If you like your thinky games big and bombastic, full of sprawling, colorful landscapes populated with fantasy armies, Endless Legend 2 may very well be the next game for you. The sequel to the mega-popular 4X strategy game just dropped into early access this week.
The series contains a lot of the big turn-based strategy game elements you'd expect, like building up a civilization from the ground, advancing through technologies and doing diplomacy (or war) with your neighbors as you expand and inevitably run into each other. But these games center around big asymmetry, with each playable faction varying widely in both their aesthetics and their strategic play style.
The first Endless Legend was very well received, and seems to be one of the main popular competitors to the long-running Civilization series, the latest entry in which still currently sits at a very "Mixed" review consensus on Steam.
I'll admit that I'm slightly out of my depth talking about these games, as I've never played Endless Legend and don't have a ton of experience in the 4X genre, although I do have some history with real-time strategy. It's clear from the new early access launch trailer that the game has a whole lot going on: I could barely keep up with all the colors and fanciful buildings and myriad magical creatures running across the hex-grid-landscape, let alone the various tech-tree, politics and hero screens.
In addition to the first game in this series, the studio previously made a couple of Endless Space titles with a sci-fi flavor, and another relatively recent 4X game called Humankind. It's clear that the Endless Legend series in particular has focused on the asymmetric element of making the various factions feel distinct and different to play, a concept that, combined with the otherworldly creatures on display, brings to mind Starcraft as much as Civilization.
One intriguing element the game advertises is environmental change as you play: there's talk of "the oceans between cultures disappearing" and an evolving planet and landscape. Cataclysmic "tidefalls" will cause the map to change mid-game, opening up new landbridges and swallowing existing areas. Sounds like some interesting territory for a strategy game to mess with.
You can learn more about Endless Legend 2 or buy in early access now on Steam, where it currently features a 20% off launch discount.
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