As a massive fan of the OG Wing Commander series, I’ve continued to hope that one day we’d get a modernized title featuring great storytelling mixed with outstanding and varied space-based combat. What’s been frustrating is that while a variety of titles have managed to put together decent individual aspects of this goal, none have brought the entire package together. While I really enjoyed the challenge and terrific dogfighting offered by Everspace, its roguelike trappings unfortunately defeated the story side of the equation. Thankfully with this sequel though, they’ve brought together a little bit of everything, doing it all fairly well, finally putting together solid storytelling, plenty of options for what to do and how, and some nail-biting space-based combat to boot.

What I really appreciate here is simply the luxury of choice, and that extends to just about everything you do. While this isn’t as sprawling as some open-world game or one of the more exploration-focused spacefaring titles out there, once you get things rolling how you decide to proceed, how you outfit your ship, who you choose to associate with, and more are really up to you. It doesn’t go so far as making more passive roles in the galaxy on an ongoing basis something with a lot of appeal, but there’s something to be said for taking up what can be more relaxed resource runs, looking to eke out everything you can within a zone, including things that can be well-hidden at times. Thankfully for the most part the developers also respect your time, generally allowing you to move between spaces pretty efficiently rather than making you spend a little too much time in open and empty space, trying to get from point A to point B as I’ve seen in some other titles.

What brings the package together though is the mixture of reasonably-good storytelling and what can be tense combat at times, especially as you go through the pains of figuring out which equipment and systems suit you. Given that there’s plenty of gear and assorted loot to gather up after blowing away enemies, at first it can be a bit overwhelming trying different loadouts, but the fact that there’s actually a fair amount of depth in this area also helps the game really stand out. Extend the game’s base variety and appeal with the included DLC, and the pot gets even more appealing though, and gives the game legs to enjoy for quite some time. There’s no question that the controls can be a lot to take in, but as you work through them they do start to feel more natural, except perhaps for needing to press the right joystick to barrel roll, which consistently felt awkward. Still, if you’ve been looking for the best space dogfighting game on the system, and have a Switch 2, this feels like it takes the crown pretty handily.