I changed my strategy, opting for a tactic that allowed me to send one flotilla down the middle at close range while keeping my other at a distance. Specialisation paid off for the enemy in our first engagement, and I was forced to withdraw. The Craver ships were geared entirely for short range combat, while I had taken a more versatile approach. Our first dramatic pitched battle took place above the Academy, which the Cravers controlled-and which is depicted in dramatic fashion in the combat viewer. As the Vodyani, I ended up in a protracted early conflict with the Cravers, insect cyborgs that like to eat people. After two campaigns spent pursuing a peaceful victory, I opted for aggression on my third. Although I had a strong sense of my own civilisation, I can't say that the AI ever manifested a personality beyond the top-level traits of their faction.Įndless Space 2's ship building and combat systems are strengths, however. You have to really commit to a diplomatic approach if you want access to meaty negotiation options like alliances, and AI factions themselves very rarely approach you with anything other than a 'get out of my territory' bark or the suggestion that they might be up for a trade deal. Although I didn't find it particularly hard to make sure that my chosen party retained control-through fair means and foul-the rise of secondary parties as the result of, say, an unexpected war provided meaningful late-game twists.ĭiplomacy with the AI is less successful. Parties, in turn, give you access to laws: extra buffs that can help a great deal as long as your aims align with those of the powers that be. More successful is the political system, which changes the balance of parties within your faction in response to your strategic decisions. However heroes themselves lack personality: they share a pool of generic ships, and while they can provide some handy combat buffs I found them primarily useful as install-and-forget colony-boosters. These faction-agnostic wanderers emerge from a space station called the Academy that is placed randomly on the map and has its own plot arc, developed over the course of a plot chain. While the factions themselves are well-realised, I found heroes-evolving special characters that can be assigned to planets or fleets-less impactful. Not all of Endless Space 2's systems are created equal, however. Those frustrating early hours have the potential to put players off, although perseverance is definitely rewarded. However it achieves this through the extensive use of shorthand and symbols, and while there are info-dump tutorial pop-ups to help you out, my first hundred turns or so were spent making mistakes simply because I couldn't tell what the UI was trying to tell me. Amplitude's design sensibility has resulted in an interface that is slick, good-looking, and, when you're familiar with the game, quick to use and parse. I found Endless Space 2 a little harder to get into than its rivals as a consequence of a UI that might be too efficient for its own good. These are qualities that emerge with time, however. Each race engages in some way with a mysterious substance called Dust and a vanished race called the Endless, which ties them into the history of not just this game but its predecessors-including Endless Legend, the fantasy spinoff. There is a militaristic human faction, but it's hard to get excited about them when your alternatives include pacifistic space treants, time-bending robot refugees from a different universe, or a race made up of clones of a single extremely vain man. Each of its eight factions is meaningfully differentiated not just in how they play, but in the attitudes and themes expressed through their background and the questlines that accompany each. All of this is, thankfully, completely skippable if you want to get back to the meat of the game-but all of it is very welcome too.Įndless Space 2's soundtrack is great too, as is much of its writing. There's even a bit of dramatic cinematography when you zoom in on a newly-discovered star system for the first time. Atmospheric short cutscenes accompany colonisation and each battle can be viewed with a well-implemented 3D spectator system.
ENDLESS SPACE 2 SHIPS CANT LEAVE HANGERT UPGRADE
A huge amount of phenomenal artwork, much of it faction-specific, accompanies quests, dynamic events, upgrade trees, and so on.
ENDLESS SPACE 2 SHIPS CANT LEAVE HANGERT SERIES
Amplitude knows when a bit of flair is necessary to push through the sense that you're really setting down on alien worlds or trading fire with an enemy fleet, even what you're really doing is engaging with a series of complicated nested menus. There's a sense of style here that'll appeal to anybody who loves the fantasy of a 4X strategy game but typically finds the presentation dry.
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