ENDLESS™ Space 2 Reviews

If you want to get into a 4X game then this is an amazing starting point. The tutorials are very easy to understand and really helped me learn how these types of games are meant to be played. The characters/alien species are very interesting both visually and lore-wise. Highly recommend!

Just a good game its not on the same level as Master of Orion 2. If you are a space 4x gamer this is for you.

This is OK I guess ? Been looking for a 4X alternative to Civ, most of what I tried so far has not been good, but this came close. Tech tree a bit overly florid but not excessively. I've played 2 full games on normal diff with no other training than the beginner tutorial, and won both quite easily, so the mechanics may not be the most challenging. The fact that you can win as part of an alliance, with your alliance partners pulling a large part (most?) of the weight, makes it perhaps too easy. But the main con for me is that a space map is much less compelling than a geographical one - the planets may have different characteristics but in the end it's just one planetary system after another, it all gets rather samey. Not sure that I'll play it again, but I can understand the attraction. Apart from a few minor annoyances (particularly how movement works), it's a well-thought, well made game.

One of the best cozy space colonization games. Hands down.

Wow what can you say about this game that hasn't already been said? This game is absolutely amazing and punches well above the rest, it is probably the best space 4X sim on the market and I ABSOLUTELY loved Beyond Earth but this, this was on another level. Endless Space 2 offers endless playability, endless fun, endless exploration, the addictiveness of this game is on another level, there is so much depth and possibilities with the various tweaking of the game, the characters are so SEGA/"Japanesey" where at times you feel you are playing a Genesis console game, the art and design is great and as you play on the accompanying music grabs you and brings you in more, you can just sit there looking at the map and be taken away by everything happening all at once. Forget Stellaris, forget Beyond Earth, Endless Space 2 is bang on the buck a masterpiece you can enjoy over and over and over.

Loved this game. It looks really nice, the different factions all have their different strengths which makes them all fun to play as. It's so much fun building and developing an interstellar empire. The fact that you can win as an alliance makes diplomacy a genuinely viable play style

Great soundtrack which pushes the game into the good bracket. A simple game but with a lot going on which complicates things. Not a fan of the autorun ship battles and planet invasions.

I spent five weeks in a mental care facility (no danger, don't worry), and I found Endless Legend among the games I somehow ended up owning. After enjoying Legend for the first weekend at the facility, I decided to pick up Space 2, and I've been playing it basically every day since getting it (over a month and a half at this point). While I certainly can't attribute my recovery to ES2, it definitely proved an excellent vehicle for me to rekindle my love of video games, which had been burnt out for several months. My prior experience with 4X games was basically just Civ (5, Beyond Earth, and a tiny bit of 6) and Sins of a Solar Empire, but I found Endless Space 2 to be quite approachable for the most part. Additionally, the variety between factions, both aesthetically and playstyle-wise, is fantastic, and the faction-specific quests emphasize that further. I highly recommend picking up the DLCs for their respective factions, both to allow for 12-player games where each faction only appears once, and because my favorite factions, Vaulters and Umbral Choir, are DLC. While ES2 is overall pretty approachable, there are some details that tripped me up, like the hacking system, the fact that attacking allies during the Academy quest doesn't have a diplomatic impact, and the abruptness of score victories. My laptop (RTX "3060" and Ryzen 7 4800 H) runs the game okay with eight players or less, but my desktop (RTX 3070 and Ryzen 5 5600X) runs it well with a max-size galaxy and maximum players. There are hitches during end-of-turn processing past early-game, but that doesn't exactly interfere with gameplay. The modding scene is vibrant, but mods aren't required to enjoy the game, as I didn't even install a single mod until after 300 hours.

Some high leveled intellectuals may claim that this game suffers a dearth of "difficult choices" and "strategically meaningful gameplay", but such criticisms are naught but feeble attempts to hide a burning envy of this game's superior drip. No other 4X game can compete with the Aesthetic, the Tunes, and the Vibes of Endless Space 2. Immaculate, one and all. If you want to try out a 4X game for the first time, this is for you. Cool story, cool setting, excellent introduction to the genre. If you've played a bunch of 4X before, play this one on Endless (hardest) difficulty, because the AI is hot garbage. Make sure to also play as Horatio (funniest faction) in a small galaxy with eight Craver empires if you desire some additional spice. To those who long for a true test of skill- I recommend chess, or perhaps staying afloat financially (in this economy). The True Endless challenge.

It's hard not to bring up Stellaris when discussing Endless space 2. That is clearly the biggest competitor to Endless space, however the games feel much different to me when playing and I think both have their strengths and weaknesses. Endless space is a much more "on rails experience" as opposed to a creative sandbox. Where Stellaris gives you an infinite amount of possibilities when creating your species and civilization, Endless Space swings heavily in the opposite direction, giving you preset Civs each with their own detailed story, unique units and quirks. This makes it feel more like you became the leader of a nation rather than the creator of one. This is not a bad thing at all, there are many times I just want to play through a detailed story in a civilization-esque game and Endless Space scratches that itch for me. There are other times I want to build something from the ground up, create some monstrosity of a species and just "see what happens" and Stellaris usually scratches the itch in that regard. The pacing of the two games is much different as well, Endless Space has less pressure when playing because it is turn based so you don't feel rushed in your decision making. Now to review Endless Space 2 as a stand alone game. The sound design in the game is incredible, the music is bold and astounding, you feel the vastness of space just listening to the bold brass instruments in the soundtrack. The graphics are also beautiful and the UI is clear and concise, if you are a CIV veteran you will have no problem figuring out what is going on in the game. The game runs excellent on even low end hardware, however, there have been occasional crashes for me, so I'd recommend saving often. I have discussed how the gameplay prioritizes your Civs overarching story to give meaning throughout your playthrough and this is definitely Endless Spaces best quality. If you spend time in your decision making and read every popup, you will find yourself not only enjoying a high quality strategy game but following some beautiful writing as well. My only gripe with Endless Space 2 is it can lose its feeling of vast-ness. Let me explain, other space games tend to have a side of exploration that has a lot of dangerous elements, making you wonder what could be "lurking" around every corner. Endless Space only has Space Pirates as a threat and they get boring after awhile because its really the only threat besides the other Civs. So exploration can feel more like a chore after a couple of play throughs. Unfortunately I feel like this is a big part of these space strategy games, space is notorious for being the "final frontier" and if exploration feels cumbersome then it ruins a big part of the game for me. Fortunately, Endless Space's writing and quests will popup to carry you through the boring parts of exploration. But I always feel like I'm left wanting more, like I need a feeling that my nation is in this cold vast space, rather than flying from planet to planet with not much variance and not much excitement. Ultimately, Endless Space 2 is a solid strategy experience with a lot of detail put into the game and plenty of replayability to keep you going for many hours, I give it a solid 8.5/10. I think future iterations should focus on adding more elements to exploration to keep things interesting, particularly on the threatening side of things. I should expect to have a little bit of fear flying out into this cold hard space, but I never have this feeling in Endless Space 2 as opposed to other titles in this genre.