ENDLESS Space™ 2

Sometimes letting the "community" provide official updates is just as bad as outsourcing the job to a completely different developer. It would have been nice if all the future patches were just for fixing AI behaviors and desync issues, but rebalancing the game certainly wasn't something I asked for.

Amazing as you can get the Stellaris experience with all of your limbs and organs remaining.

Это весьма приятная космостратегия, но чёрт дери - почти 10 лет назад выпустили, кучу длц наклепали, а багов всё ещё вагон. Иногда перестаёт переключать ходы, или просто останавливается полёт кораблей, или рост влияния, или ещё что-нибудь. Уж можно было бы неделю на фиксы выделить, правда?

Endless space 2 is a 4x game that ticks all the boxes for me. Its unique enough where it has its own distinct feeling, but not so unique that the mechanics would feel alien or strange. For me Endless Space 2 is the perfect example of a 4x game, where all the base mechanics feel satisfying. My only issue with the game is that I wish it had kept receiving more and more DLC and content.

Truly, the greatest 4X space game ever made. Every faction is super varied and no two factions play the same. Combat is hands off and decided in your fleet composition, ship components and strategy. Plenty of viable strategies and approaches. Random events, minor factions, quests keep games varied. All factions have their own unique questline which gives powerful rewards. The questlines are rich with lore and incredible art if you are in to that, but the game is perfectelly fine with you skipping it all. All DLC's and base game have received years of developer and community patches and have polished this in to an undisputed GOAT. 10/10. Will only be beat by Endless Space 3. If you have neverending turns (Pending turn end bug) - just dismiss all of the notifications at the right and the turn will progress.

THE best 4X games out there. Engaging lore and gameplay with an incredible soundtrack. A must have

Is it a good game? It's okay. Is it fun? It's okay. Is it a turn clicking simulator? Yes. Did i enjoy the game? Absolutely.

save game feature unreliable and frequently lose all your progress

Pros: - polished UI that doesn't hide information but also isn't full of spreadsheets - good replayability thanks to very different factions - interesting event-driven stories and galactic lore Cons: - the AI opponents suffer from passivity - managing the planetary economy is somewhat dull and formulaic - low system limit means the mid-game is truncated and the end-game is predictable Endless Space 2 is a space 4X game that follows the well-trodden classics like Master of Orion 1/2 and Stellaris. You explore space, colonise, terraform and develop planets, conduct space diplomacy, build battle fleets, and eventually take over your rivals' empires. Compared with its competitors, ES2 is rather more focused on story-driven single-player campaigns. It comes with 8 pre-written factions (and 4 more as DLC), which avoid most of the usual space opera cliches, except for the fascistic human space empire and the obvious Klingon stand-ins who use honour as a resource. There are many flavour events and quests to undertake, depending on the faction and political party in power, which provide motivation to the gameplay. Even if you have already played through the game with one faction, changing to a different faction can provide a completely different experience. The planetary economy management is fairly standard - build buildings, grow your population, then specialise each planet to either industry, dust (money), science, or influence (diplomacy points). It lacks the population optimisation that makes Stellaris so deep. Overpopulation is a constant problem for most factions, since the carrying capacity of most planets is low and food is generally abundant. The player can only control a finite number of systems before they face large-scale revolts, which means systems with a small number of planets are practically useless unless they have some special resource. I found the late game kicks off early, as you are forced to go for a win because you can't expand anymore. Usually, this just means creating a stealth invasion fleet and making a surprise landing on the home planet of your rival empire. A lot less epic than Stellaris' end-game crises. The diplomacy system uses influence points for taking actions and claiming non-colonizable systems like neutron stars, black holes, etc., that provide small benefits. They also block the enemy from passing through your zone of control if you close your borders to them. This helps mitigate the common problem of 4X games where the AI sneaks into your core territory and plops out a colony out of nowhere. Even though the AI are pretty passive, you will usually end up in a war at some point. The space battles have the usual tensions — long vs short-range weapons, kinetic vs energy weapons, battleships vs carriers, behemoths vs zerg fleets, etc. The battles are cinematic — you pick your strategy from a list, then watch ships shoot it up. It's fun to watch for the first few battles, after which you will just automatically skip to the results. It's also not particularly easy to understand what happened and why you lost. The shipbuilding itself is very deep and rewarding. ES2 doesn't do anything particularly poorly and provides some interesting ideas in a well-polished package. If you need a more modern take on Master of Orion 2 or are bored with Stellaris, give this one a shot.

This is honestly one of the best 4x games I have ever played. The scope feels epic, but managing your empire is really streamlined and not crunchy at all. There are lots of customization options and the playable races are interesting and offer some varied gameplay styles.