Everspace: Encounters expansion will add a new ship, factories, characters, and quests

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The space combat roguelike Everspace didn't make an especially good impression when it debuted on Early Access in September 2016. But things seemed to turn around in the months that followed: "It’s a great example of a roguelike, and the persistence makes even a bad run feel like it wasn’t a complete waste of time," we wrote in a June re-look at the game, shortly after it left Early Access. "But even if you just want to fly around in space and shoot things, and don’t particularly care about the progression stuff, that’s fun too."

Developer Rockfish Games aims to build on that success with a major new expansion called Encounters, announced this week and expected to be ready by the end of October. It will add a new medium fighter-class ship to the game called the Colonial Sentinel, which comes equipped with "sophisticated electronic warfare capabilities" and a double-capacity shield, plus new weapons, devices and consumables.

The expansion will also add new story characters with unique quests, new enemies, factory space stations offering "on-the-fly services," and you'll be able to visit the Okkar homeworld. In total, Encounters will add an estimated ten hours of new content to the game.

"Thanks to the roguelike core game loop in Everspace, all pilots will bump into them sooner or later, without having to finish the main story first," Rockfish said. "Those who already beat the game entirely will find a fresh motivation to get back into the game and find out about what these characters are up to and unveil further secrets in the galaxy."

Rocksaid said that more information about the expansion, including pricing, will be released soon.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.