Even if a bit barebones at the moment*, ES2 already shows it´s gonna be one of the best sci fi 4x games for the years to come. I expected nothing less from the devs, and was not disappinted.

Possibly more surprising, the engine is elegant enough to create a new benchmark to the 4xgenre. Nothing ever slow down the responses for your commands, and you can keep playing as normal during the enemy (or resolution, if you prefer), phase. That alone saves a lot of iddle time and make me want the release version ASAP to sink my teeth into the whole content.

Unless something goes terribly wrong with development until release, this one is a winner.

Edit: *the combat, for instance, it almost non existant, there's just autoresolve with or without an animation, everything hands off - terrible compared with Endless Legend cool tactical combat. That's specially painful when compared with the title overal deth and polish. Hope they rethink this system until launch.

Having played ES1, this blew me away with its beauty and improvements to empire management, science, diplomacy, warfare, and storytelling. A bit complex and needs more polishing, but this is not an early access with serious flaws and is well worth its price as-is.

Playing the sophons sucks when you cant have a science victory

Current things that need attention to:
balancing (fids production, race affinities, etc.)
getting the speed and tempo of the game right to match the rate of technological progress and
getting the battle scenes and planet introductions optimized
needs a simpler, more streamlined interface

Endless Space 2 is a brilliant and beautiful sequel to Endless Space, taking the best elements of the original and adding in the simplicity and quality of Endless Legend to create a superior and prime 4x game.

With excellent sound design, breathtaking graphics, unparalleled gameplay, and a creative, refreshing universe, Endless Space 2 is everything you could want from a video game.

The factions feel unique, the cinematics and events well written and directed, the UI clear and concise, the depth surprising easy to learn and at the same time difficult to master: what more could you want from a 4x title?

If you are a fan of Endless Space, Endless Legend, Civilization, and other 4x titles, you will love and be awed by Endless Space 2.

NOTE: Due to requests for a more detailed review, I must point out the flaws of the game.

The game is in Early Access and cannot be considered a full title yet: Multiplayer and many factions are unfinished and/or nonexistent within the game. Keep that in mind when paying the $29.99 price.

In addition, to be frank but respectful, Endless Space 2, while fun and refreshing, does not break any terribly new ground in the 4x genre: it's a well-developed game and fun, and it sticks to the formula that the first Endless Space and Endless Legend and, to a lesser extent, games like Stellaris and Civilization have already explored.

If you have played older 4x titles by Amplitude or by other developers like Firaxis, you may be found wanting of more from Endless Space 2 in its current state. Does that mean the game is bad? No: I recommend it absolutely and it's fun. But keep in mind the product you're paying for is something that has been done before and is meant to be an improvement and a sequel rather than something new or groundbreaking.

Please check out my YouTube Channel for footage of Endless Space 2 and other strategy titles: www.youtube.com/c/adrianl1996

Well, so far this is only early access, so I will not complain about bad optimization.
Amplitude Studios has reached a great balance for 4X-strategies: if ES was a decent game with awful diplomacy system ES2 shows us great and deep progress: colonization becomes more progredient whithout haste, epic empire influence coin is taken from EL and developed with elections and more! Jeez, I've already played more than 3 hours and can't stop!
Endless Space 2 is a shining 4X-diamond - the more you look into it the more brighter it becomes and new facets are shown.
Amplitude Studios gives us strategy with a global view, less micromanagement and heck-lot tools for flexible achieving a victory. We wanted this for a long time and now such time has come.
Whithout any doubt this game will be GOTY in stretegies - even with so many closed features the game gives us challenged and jouful expirience.
Highly recommend!

Gameplay is fun and not too complicated; if this is your first-time with 4X games like myself, it should take you a few restarts at normal difficulty to get your bearings.

The narrative, gameplay and very satisfying UI all do a good job of reinforcing an environment where you're the leader of your faction, there are also multiple tech choices to take, sometimes less or more depending on your faction and policies; so you can actually build around head-cannon and game-mechanics without having to sacrifice one or the other.

The UI does a good job of descriping how all the things work; however population description is nowhere to be found, at least not easily like every other detail. This is likely because of the Propaganda feature not being in-game, which allows players to pseudo-move pops (populations) to other planets, as well as effectively stealing other factions pops.

There's a tech to setup trade routes, which I have to assume increases dust generation, to what degree? Absolutely no idea, can't find anything in the UI giving numbers, systems which have trade routes are extremely easy to see thanks to a UI icon above each system which has the trade route system upgrade. Hopefully in future, like Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion we'll be able to see trade ships, or at least an icon on the map, making blockades more powerful, like in Sins.

All in all it's in a good state, there are no huge gameplay hitches, however if your GPU and CPU situation isn't up to par, expect later turns to take about 10 or 15 seconds once you hit "next turn", early-access so optimization like this is to be expected, but it's extremely minor and a non-issue.

Endless Space 2 will be great a few months down the line, playing the current alpha-build has made me excited for full release.

All factions play differently and feel differently, the quests do a good job of keeping you immersed and giving you goals to always progress towards, exploration is also rewarding through early, mid and late-game.

Choices matter, there are different ways to do quests for different rewards, as well as more than only one tech tree route for every faction. You also have Laws to enforce which give bonuses to different playstyles, as well as some being predominantly more useful late-game.

It's worth picking up, if for nothing else to guarantee yourself a cheaper price for full-release, providing you have the disposable income to throw around and you need an early-access that can satisfy for many hours.

Hearing about Sega being their new publisher, I assumed they'd ruin everything but luckily it seems they haven't. From one game to the next, they've taken the best bits into the next and this is no exception. There are some obvious elements of Endless Lengend and welcome improvements in general. This is the same quality game you've probably come to expect from these guys.

I love Amplitude and everything they make. They have not let me down in the slightest with this one.

So people have been finding my above review "unhelpful" bit weird that as all i'm doing is stating that this game surpased my expetations by a country mile.

I would also like to tackle the "issue" that some people are having with the combat. Yes it is cinematic with relatively low input from the player. But you do decide what weapons you mount onto your ships, what ships you fight with and what range they fight at. I.E long range broadsides or up close and personal. If you want a turn based space sim with real time combat that you have full control over then I think your only option is that old star wars game. If your happy building up your galatic empire with impressive detail and awesome features then give this game a go.

TL:DR -> If you don't want an unfinished game, don't buy it until closer to or after release. Otherwise, I recommend it completely and from Amplitude's record I think they can deliver on anything that is unfinished or needs tweaking.

After playing almost two matches, here is my review of an extremely promising yet still unfinished game. This title is in Early Access, which means that it won't be done until Amplitude say it is done. Promising a full release in approximately six months from now, they have big shoes to fill, but ultimately I believe they can deliver.

Pros:
+ Beautiful UI and Graphics for a 4X game.
+ Each of the four current factions are varied and interesting. (There will be 8 on release)
+ You really get a feel of managing an empire, especially with the political parties.
+ Combat is very fun assuming you accept it for what it is.
+ Added really fun exploration mechanics with probes and constellations as well as random rogue systems.
+ Kept the interesting tech tree style from Endless Legend, which really emphasizes choice if you want to keep up in technology.
+ Feels like a living galaxy with minor factions and all the events and quests.
+ Managing your political parties is fun and interesting, especially when outside events make it difficult for your favored party to stay dominant (I'm looking at you militarist party, stop dominating my senate when people declare war on me).
+ Outpost system feels realistic and contesting systems can be fun.

Fixes needed
- Camera in space battles is janky and often doesn't show interesting angles.
- Score Victory is sort of arbitrary and leads to short games.
- Incomplete Tech Tree. Only goes up to Era 3.
- So many different technologies to research in order to colonize different kinds of planets.
- Lack of luxury resources meaning advancing system levels are difficult in some games.
- Forced truces in a war can feel very unsatisfying in some situations. It's hard to keep up a war in this game, but when you can, it feels like forced truces really hinder the experience.
- Happiness system feels incomplete, would like some way to influence it like the tax system from Endless Space 1 or some other interactive system.
- Repairing ships is too expensive (this will be fixed).
- Other unfinished features.

Feature I'm missing the most since they're still working on it: Automation on star systems. I don't use it all the time, but come mid/late game sometimes I'd rather manage all the larger things than simply scrolling through every system. isn't a big deal in the current build, but I can't wait until they put that feature from ES1 and EL back in.

Overall: I recommend this game completely. Knowing Amplitude Studio's track record, I believe that once they get into gear, all of these problems will be addressed in some form. If you're looking for a complete game however, I would hold off for a few months or wait until the full release. While it is more interesting to play than ES and EL, it does currently lack features or contain unfinished features. I don't have a real con list until more things are added to the game. There are some downsides, but I don't feel like they're worth going that indepth about until closer to release, I do mention a few down below with some more indepth thoughts.

Exploration: I love the probes and constellations as well as random star systems sitting in the middle of no where with no space lanes connected to them. While it might be annoying to build scouts and stuff, I feel like this adds a really good feel towards a galaxy that is worth exploring. Probes able to explore planets for anamolies and resources is a nice touch too.

Expansion: Outposts feel a combination of really good and boring. I love the idea behind it, though waiting a bunch of turns is annoying. Outside of the waiting period, contesting a system by trying to finish your outpost before the enemy completes their's was interesting, though I have only experienced it once. I can imagine it being annoying for some people though. Colonizing planets can be annoying because you need to research tech for almost each planet type, though they make it a bit more satisfying by tying other bonuses to researching the planet tech. Sometimes being able to colonize a type of planet isn't the main reason you research that technology. I also don't think it's intended that you colonize every star system on the map, not until late game at least as it can get very difficult to manage everything.

Exploitation: There are a myriad of technologies to research in order to develop your star systems and your populations feel very dynamic for the most part. Political parties can rise and fall in an instant and influence a lot of things about your empire. Your ability to manage your population is huge in this game. Keeping your scientists in power is hard when trying to ally with a minor faction brings your pacifists into dominance, and tempering your population's militarist uprising is difficult when an enemy declares war on you. Keeping your favorite party in power to keep some needed laws is challenging and fun. Technologies to develop your star systems feel good for the most part and even researching the right technologies is difficult and rewarding. A lot about this game is managing short term vs long term and I feel like all these systems in concert bring an excellent feel to a game that few are able to implement well. I suspect with more polishing, this will get even more satisfying. Some people might not like the research system though, as you most likely won't unlock every technology in every era.

Extermination: Combat is overall very satisfying. I feel some work on ground battles is needed to make them feel a little better, but they feel pretty good, better than ES1 atleast. I really wonder how the reinforcement fleets will work out. One of ES1's biggest downfalls in combat was amassing large numbers of fleets felt really stale when you'd have 10 fleets all fighting. At that point it just turned into auto resolving everything and it seems like they might have something to address it coming in the future. Strategy helps a lot in this iteration and I feel the customization of ships is vastly better than ES1. I do wish there was more than three ways to move your fleet formations in though and maybe they'll address that in the future. Some people won't like the more hands off approach, but these aren't for a tactical master, these battles are for the strategist, who will meticulously plan out their victory from 10 turns earlier, who studied enemy ship designs in previous battles and who will choose the battle formations that fit their ship compositions and then watch the fruits of their labor engage in battle.

Keep in mind these are only my thoughts, some of what I consider great things, you might not. Thank you for reading.

Edit1: Changed the pros (-) to (+). Clarified a few more things in indepth stuff and fixed some spelling.

There's tons of disbalance, crumpled galaxy, zerg-rushing ai (passive after you knock it off), and lots of strange gameplay elements in Early Access. If you want to play 4X avoid ES2 until release.

Gameplay flaws which unlikely to be fixed at release:
-Everyone have the same tech/production tree, except ship hull types. You also can really obtain half of that, but there's no locks or preferences, except your own desicions.
-There's no way to early secure your territory ftom AI except fleet. (Think Civilization on tiny map)
-Combat desicions more poor than in ES1 (which already had almost no tactical options).

Also:
-It has good graphics.

P.S. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED Endless Space 1, the 4X space market was dead back then. But games evolved since then, and board game mechanics for this type of game just not work anymore.

~Welcome to Umaru's Opinion~
Finally after the success of Endless Legend, Amplitude continues the series with


This will be my 1st impression of the game, as the game is still in early access, I will be updating the review as they improve the game

So, let's jump into it

~9/10

I just can't believe it, the graphics is really well done considering it’s only a 4x Strategy game, in the menu, you will be greeted by a Really Clean and cool UI, and not only that, you will also get a really cool background which you hope that it could be your wallpaper instead.

As you enter the grand campaign menu, you will be greeted by a colourful stars and planets, and, a really clean UI

Another great thing is that when you find a new system, the game will automatically highlight it, and it will zoom to the planets which will give you a quite detailed look of what the artists the team has created, It’s just that beautiful and a really great feature though it will be really annoying in the late game

Ships’ design in the game is so simple but aesthetically pleasing, but, as you go into the real time battle, you can see how detailed the ships they have created,
The Art in this game is also really beautiful, it is bright and detailed

I just can’t praise this game graphic’s enough.


~7/10

Well if you are familiar with another turn-based 4x titles, you will not find any difficulties in playing this game, although i must say, the length of the game itself is pretty short in comparison to other 4x titles.

The idea of having different political parties in your own faction really stirs up the game, giving you a new challenge in the game.

Each political parties in your faction could give you different bonuses to your faction which edicts you could active with influence points. Some of the edicts is really OP, I hope this could be fixed in the future

The Game also feature an Election system, which depends on your Empire state, which means, buildings and units have a direct influence of Faction Popularity and the votes that the Faction will receive, so if you are a Militaristic Empire, make sure you have ample amount of Military buildings or don't blame me if your empire suddenly turn into a Pacifist Empire.
This directly affect edicts that you could enact altogehter

(This is also stated in the Interview from Angry Joe with the developer, the developer state that if you want to wage war againts other empire, you need to influence your citizens/population)

The game also gives you a tons of quest, starting from exploration, research and etc., to keep you immersed in the game and make sure that you are not bored with just the plain 4x strategy gameplay.

Another thing that’s great from the Endless Series is the customisation. You can customise your ship and heroes’ ship with different weapons but it’s quite limited to the weapons and modules, not only that, some of the modules must be earned through quest which is great, that means that the game itself encourage you to follow the story.

The only problem about the gameplay that it’s too short, research tree is really lacking, The AI is not really good.

I finished my 1st play through in only 2 hours, which is really short (well, I do start with default setting, since I want to try and learn the game) and 1 hour into the game as the Sophons , I already finished half of the tech tree.

Research screen is also quite confusing at times, since it’s divided into 4 big category like Endless Legend, but in Endless Space 2, it gives you a big screen with all 4 Research category content splatted in your face,

Another thing is that, since I played as the Sophons, the Cravers is ranked the 1st at the overall screen, but after a few turn, their empire suddenly destroyed, which is considered impossible, since Cravers is a militaristic empire and their military strength is at the top of the list, this could be possible only if the other 2 empire Lumeris and Vodyani are allied, but, after the Cravers is destroyed, Soon the Lumeris Empire fell too only after a good 10 turns, which left me and The Vodyani on the board, I don’t know if this is a bug or it’s just the game, but this really makes me wonder of what’s happening on the other side since there is FOW in the game.


~8/10

If you are familiar with the Endless series, you should know that the soundtrack and music of the game is superb, Endless Legend 2 also has a great futuristic theme music that not only soothing, but also it actually gives you the commanding atmosphere, the sound of the guns is also great, especially when you watch the Battle, although sound of the gun impact is a bit lacking IMO



Endless Space 2 has been a really promising title in the future, though some improvements is needed in order to bring this game for example, more research, better pacing and so on


The score of Endless Space 2 is


If you like 4x Tactical Turn-Based Strategy game, then I really recommend this game for you, but if you are a newcomer, it’s better to watch tutorials on the site like Y*utube since the developer is still building a beginner tutorial, though, Endless Space 2 is a really great addition to your library and definitely a proud one to have

~UMARU OUT~