One of my formative video game moments is the final mission of Psygnosis cyberpunk flight sim G-Police. (It came out in 1997, and as such I think the statute of limitations for spoilers has passed, but if you’re still planning on playing, stop reading now.) The mission completes the long arc of foreshadowing that began with the intro’s mention that capital-class spaceships are outlawed, following a ruinous war. It turns out that a certain evil corporation has secretly built one of these megaships—not only that, but you get to fly in it, cannons ablaze. As I did so, I realized the true singularity of the video game art form. You don’t get to fly capital-class ships in, like, symbolist poems or baroque symphonies, right? You don’t get to fly in poems or symphonies at all, unless you do so metaphorically—”metaphor” being a kind of poor man’s graphics card.

Flight simming technology has come a long way since the days of G-Police. For example, in Everspace 2’s just-announced Titans DLC, you don’t just get to fly regular old spaceships, but giant space kaiju with procedurally generated digestive systems. Here’s the trailer.

The expansion adds two new storylines, triggered halfway through the main game’s story – Dreadnought and Leviathan. Each will last approximately three to four hours and introduce new enemies, gear, craftables, characters, and resources. In Dreadnought, you’ll search for a legendary colonial warship that has been hijacked by bandits – the setting for “the biggest battle in the Everspace series yet!”

Sounds like a hoot, but space combat in Everspace is ten-a-pulsar. I’m more interested in the Leviathan storyline, which adds secret star monsters that are effectively giant, roaming, spontaneously-forming dungeons with a penchant for passing pilots. Here’s the blurb:

The legendary Leviathan has already been sighted among the fortune seekers of Cluster 34, including your least favorite cultists, the Redeemers. Venture deep into the Khaït Nebula to discover the truth about these massive, supposedly extinct creatures! Not all that is swallowed is lost: treasure is said to lie deep within the bowels of this beast, and that is exactly where you will find yourself. Journey within to discover that valuable new resources can be found within the bowels of these massive creatures. No two inward adventures will be the same, as the many stomachs and organs of these beasts rearrange themselves.

Sounds cool, I think? Not since reading about Underspace have I experienced such cosmic bliss. I can only imagine what I would have thought as a teenager about being able to fly a space kaiju. I would have had no choice but to become Peter Molyneux. Anyway, the new Everspace 2 DLC doesn’t have a release date yet, but you can always head over to its Steam page.