O BRILLIANT BLADE OF COLDEST STEEL, REND THE INFINITE DARKNESS AND CRUSH MY ENEMIES TO NOTHING!!

Bar none, the best that the Tales series has had to offer. Best characters, best plot, best world. If you like the Tales series and have not played this one yet, you OWE it to yourself to pick this up and give it a go.

Full disclosure: I've been playing this title since Beta as a backer. 41 hours later and I'm still playing. Here is what I have found.

Gameplay: This is a roguelite title meaning, there is some degree of persistent progression between each run purchased between runs using credits picked up during runs. These upgrade the base stats of your ship which, while it may seem underwhelming at first, is actually huge in your progression of the game. Let's just say that you won't be making it past sector three or four until you start seriously beefing up your ship. The other thing that you can keep between runs is blueprits for ship weapons, subsystems, and augments to the before mentioned things. Crafting these within a run is simple and relies only on gathering resources from each new system you jump into. Other than these options, everything else is up to your luck and skill.

Controls: It should be said that, not once have I used a controller for this game. As such, I can comfortably say that play with mouse and keyboard feels very much like Descent controls. There is no HOTAS supoort to be found here and, as far as I can tell, the guys at Rockfish have no intent to include such support. Not that it's necessary of course. Mouse and keyboard controls feel completely solid. I've never had a situation where I felt that I didn't have complete control over what was happening. All deaths I've had in my 40+ runs have come from either being greedy or unaware of my surroundings. A recommendation on the second problem there. While the in-cockpit view is fantastic, I find that a third-person view is much more beneficial in knowing what is around you.

Visuals: Incredibly striking! Some might balk that the graphics and the areas you explore are not all that realistic. To this, I have to say that the intent for this game is fun, not simulation. If you want a sim, go play something like Elite, Star Citizen, or any of the other space sims out there. This is coming from somebody that also plays a lot of space sim mind. (800+ hours in Elite I believe?) The Unreal 4 engine is used wonderfully here and everything looks very polished. I'll find myself pausing the game to take screenshots that I use for my desktop backgrounds these days. Everspace even has a pause mode for just such an occasion!

Audio: This is the one thing you'll find right now that isn't exactly top notch. It's servicable in some places and great in others. Very recently, voice acting has been added for enemy ships. I think most of it is currently placeholder stuff, but it gets the job done. Kinda fun to hear the alien race scream unintelligable stuff at you while you blast them down. Even more recently is a voice for your player character and the on-board computer of your ship. I find myself chuckling at their banter and the player character voice puts me in mind of Duke Nukem, though not nearly as crass. Weapons sound powerful, as they should, and the background music is really well done, shifting from placid while exploring to tense when you find yourself in a combat situation. Top marks there.

Bugs: I haven't encountered any in the last couple of builds actually, so I can't really speak on this subject. That said, I know that the dev team works very hard to get a feel for things that are going wrong in the game and are incredibly responsive about it.

Additional Thoughts: I've streamed a few hours of this game on my channel and most people that have stopped in to watch it have been very impressed by how polished it is, even at the Beta and early access stages. Also, as I mentioned before, the dev team loves to stop in on these streams as well to get impressions directly from the players as we go along. It's great to see devs so passionate about their game and getting everything just right! Michael and everybody else, thank you very much for your hard work.

Let me start off this review by telling you something flat out. This is NOT a game for those that absolutely must have a plot where you are the central character. You will not find that here. You are incredibly tiny and completely incidental in the grand scheme of things. Then again, you are one pilot in a galactic sandbox. What more can you expect?

What you will find here is interstellar travel and exploration, space pirates, bounties to hunt, mining to be done, and cargo to haul for profit. You start off with a very basic ship and what you do from then on is entirely up to you. If you like the idea of cruising through space, seeing the majesty and wonder that is space while living out your freelance space commander fantasy, this is a worthy purchase.

One thing that this game does not do is hold your hand. It is highly recommended that you go through each and every one of the training tutorials to get accustomed to the controls and to wet your feet with space travel. The best rule to remember? There is no up or down in space. It will help you to learn to be able to think of movement in three dimensions without the constraint of gravity. Progression can, at times, be a bit slow when you can't find a well paying mission within the scope of what you want to do, but there will usually be at least something to push you to another system for the cost of a refuel. Fuel is another important thing to always keep in mind. You CAN get yourself stranded in space if you are not careful about the course you plot or if you forget to spend the pittance to top your engines off at each port you dock in. Space pirates are far from lazy and will occasionally just pull you out of FTL travel for kicks, giggles, and target practice regardless of what your reputation in the system is.

All that said, these challenges are enjoyable to me. In an age of gaming where one is often railroaded through tutorials and plot in a game that can top up at 40hrs, I find it refreshing that I can spend just as much time being space UPS to buy that next ship that will give me a bigger cargo hold. My eventual goal? To make a pilgrimage to the galactic center and then to sol. After that? I'll see about making sol my home system and collect all the ships. Hours upon hours of content before me.

I do not lie when I say that I can sink the majority of a day into this game without even noticing the passing of time. My personal favorite way to play is in a private session with my friends and wingmates. There is an in game comm system linked to any mic you use that will connect you to wingmates, your party members, so there is no need for an additional chat client unless you'd rather use something else. However, just as there are many ways to make a living in space, there are just as many ways to play the game. Open mode will put you in the galaxy with everybody else. Solo mode puts you in by yourself, but fear not. There are NPC ships everywhere should you decide to become a bounty hunter or a pirate yourself. They are not dumb in a dogfight either. Create a group with your friends, and you can play in a solo style with them specifically.

So, If what I have said here interests you in the game, I highly suggest picking it up. If you are the kind of person that gets enjoyment out of following the plot of a game, this is likely not for you.