Endless Space 2 Preview

As you will have read in our previous article, Endless Space 2, the turn-based strategy set in deep space created by Amplitude Studios, is now in the process of exiting its Early Access status, to finally land as a full game on the Steam digital store. And on this occasion we decided, while waiting to publish our review, to give you a small preview of the game.

Endless Space 2, just like its predecessor, it is to all intents and purposes a strategic 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) that will take you to the conquest of an entire galaxy. The game will allow us to achieve victory in different ways: in fact, you can choose whether to expand your influence, colonize a large part of the galaxy, bring your scientific progress to a much higher level than that of your opponents and, of course, you can choose the way of annihilating war any other form of life. To achieve victory in your games will require a careful choice in technological development and the possession of the various resources available. To obtain the latter it will be essential to colonize other planets and to do so you will need special ships. By moving one of these to the designated solar system, you will be asked to choose the planet to conquer (many planets will be uninhabitable at first due to adverse weather conditions, they will be colonizable with the right technological advances). Initially you will start an outpost and then with the passing of the turns (which will vary based on many factors, including the presence of enemies in orbit) this will turn into a real colony.

All players who have previously faced various games at Endless Space, will immediately notice with pleasure how Amplitude Studios has worked with passion on this new chapter of the saga. Many are the innovations introduced, ranging from a improved policy system, to greater attention to the backgorund of the various playable races. Taking a cue from his terrestrial brother Endless Legend, The development team has also implemented the secondary races in the game, minor peoples that you can subdue by force or, more subtly, with diplomacy. THE spacecraft fighting has been greatly simplified: in fact, the tactics cards present in the first Endless Space have been removed and have been replaced by three different action maneuvers that allow the player to choose his own combat tactics more easily.

Really the new policy system implemented within Endless Space 2 is interesting: in fact, the various political parties will benefit from the actions chosen during your game turns. Elections will occasionally be called and, depending on the winning side, you will be able to enact new laws.

Me tootechnology tree has undergone changes: although it continues to be divided into four very specific branches, in this new chapter the learnable technologies have decreased and have been divided into different game steps.

Graphically the title is much improved and we are pleased to note a greater care in the design of the various spaceships which, to date, are very pleasant and well recreated. The sound sector is also good, full of effects that simulate the erroneous, but welcome, noise of laser cannons firing and spacecraft exploding in deep space (in fact, no noise is propagated in space).

As this is a still incomplete version, Endless Space 2 brings with it some minor flaws. We will in fact stumble sporadically in crashes and slowdowns that will disturb our game. Analyzing this title thoroughly, however, there are two major flaws of this Early Access version: the lack of a tutorial for beginners and the lack of localization in Spanish. These two points generate a vicious circle: the lack of a tutorial for beginners makes it difficult for the latter to approach the game for all those who have not already tried the first chapter of the series; on the other hand, the lack of a localization of the title makes it difficult for those who do not chew the English language well to extricate themselves from the many menus available within the game.

The hope is therefore that, as has already happened for Endless Space, this chapter will also enjoy a translation into Spanish in the future.

Summing up, Endless Space 2 is definitely a very good turn-based strategy which improves a system already well underway with the first chapter of the series. Since this is a product currently in Early Access, obviously there is no lack of problems, but we hope that these will be solved with the full game release scheduled for May 19, 2017.