There is something about space games that always pulls me in. My wife got me hooked on Star Trek, and ever since then I’ve had a soft spot for anything that lets me point a ship at something in the distance and just go there. Maybe it’s the idea of pretending you’re some kind of Han Solo, making bad decisions and somehow surviving them anyway, or maybe it’s simply because space is so ridiculously big. That size can also be a problem, though. A huge universe sounds impressive until you realise there needs to be something worth doing in it. EVERSPACE 2 handles that in a way I really like because it doesn’t try to turn into another Mass Effect. You stay in your ship, you fight, explore, loot, upgrade and keep moving. No long walks through futuristic cities, no endless conversations in a cantina. Your ship is basically your character, and once I started looking at the game that way, a lot of it clicked. Shall we jump in?
Welcome to space
Developed by Rockfish Games, EVERSPACE 2 builds on the foundation established by its predecessor, turning it into something considerably larger. What began as a more arcade-oriented space shooter has evolved into a full action RPG, combining space combat with exploration, loot, progression, crafting and a story-driven campaign. You play as Adam (ha), a clone and former military pilot whose life quickly becomes complicated. What begins as another assignment eventually pulls him into a much larger conflict, sending him across different star systems and bringing him into contact with a collection of factions and characters that gradually reveal just how much more is going on than initially meets the eye. I’m deliberately keeping the details vague here, because the story is at its best when it gets the opportunity to surprise you. Adam’s identity as a clone provides the narrative with an interesting foundation, allowing the game to explore questions about identity, individuality, and what it actually means to be a person. The story is also told through some genuinely beautiful painted cutscenes, which give the quieter moments a distinct visual identity. Sure, the story doesn’t always go as deeply into those ideas as it could, but they give the otherwise straightforward space adventure some welcome substance. More importantly, the story provides a reason to keep moving through the galaxy without constantly getting in the way of the actual game. And then you get into your ship, which is where EVERSPACE 2 really starts making sense.
The RPG where you never leave the cockpit
LLet’s get one thing out of the way. If you’re looking for Mass Effect in space, this isn’t it. There are no giant stations where you spend half an hour walking from one NPC to another, and you won’t suddenly leave your ship to explore an alien planet on foot. You are the pilot, and your ship basically becomes your character. At first, I wasn’t sure if I would like that. When I think about RPGs, I usually think about walking around a world myself instead of being stuck inside a vehicle. The easiest comparison might actually be Star Fox, if someone somehow turned that into a full RPG. But after a while, I stopped missing the walking around. A distant signal can pull you away from your mission, a wreck can turn into a small treasure hunt, and an asteroid field might suddenly give you a reason to stay much longer than planned. I regularly left a station with one clear objective and came back much later with better gear, a cargo hold full of resources, and no real idea how I ended up on the other side of the system. That’s the stuff I like. Let me be useless for a while. The only difference is that here, I’m doing it at several thousand kilometers per hour.
The biggest strength of EVERSPACE 2 remains its space combat. Flying the ship feels responsive without becoming a simulation, which is exactly the right decision for this kind of game. The ship responds quickly enough to let you turn, boost, and maneuver around enemies without making combat feel like a flight simulator, while the weapon and ability systems give you enough options to adapt when simply pointing your guns at something isn’t working. Enemy encounters also encourage you to vary your approach. Keeping your distance works against some targets, while others are much easier to handle when you get aggressive and remain on their tail. Special abilities become particularly useful when several enemies begin surrounding you, turning what initially looks like an overwhelming encounter into something you can actually control. It creates combat that feels closer to an exceptionally polished space shooter than a traditional space simulator, and that’s a compliment. The RPG systems then give those encounters a reason to matter. Weapons and equipment can be replaced and upgraded as you progress, gradually turning your ship from a capable starter vessel into something that feels distinctly your own. The constant stream of loot could easily have become meaningless number inflation, but because your equipment directly affects how you approach combat, finding something better usually feels worthwhile. What matters is that EVERSPACE 2 understands the relationship between its action and RPG systems. Flying the ship is fun enough to carry the moment-to-moment experience, while upgrading it gives you a reason to keep pushing further into the galaxy.
Freedom has a price
One of the things I enjoyed most about EVERSPACE 2 is how little it pressures you to follow a single path. The story gives you direction, but the galaxy leaves enough room for curiosity. When something catches your attention, you can usually investigate it rather than simply marking it on a mental list for later. Resources, wreckage, hidden areas, and optional encounters gradually turn traveling between missions into part of the adventure rather than dead time between objectives. That freedom is where EVERSPACE 2 comes closest to capturing the fantasy of being a space pilot. You’re not merely following a road; you’re choosing which road to take. Unfortunately, space has one rather obvious problem: there is a lot of it. Spoiler alert.
The scale that makes EVERSPACE 2 impressive can occasionally work against it. There are stretches where you’re traveling towards your next objective and very little happens. The scenery remains attractive, but eventually you start recognizing that the same kind of asteroid field or distant planetary backdrop has been passing by for quite some time. That isn’t necessarily a technical problem, but rather a consequence of the game’s design. A galaxy should feel enormous, and an enormous galaxy shouldn’t necessarily have something exploding every thirty seconds. But from a gameplay perspective, those quieter stretches can make the journey feel more like commuting than exploring. The game usually gives you enough distractions to prevent this from becoming a constant problem, but it does mean the sense of freedom isn’t always matched by a sense of discovery. Sometimes the galaxy feels vast because there is something waiting around the corner, but sometimes it feels vast because the corner is simply very far away. That distinction becomes more noticeable the longer you play.
When the missions start repeating themselves
The same thing happens with the mission structure. There’s enough variety to keep the campaign moving, but after spending considerable time with EVERSPACE 2, familiar patterns begin to emerge. The game asks you to investigate, retrieve, protect, or destroy something, and then sends you towards another location where the process begins again. That’s hardly unusual for an action RPG, since most games in the genre eventually reveal the machinery underneath their adventures. The difference is that EVERSPACE 2 has such a satisfying core loop that the repetition becomes frustrating precisely because you know how good the game can be when it breaks away from it. The stronger story missions are more memorable because they give you something beyond another combat encounter. Creative environments and unusual situations demonstrate that Rockfish can do more with its universe when it isn’t relying on the safest mission structure. I simply wish there were more of those moments. The repetition never made me want to stop playing, but it did occasionally make me feel like I was working through the game rather than discovering it.
Building an RPG around a spaceship
This is where EVERSPACE 2 becomes most interesting. The game doesn’t need a traditional RPG structure because the ship effectively fulfills that role. Your equipment determines how you fight, upgrades expand what you’re capable of, and the things you discover throughout the galaxy directly influence how you approach the next challenge. That makes progression feel tangible. You’re not simply watching numbers increase on a character screen; you’re flying a ship that has gradually become more capable because of the decisions you’ve made. That also explains why the absence of on-foot exploration isn’t quite as restrictive as it initially sounds. Mass Effect builds its RPG experience around the people occupying its galaxy, whereas EVERSPACE 2 builds its RPG experience around the person flying through it. The difference might sound small, but it fundamentally changes the experience. Mass Effect asks what it would be like to live in a science-fiction universe. EVERSPACE 2 asks what it would be like to pilot your own ship through one. I think Rockfish deserves credit for committing to that distinction instead of trying to turn its game into something it isn’t.
Visually, EVERSPACE 2 is a gorgeous game. The different environments have enough variation to prevent the galaxy from becoming one giant collection of identical star fields, while the ships themselves look appropriately detailed without sacrificing readability during combat. Explosions, weapon effects, and environmental details give battles plenty of spectacle, while quieter moments allow the sheer scale of the universe to sink in. When EVERSPACE 2 gets its atmosphere right, it can make you feel very small. You can be flying through a huge asteroid field, with distant planets and structures visible in the background, and suddenly the game’s insistence on giving you all that empty space makes sense. You’re not supposed to feel like you’re walking through a theme park; you’re supposed to feel like you’re somewhere enormous. That visual scale is also where one of the game’s earlier problems returns. Some areas lack sufficient visual or interactive variety to be memorable, and after several hours of flying through similar environments, even an impressive vista can start to feel familiar. It’s a trade-off, and for the most part, I was willing to accept it.
The Nintendo Switch 2 experience
Bringing EVERSPACE 2 to Nintendo Switch 2 could easily have gone wrong, mostly because so much of the game depends on large environments and fast combat. Thankfully, I never felt like the hardware was holding it back. Flying through open areas still looks impressive, and the combat remained responsive enough that I could react quickly when enemies suddenly appeared behind me or things got hectic. That matters a lot in a game like this, because the last thing you want during a dogfight is to question whether the controls actually registered. I also really liked having EVERSPACE 2 available in handheld mode. I could spend a longer session working through the story, or just pick it up for a while to gather resources, improve my ship, and see where I ended up. For a game where I constantly get distracted by another signal or piece of loot, that worked really well.
After spending so much time comparing EVERSPACE 2 to other space games, it’s probably easier to just say what it actually does. This is an action RPG where flying and fighting always come first. The upgrades, loot and progression are there to make your ship better, not to pull you away from it. That’s also why the Mass Effect comparison only goes so far. One game wants you to meet people across the galaxy, while EVERSPACE 2 mostly wants you to see what is hiding in the next system. For me, that works really well when I’m chasing a signal, finding a new weapon or simply getting distracted by something along the way. The weaker moments are when I’m flying through another empty stretch of space just to complete an objective that feels a little too familiar. That can make the game feel repetitive, but I still preferred this more focused approach over constantly being dragged out of the cockpit for something else.
Conclusion
EVERSPACE 2 isn’t Mass Effect or No Man’s Sky, and after spending so much time with it, I’m glad it doesn’t try to be. I never really missed walking around planets or talking to a huge cast of companions because there was always something else pulling me back into space. Upgrading my ship, chasing another signal, or simply getting distracted on the way to a mission was often enough to keep me playing. Not everything works equally well, though. Some missions start to feel a little too similar after a while, and there are moments where the galaxy feels emptier than I would have liked. Still, I kept wanting to see what was waiting in the next system, and for a game where you never even leave your ship, that probably says enough.