ENDLESS Space™ 2

I think this is the game that has convinced me that turn-based 4X Civilization-style strategy games are just not for me. I can't think of anything this game really does wrong. It's got good graphics and animations, they've built an interesting world, there's all sorts of well-done twists on the usual Civ-style mechanics... I really don't know what else I would ask for from a Civ-style game. Nonetheless, I didn't enjoy playing. I reached that point that you seem to get to in all games in this genre, where it's turn 40 or 50 or 60 and your gameplay loop just consists of tabbing through the production queues of all your cities (or in this case, systems), and making minor optimizations to what they're producing. Even worse, this game has another mechanic, population migration, which adds another layer of micromanagement. It's boring, it's grindy, it's repetitive, it simply isn't fun. And for ~40 turns or so, that's all you do, just mindless little build optimizations until eventually it's turn ~90 and it becomes even more pointless because you realize that the AI has no hope of beating you and that your victory is in the bag. You're too strong, and all that's left is to work toward one of the victory conditions. Another 40 turns go by of coasting to victory, and that's it, roll credits. At the core of all the interesting things this game does, the faction designs, the heroes, the quests, the combat system, you're still left with a game that mainly consists of just optimizing a build order and cruising to victory against an AI that really can't do anything except cheat on resources. It's unfair of me to give this game a negative review, considering it might be the best Civ-style game on the market. But what can I say? As much as I loved Civ II and Alpha Centauri as a kid, this genre just doesn't do it for me any more.

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.

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.

Normaly not into 4x games but I love this one, there is just something so satisfying of managing your economy and your space fleet, I just love every single piece of this game

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.

A tremendous blend of cinematics, customization and the most intuitive UI I have ever used.