ENDLESS Legend™

I don't recommend buying this game if you intend to play multiplayer at all. Netcode is horrendous and the game frequently desynchronizes, even with Community Patch installed (2.7.9 as of this writing) and on a wired Ethernet connection. The issue gets worse as the match progresses, and we had to reload saves and resync on nearly every turn by the end. Nearly unplayable if you're on anything less than a LAN connection. Gameplay itself is fine; I enjoyed it more than Civ 5. Might be fun for singleplayer, but I bought this for multiplayer with friends and we'll probably never touch it again. (Barring an update that improves the netcode.)

So, you see your classmates play 4X games while awaiting the teacher to arrive, these classmates of yours with pallid, pale skin and suffer from being nasal, socially-awkward virgins writing terrible stories about nuclear weapons and Shadowmen. Enter the hot Goth chick who walks in with her cherry red laptop and her confident stride, above the lowly peons where she sits and broods out of the window as she awaits her laptop to boot up. The teacher calls in sick, and it has become a free period of relaxation. Your nerdy classmates revel in their hollow victory. The girl simply groans. Everyone is seen on Steam on their laptops, playing Civilization V and Civilization: Beyond Earth. You wade through the list of classmates online when something catches your eye. _Summer-Rain_ is now logged in, playing a strange game that you've never even heard of before this day. Endless Legend. You glance at your Gothic princess, whom you catch looking at you from behind her cherry red laptop. She averts her eyes, _Summer-Rain_ having been exposed stealing glances at you. Your heart flutters, and you gulp down, thinking this may be your chance for _Summer-Rain_... You are soon $35.00 poorer as you hope and pray to whatever dark deity your Gothic princess worships that the school's pathetic internet connection will download the game in time before class ends, and it is as if the demonic forces grant you a full installation. You enter Endless Legend and quickly scan through the factions, eight in total: Wild Walkers (Elves) Broken Lords (Cool-looking ghost-mummies) Necrophages (Undead insects) Ardent Mages (Goths obsessed with self-harm) Drakken (Dragons) Cultists (Overzealous, religious cyborgs) Roving Clans (Arab-Jew Hybrids) and the Vaulters (The only sane-looking people) You play it safe and pick the Vaulters. Even the game tells you they're the best faction to learn. You have your faction and you join the open game that _Summer-Rain_ is currently in. The hexagon tiles rise up and the world loads before your eyes. You are bombarded with a never-ending series of information windows and funny-looking symbols which denote what you will learn later are the resources of the game, which are: Dust (Gold or money of Endless Legend) Science (Used for research purposes) Industry (To make your units and upgrade cities) Food (pretty self-explanatory) along with a slew of Luxury Resources which are used for advanced weapons and technologies. Endless Legend is turn-based, meaning everything done on a player's turn is crucial. Researching the wrong technology over a period of turns and not paying attention to the one you needed would be disastrous, in addition to not being able to manage one's economy effectively would lead to the player's empire to implode upon itself. After the first 10 turns _Summer-Rain_ appears, using the Ardent Mages, to no one's surprise. She hammers upon your fledgling city with an army using combined-arms tactics, but you are wise to have fielded a smaller second army and crush her would-be invasion force. As you divide and conquer your forces to have one army go after _Summer-Rain_'s Capital and another army complete the randomly-generated, scripted quests which inhabit the world to pursue your Quest Victory condition, _Summer-Rain_ was hard at work throwing everything she had into research and began the construction of a Wonder. The tides turned with her on the defensive but having an advantage in building a Wonder this early, you howl and wail with a succession of armies you continue to field, even diverting your Questing army to break through _Summer-Rain_'s territory and assail the city where her Wonder is being built. But you are unsure of the exact location and which city the Wonder is being built at, and before long your defeat is heralded when your screen is replaced with the beautifully-illustrated image of an Ardent Mage standing proudly with the Wonder in the distance. You slam your fist into your table and your nerdy classmates glance worriedly before going back to their futile game of colonizing a small moon as you hang your head down in shame. The free period over, everyone packs up and wants to leave for the next class. You are about to fold away your laptop when _Summer-Rain_ approaches you, looking radiant and beautiful. She smiles and tells you that for a beginner you weren’t all that bad and that she was going easy on you. You manage a smile in response, fighting back your nerves as you tell her that you were intrigued by Endless Legend and that you swear you didn't read the on-the-fly descriptions of how to play the game. _Summer-Rain_ walks past you toward the door and tells you that she would love to talk to you all about Endless Legend and the newly-released Guardians expansion for the game over lunch after school. Her scent interrupts your logic, her eyes tease you and her lips smile sincerely. "You coming?" _Summer-Rain_ calls out. You nearly stumble over your own words. "Only if I get to play Endless Legend with you." She smiles again, nodding. "I was hoping you'd say that. It's a date then." You would go on to date her, and ultimately, marry her. The girl of your dreams. The love of your life. username _Summer-Rain_ Indeed, love is truly endless. Endless Legend.