a safe distance. So, in order not to be thrown out of the rift, pilots have to maintain their Resolve score in Ancient Rifts by defeating opponents rapidly and also keeping their hull integrity above zero.
While ROCKFISH Games is far from done with this first implementation, daring pilots can also engage with other exciting content in the Ancient Rifts update including overhauled racing events, new side missions in Union and Khaït Nebula, new jobs, new distress signals, new puzzles, and visual upgrades.
Ships are the key to the EVERSPACE 2 experience and the agency or expression of players so, of course, Rockfish also added some new features to play around with. The Bomber can now become the Titan and the Gunship the Dominator with a new wing set, and there are two new Outlaw units: the Raider and the Tormentor. A new device called Front Shield Generator also adds to the play-style variety, giving pilots three modes to work with. Avenger reflects shots back to attackers, All Day converts blocked damage into weapon energy, and On Your Left provides a smaller shield that automatically turns toward the closest enemy facing the player.
The Rockfish team took note of pilots who weren’t happy with level scaling, especially at the beginning of the game. It was a challenge to find a balance for those who like a tough challenge and those who want to feel powerful throughout, but the new system does just that. There are multiple layers to how the new system works but, instead of enemies leveling with players constantly within a given level range per star system, their progress will be attached to world progression. Be it player level, major plot points, or entering a new system, players will be able to level beyond their enemies to a degree. If certain conditions are met, previous game areas will level up in a way that will be reflected in the game’s lore.
EVERSPACE 2 is currently available in Early Access on Steam, GOG, and the Microsoft Store, and is planned to release on Xbox and PlayStation consoles when the full game is launched in early 2023
