The UI looks amazing and more importantly, it's functional, allowing you to zoom between planets and different viewpoints in a few clicks or scrolls of the mousewheel. While many 4X games have a spartan UI that just provides data, Amplitude clearly took its time here. Where Endless Space 2 diverges heavily from its competitors is in the area of presentation. A 4X veteran knows this part internally, but it's an uphill climb for new players. You'll talk to other factions, trade for goods and technology, and then use those goods to build improvements and structures on your owned planets. Eventually, you'll open that to free movement and teleporting with new options like Warp Drive and Hawking Radiation Dowser, which come from specific research opportunities in the extensive tech tree. You have your exploration, which begins constrained, with your ships only able to travel across space lanes that connect star systems together. The core of the game carries forward from the previous entry and the 4X genre in general. Can they do the same in a more crowded space? Spoiler alert: The space is not actually endless. In 2012, the studio surprised with an excellent entry into the genre. Into this cluster comes Endless Space 2, the sequel for Amplitude Studios' debut game. There's Galactic Civilizations III, Stellaris, Master of Orion, and Distant Worlds.

Some content, such as this article, has been migrated to VG247 for posterity after USgamer's closure - but it has not been edited or further vetted by the VG247 team.Īfter some cold years, the 4X space genre is pretty well stocked right now.

This article first appeared on USgamer, a partner publication of VG247.

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