Amplitude’s Endless series has always struck me as one which feels like it should be getting a lot more love than it seems to. It was something of a risk back then to set a Civilization-style 4X game in the same universe as their Master of Orion clone, and still hew to a premise similar to Anne McCaffrey’s Pern novels. The formula worked then, and Endless Legend 2 proves that the formula still works.
Endless Legend 2 puts players on the planet Saiadha, a world covered in water with only a few islands seemingly untouched by inundation. Several alien species seemingly set down here (or were native to the planet) in the distant past. Now, the passing of a nearby comet heralds a new era, where titanic storms cause the waters to recede and strange discoveries await. And with the newly revealed lands, dangerous creatures which have been sealed beneath the waves for untold centuries are now unleashed. You must lead one of the great powers of Saiadha forward into the future, using diplomacy or force, to bring the planet under your banner.
No question here, Endless Legend 2 is probably one of the most visually striking games I’ve had the pleasure of playing this year. The UI is easy enough to understand and definitely helps players make informed choices about available resources. The different environments have distinctive characteristics which not only look different but feel like unique biomes. As for character and creature designs, they are wonderfully weird and alien. Even the “human” faction has an aesthetic which is equal parts futuristic and archaic. The various “Notables” and “Hero” characters all feel like individuals, least in their portraiture, and equipping Heroes with new gear adds a nice bit of visual distinction between two heroes of similar species. About the only quibble I’ve found is that some of the tooltips haven’t been properly entered or set up yet. It’s a bit of roughness that takes the shine off an otherwise highly polished-looking title.
From an audio perspective, Endless Legend 2 does pretty well, though not quite as well as the visuals. Each faction has a voiced introduction and short intros when you place a camp in a new biome, as well as formal introductions when you meet another faction. Beyond that, there’s a dearth of unit barks which would give both heroes and regular troops extra personality. The soundtrack is appropriately orchestral, well performed, well recorded. However, it’s not as consistently present as you might find in games like Civilization. There seem to be themes which are tied to specific factions, but one cannot be sure. This is one time where I genuinely would have appreciated a soundtrack browser just to listen to the music and see which pieces were connected (if any) to which factions. As far as sound effects, there’s a good mix of environmental sounds and battle-related sounds. Unfortunately, they suffer from the same problem as the voice work and the soundtrack. It’s well recorded, but there doesn’t quite seem to be enough of it.
When it comes to the gameplay in Endless Legend 2, there’s no question it absolutely has the “one more turn” pull of a great 4X game down cold. Exploring the map to scoop up different Curiosities, negotiating with Minor Factions and taking on quests to keep them off your back, and facing the challenge of Fortresses hidden beneath the waves to obtain rare loot gives a suitably heroic feel to the action. While you can use an “Instant Resolve” button to dispense with skirmishes against low-powered mobs or fight off high-power enemies, going through the Manual Battle option is sometimes more satisfying, and potentially better for your efforts. One skirmish I went through, the Instant Resolve button would have won me the victory at the cost of my Hero unit, putting them out of commission while leaving the army leaderless, far from home. Going through the battle manually still came out with a win, and without any units lost.
With that said, Endless Legend 2 does have some wrinkles which might turn off a more casual 4X player. There are enough activities common across the different factions for players to get a handle on the very basics. It’s when you’re playing your particular faction that things get more complicated. At the time of this writing, there were five factions available to choose from, a sixth one promised by Amplitude, and the option to create a custom faction was unavailable. For vets of similar 4X games, the various curlicues and quirks of each faction are a lot deeper than some other titles in the genre. It’s not quite like playing an entirely different game when you start with a given faction, but the factions feel almost overengineered, hyper-optimized towards one specific style of play rather than allowing players the option of taking them in a different direction.
There are also some fairly serious bugs where inputting commands doesn’t appear to register, resulting in repeated instances of conversations in quests and quest rewards being applied. I accidentally ended up leveling one hero to Level 25 because of this bug. Additionally, certain quests which require a specific non-Hero unit do not seem to work if you’ve upgraded that unit from the base form. The lack of an option to deploy your troops to your specifications in Manual Battles sometimes means that you’re finding yourself constrained by the terrain in ways you didn’t anticipate when you decided to start the battle. Adding to the aggravation factor, the game’s engine seems to want to move you around a lot when trying to make attacks against an adjacent unit, requiring you to “jiggle” the cursor a few times till you get the line of attack you want that doesn’t invite attacks of opportunity from half the enemy forces.
Overall, Endless Legend 2 delivers a solid and generally enjoyable experience for 4X strategy gamers. The systems might take a bit to learn all the ins and outs of, but you’re certainly in for an intense experience.
Axel reviewed Endless Legend 2 with a Steam code provided by the developer.
