A few decades ago, games such as Wing Commander, Privateer, Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, and countless others were all over the place. It was the glorious golden age for space flight simulation games, and if you were a fan of the genre, you were in heaven. Then for some reason, those games faded away. Either due to other genres such as RPGs, Fighting Games, and others, taking the gamers’ and developers’ attention. Or some other reason, I honestly don’t know. Whatever it was, space flight simulation games died out, and I always felt it was a loss for us all.
Thankfully, the drought looks to be over. With titles such as Elite Dangerous, No Man’s Sky, and Eve Online already being available to play, we look forward to games set to be released in 2021. I’m going to highlight several of those, some you may have heard of and others you may not have. I’m looking forward to checking out all of these titles on PC, console, or both.
Alright, on to the games!
Everspace 2
While I wasn’t a fan of the original Everspace title, I have been playing the heck out of the Everspace 2 early access release. If you haven’t checked out our coverage of the game, definitely do so. Everspace 2 takes everything the first game did and polishes it up. To me, it does a better job in terms of an in-game story, combat mechanics, and more. Lots of ships to acquire, a better upgrade system, and the locations that the game takes place in are much larger. And with this comes lots of interaction, such as coming across abandoned space stations, massive ships, and it makes for some interesting exploration, among other things. While the early access game is limited for now, it still has over 20-25 hours of gameplay. I highly recommend it if you are looking forward to an enjoyable yet challenging space combat simulation game.
Everspace 2 is currently in development for PC (Steam). There’s no word if this will see a console release. That said, the first game did, so this will likely get a console release as well.
Chorus: Rise as One
For as long as I’ve been following Chorus (stylized as Chorvs), there hasn’t been much information released about the game. Sure, I pal around with the official Chorus Twitter account, but they haven’t fallen into my trap and released any new information on the game. We know that players will take the role of Nara’s character as she embarks on a mission to destroy the same organization that created her. And she’ll do this with a sentient spacecraft called Forsaken.
Chorus: Rise as One will be available for Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Google Stadia, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC.
Haunted Space
I admit I had not heard about this game until I saw it during the Future Games Show Spring Showcase. In development by Merge Games and Italian Games Factory, Haunted Space combines the traditional elements of space combat flight games and horror aspects usually found in games like Resident Evil and Dead Space. Lots of “stuff that go bump in the night” with an in-game narrative; haunted Space should be unique compared to other games in the genre.
Here’s what the Steam store page has to say about Haunted Space.
In the far future, the second age of human civilisation reached the distant Neterun galaxy and discovered a powerful energy called Sonic Matter. Millions of settlers arrived in Neterun’s systems and a vast factory called the Metal Mother Facility was built to harvest this valuable resource. But humanity soon discovered they were not alone…
Take on the role of a Raider, in the service of the Human Empire, as you traverse a treacherous galaxy in the far reaches of space. Take on quests across multiple systems or strike out on your own to fight, explore and scavenge resources and credits. Trade, craft, customise your ship and fight to survive as you uncover the mystery of a galaxy haunted by an ancient civilisation.Experience the next generation of space combat in HAUNTED SPACE. Sci-fi blends with horror elements in a story-rich adventure based on exploration, fast-paced dogfighting, trading and ship crafting, with customisable flight simulation and intense multi-stage boss battles.
It sounds exciting and is on my list of games to watch out for now. Haunted Space is being developed for the PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S
Were any of these on your radar? If so, which? And if I missed one that I should be looking into, let me know in the comments.
