TLDR: Pretty but boring

The Good:

- The graphics are amazing...the game is a desktop background generator
- The controls are fluid and easy to learn
- The combat is good and fast paced while needing some strategy to win
- The UI is intuitive

The Bad:

- The gameplay is very repetitive. The puzzles are all the same. Find source, find receptor, plug one into the other. The hardest part of the puzzles is simply finding the elements.
- The ships feel 'slow'. Exploring gets VERY tedious.
- The Story is VERY boring and generic. no life to the narration. i found myself skipping dialog because I simply didn't care.
- I cannot get immersed in the world. It's big with a lot of 'stuff' but there's almost no personality at all.
- upgrading the ship is underwhelming. Once you've discovered the base components the rest of the game is finding the same components and guns over and over again but with bigger numbers. no new guns of abilities to help you feel progress.
- the ships, aside from the 3 types (fast, med, slow) all feel the same. Again, you get a new ship but it feels the same as the old ship just with bigger numbers.
- as you progress the enemies get stronger. Since you never get anything 'new' the game never feels like it changes. You get bigger numbers, then the enemies get bigger numbers to cancel it out.

To be clear. I WANT to like this game. I love everything about the concept. I'm loved this type of game since back when I first played Wing Commander Privateer but each day i play this game and just found it boring. Mission after mission, area and area, i played waiting for the hook...but nothing.

Maybe i'm missing something but i played 24 hours and still haven't found anything worth staying for.

Been a while since I've picked up a random game & had this much pure sustained FUN right out of the gate. Basically if you like the sound of "A space combat game with RPG & exploration elements", here you go - pretty much a no-brainer IMO.

Flying & combat feels great. The scale & movement is set up so you really get the spatial sense you're in dogfights, not the case in all space fighting games.

Characters are likable, voice acting decent, story is not Tolstoy but sets up the "underdog mercenary/freelancer" action well. Environments have a lot of different "terrain" that affects both exploration & combat. Variety of ship customization that heavily affects gameplay.

I did find the default Normal difficulty too easy once I learned the controls, at that level you can usually just rocket in & lay waste with any remotely appropriate weapon. Switched to Hard and combat is much more tactical, deeper consideration of weapons, gear, abilities, positioning - feels like this is the intended difficulty.

Highly recommended!

It's Not Wing Commander Privateer but it's as close we are probably ever going to get.

Graphics are good
Story good
Customize good

Combat gets stale once your ship is upgraded

Hopefully they make a Everspace 3 with more trading options and bigger universe a true Privateer game