EVERSPACE

At its core, Everspace is a very solid shooter with strong roguelike elements. However, the game does a rather poor job of explaining its core mechanics. You die. You die a lot. And that is entirely intentional.
When you look at the screenshots on the store page, you mostly see a space combat shooter - and that’s absolutely true. But here’s the catch: I’ve read many reviews complaining about the roguelike mechanics, and that criticism is understandable. The main goal is to reach Sector 7 (story-related). On your very first run, you’ll be lucky if you even make it to Sector 2.
After each death, you’re required to spend the credits you collected during that run. You must spend all of them - otherwise your run was essentially wasted, because unused credits decay. These credits are invested in perks that provide permanent upgrades. Do yourself a favor and prioritize the loot perk early on. It makes progression noticeably easier and allows you to unlock meaningful upgrades sooner, such as increased energy recharge rate, higher hull damage, or improved jump capabilities.
The story is quite enjoyable (I won’t spoil anything), the space combat feels great, the graphics are gorgeous, and even the soundtrack is solid. The sectors vary nicely in design, but my main point of criticism is the lack of enemy variety. You’ll mostly be fighting only Okkar (an alien race) and outlaws.
During your runs, you can craft new weapons using blueprints that first need to be discovered, and you can gather crafting materials along the way. This is a well-implemented and welcome feature. However, these upgrades are only temporary. Permanent progression - as mentioned earlier - requires spending hundreds of thousands of credits on perks.
You’re not completely alone during your journey either. An AI sidekick accompanies you, and it tends to be pleasantly sarcastic from time to time.
All in all, Everspace is a solid game that’s definitely worth investing some time into. I’ve played around 15 hours so far and I’m still having fun, even though I haven’t completed the main story yet. With three difficulty settings, the game is fairly accessible.
A solid recommendation from my point of view.

Best Roguelite I have probably ever played. The only reason the reviews arent great is because the game goes on sale for so cheap that people who dont even like this kind of game will buy it and play it and leave a bad review even though it wasnt made for them. If you like tactical, skill-based roguelikes and space shooters you will love this game, and for $1 its a steal anyways. The graphics are beautiful and it can run on any computer.

Had this game for a while, just got a HOTAS so I thought I'd give this a shot.
Reviews say HOTAS aiming in this game doesn't work well, that there's a massive deadzone that won't go away regardless of your joystick settings. But this is fixable.
Turn off the setting "smooth controller inputs" and suddenly that massive joystick deadzone is *GONE*, sensitive as you could hope for. Very fun game, haven't played much yet but looking forward to getting deeper into it.

Everspace is a fantastic game at a great price:
It contains elements of exploration, shooting, RPG, and a truly engaging story!
You will begin your adventure without knowing anything about your past, completely disoriented, your only reference point being your ship's computer.
Your story will be told jump by jump, sector by sector, through excellent cutscenes.
The plot is linear but offers some depth.
During your journey you will encounter numerous different enemies and, if you have purchased the DLC (highly recommended), also various NPCs who will entrust you with very interesting and rewarding secondary missions.
One of the game's strong points is the graphics and the representation of the universe it offers, truly spectacular!
In addition to exploring and collecting various raw materials, which will allow you to craft consumables and weapons, your character will have to fight for his own survival. Otherwise, you'll have to start over.
At each new start, you can upgrade your ship's and character's stats using the dedicated menu.
You'll have three pilotable ships (four with the DLC) with different stats and compatible weaponry.
While it may seem tedious and frustrating at first to have to start over again and find every quadrant the same, don't give up; Everspace will provide you with hours of fun and even a few comical moments.
I recommend purchasing the Encounters DLC, which adds all the NPCs and their missions, extra weapons, and a new flyable ship. All for a small price!

It's a good arcade space ship shooter, but the sequel to this is Everspace 2 which contains a vast world and more content to explore overall. The only reason to try this game if you're reading this review as of this date is if you want to try the prequel if you love its sequel.

Overall the first installment in the series does not offer much expansion, but it does introduce you to the world of Everspace. The 2 games are graphically similar but gameplay between them is completely different.

I don’t why this game’s ratings dropped from positive to mixed while the game didn’t receive any updates in years. Perhaps some people bought it after playing EVERSPACE 2 which is a looter shooter and didn’t know the first game is a rogue-like?
EVERSPACE (1) is a rogue-like space shooter where you pick one one of 4 types of spaceships and fight through 6 different sectors. I highly recommend getting Encounters DLC as it adds several new weapon types, 10+ new devices for your ship as well as new types of encounters and several new quests. Each time you depart the sectors are randomized and you gain currency between them that you use to upgrade your ships for future runs. It all makes sense plot-wise and you’ll have to succeed few times to conclude the story.
The game aged well IMO, ship piloting and combat is solid, graphics look great even in 2026 and you can get the game with all DLC's for less than £3 during any major Steam Sale.

Great game if you like agile, fast paced space combat. Flight controls are very smoooth.
The game nudges you into making fast (sort of) decisions about resource mining/crafting/enemies to fight, which compliments the combat style.
It's a roguelike. Expect to die loads while you get a grasp of the mechanics.
Story was okay, but certainly not awful, which is very good considering how many other games make you want to die every time you listen to characters chatter.
Many elements of the game felt balanced. The devs put care into crafing this