Steam Early Access as well as Closed Alpha and Beta of EVERSPACE™ 2 rescheduled - new development details
ROCKFISH Games has decided to postpone the Steam Early Access release of EVERSPACE™ 2 from September to December 2020. Accordingly, the Closed Alpha will be pushed back to the end of May 2020 and the Closed Beta to August 2020.
The decision was made after the cancellation of GDC due to the COVID19 virus outbreak and the related postponement of important business meetings with platform operators and potential co-publishing partners. It is also a strategic decision to avoid the almost simultaneous release of two AAA sci-fi shooters, where an overlap of communities and media attention is most likely.
In the meantime, the development team has continued to work on the player ship designs and in particular the cockpits in order to offer pilots who prefer first-person view in EVERSPACE™ 2 the best possible immersion, while at the same time being able to tell at any time which ship they are currently piloting. The cockpit designs are therefore based on the corresponding ship or subclass with characteristic, fully functional instruments depending on the type of ship. Furthermore, special effects are displayed on the cockpit screen according to the status of the ship, such as current damage or shield level.
The Assault Fighter has also been redesigned to give the ship a more aggressive look in line with its subclass. Instead of the original bi-wing design, it now features a multi-wing design and has quickly become the development team's favourite player ship, eagerly awaiting community feedback on Discord.
And what’s a looter shooter without a devastating superpower attack that you can unleash to get back the upper hand when under great pressure? In EVERSPACE™ 2, each ship has a powerful offensive or defensive power that can be charged by shooting down enemies, unlocking the right perk, or other collectables. Each Ultimate (ULT) is tied to a specific ship subclass, designed to utilize its full potential. For example, a certain heavy subclass might have an energy shield that reflects incoming shots back to the attackers, while one of the light subclasses unleashes a power that allows the ship to quickly teleport between targets, leaving behind a shredding energy trail, corrosive mines or web fields.