When you wake with amnesia you're informed that you’re not actually the original pilot, but a clone. But why did he clone himself and what had he done to make so many people aggressive towards you…

Everspace is a roguelike single player space shooter and exploration game. One of the things I dislike about some roguelike games is that if you die you lose all your progression, the reverse is true in Everspace. As you need to return to the beginning to access the upgrade screen this becomes a positively looked for consequence, as each time you die you do not lose all your money, materials and improvements.

So, before we start a game, lets look under the hood. The game comes with many set up choices including the normal sound options to change the levels of the music, SFX and voice, though they are well balanced as they are. Under display you can turn the subtitles off. Here also is a nice touch with a setting for colour-blind players. The only other setting here allows you to change the Gamma levels, which will dictate how bright the game looks. You can reset your various runs, or the whole game, also turn on or off the camera shake, vibration and HUD.

When it comes to the controls the game allows you to change the sensitivity, first thing I did as soon as I discovered that the default was too sensitive for my playing style. You can invert both the X and Y axis separately and choose whether to have a crosshair and auto-roll. Lastly, you can switch roll and yaw.

The garage is where you're going to upgrade the ship and this requires credits. The game comes with three ships, an interceptor, a scout and a gunship, all cost $10,000, which sounds a lot but even with my crappy run-throughs I was picking up between $2000 and $3000 a time, so it wouldn’t take that long.

Under ‘Setup’ you can change your load out. A lot of stuff can be found or traded in the game and looting is a major aspect of the gameplay. As well as different primary and secondary weapons (invest in missiles, they will be your best friend in a tight spot), you can also change your shield and any augments.

Perks is where you're going to spend all the credits you collect. There are twenty-eight separate categories here, covering all of your defensive and offensive capabilities. If the ships are reasonably priced, the upgrades are not. Even with a poor run through you should be able to afford one or two, but you’re going to have to amass some serious money to afford them all.

Penultimately, there is a ‘Stats’ section so you can see how well, or not, you are doing with completing missions and challenges, worth doing for the rewards they offer. The ship stats will let you see your pea shooter grow into a universe killer and you can see any blueprints which you may have picked up. Last, there is a codex containing all the information that you have acquired.

So, you’ve got your ship and you head out for the first time. Visually the game is everything you could want from a space shooter, the locations are often breath-taking and will change every time you enter a sector, so even if you have played a sector do not expect it to be the same as before. The simple aim of the game is to make it through all the jump gate to reach the end, sounds simple?

Well you start with a few problems. Your ship does not hold enough fuel to do a run straight to the end. If you could find enough fuel along the way it may be possible, but fuel is a scarce resource. Also, the ship you start out with is just about adequate, which means that as the enemies grow in strength your chance of completing in one sitting is minimal. So, what’s to do?

As mentioned before there is a deep crafting and augment system to the game, so your gong to need stuff. In the early stages of the game you can pick up things like ore and gas, as well as salvage. These, along with any nanobots, will allow you to construct munitions on the fly as well as repair your ship.

There are usually miners in each sector who can be counted as friendlies and in a firefight will even join in on your side, if you're close enough. However, if you fire on them or attempt to steal stuff they turn dangerous very quickly and remain that way all the time you spend in the same sector. Each sector will have a collection of pirates and if you linger too much, more will turn up. As the game progresses there are not only fighters to contend with but also capital ships, but it's going to be some time before you can think of taking them on.

Each sector has optional missions and you may find a repair station, or a friendly trader. Along the way you will make new enemies as well as meeting old friends, some of whom will be distinctly hostile. Just because you do not have his memories does not mean that they have forgotten what he did. Sometimes it sucks that you look like someone else. The main crux of the narrative is to regain his memories and perhaps clear your name.

One of the nice aspects of the game is that it does not force you to play for any given period. You can just as well play for an hour and upgrade your ship a little as spend as many hours as you like. The persistence of loot means that even though you will die a lot each death brings you closer to that kickass ship you’ll be dying to get.

With an emphasis on action and great visuals, Everspace is very difficult to put down. There is that thing about going back for just one more run to boost the shields/weapons a little and have another crack at a cruiser. The plot is okay, it does keep thinks moving as far as the story is concerned, but I found myself not really caring, preferring to take my ship out to blow the bejesus out of anything in my sky.

It’s addictive and a lot of fun, but why no VR version like there is on the PC?

8

Charles Packer