Endless Legend 2 was provided by Hooded Horse for review. Thank you!
This is an early access title, so our final thoughts on Endless Legend 2 will most likely change as it develops. This review is based on our thoughts of the initial release of the game
There were a couple of games that I was obsessed with when I was younger, and when it came to playing with friends, I loved 4X games. Specifically, I would play scores of Sid Meier's Civilization 5 with them, taking the Shoshone and sprinting to Ancient Ruins to get ahead and demolish them. I fell in love with the genre because of it, and in my quest to find new 4X games to play, I came across my all-time favorite: Endless Legend. It balanced both the 4X mechanics that I fell in love with, but added an RPG flair with customization and intriguing quest lines.
While I loved it, I never found anyone else to play with, so I was stuck playing by myself, and I did so constantly. Now, Endless Legend 2 is almost here, and I wasn't sure where they would go with it. I loved the first one, so I was worried it could fall into the trap that Civilization 6 put me in and make the changes feel less inviting, discouraging me from playing and bringing me right back to the familiar mechanics I had grown accustomed to. However, after playing multiple matches, not only does Endless Legend 2 not fall into that same trap, but I feel the changes push the strategic depth deeper while streamlining some convoluted ideas into accessible ones. In the end, it's very possible that this could end up being my favorite 4X game I have ever played, once it leaves early access.
If you have played Endless Legend 1 or any 4X game prior, the general gameplay loop will immediately feel familiar. The game is based around those 4Xs the genre is known for: Explore, Expand, Exploit, and Exterminate. You will take control of one of five factions and work to grow their reach, gather resources, research technology, build out your empire, and conquer the other players on the hexagon-tile map. There's a lot of land around, filled with different strategic and luxury resources, anomalies that give boosts to different types of resources, and houses minor factions that will challenge your rule.
Compared to other 4X games, the map is sectioned out into regions, and only one city can inhabit each one. Your city starts off with six tiles surrounding it, but you can use resources to slowly expand it to cover the entire region. Each tile can have a district built on it, which gives one of the main resources you will need to grow, like Dust (currency), production (to build faster), science (to research faster), and influence (to grow your territory). The main city is where everything will be built, and we can only build one thing in our city at a time, so planning around what you need is going to be critical.
Research will be a big part of what pushes our cities beyond their normal limits. Initially, it will unlock new districts to build and enhancements for already-built facilities, but as time progresses, we can get improvements to increase our gains even more, new ways to engage in diplomacy with other factions, passive buffs and resource gains, actions and specializations for warrior units, and even converters to turn one resource gained into another. Once you've researched a certain amount of technology, you can progress to the next "Era", which unlocks better research tech but costs way more. Luckily, we don't have to research everything to move on, so you can focus on what benefits you the most for the way you decide to play.
Of course, with any 4X games, there will also be armies we have to raise. We can build new units the same way we build districts in cities. Units can be stacked with each other, up to 5-6 at a time, and go off to defeat and destroy minor factions and other players. The minor factions can still spawn in your territory and send units to attack, so it's best to clear them out ASAP. As we play, we will be able to get and buy heroes, which are more powerful units that generally have some special effect, as well as assimilate some of these minor factions to use their units for ourselves. Units do have different jobs, like warriors, archers, or cavalry, so creating an army that balances all to cover your bases will help significantly in fights.
All of these work together to give multiple ways to win the match. Whether you decide to go a peaceful route and gain influence to keep others at bay while building yourself up, or go all out to demolish anyone around that isn't part of your faction, each mechanic gives you the chance to enhance your playstyle. In general, this is how 4X games feel, and I love it. Endless Legend 2 keeps this feeling just as much as the others, but what really makes it stand out are its RPG-esque elements.
In Endless Legend 2, there is one major mechanic that can completely change the game: Tidefall. The previous game had snowy seasons that could change the landscape a bit, but Tidefall completely brings in new land altogether. After each Tidefall season, there will be new land with new factions, resources, and locations to find. This can also link to other already-established plots of land, creating new shortcuts or ways to get around. So, if you are looking to attack a specific faction, but there's no way to get to it, it's possible a back door pathway could magically appear.
Units can level up from battles, and while regular units can specialize and become more powerful with upgraded abilities, heroes go a step further. Heroes have a full skill tree and equipment system, so you can mold them into the leader you need them to be. This can be extremely helpful for specialized armies led by a hero who complements their skillset. This was a feature present in the previous game, but instead of researching new resources to gain access to being able to create these new weapons, we will pick them up as we defeat enemy armies.
These heroes also give bonuses to your empire as a whole through the new Council system. More slots will open up as you research new technologies, and they can range from giving more dust and food to making armies stronger. It can be very helpful, and with the ability to purchase and get new heroes from playing, we can play to our strengths.
The way we win in this game is a little more straightforward as well. As you progress, you will be faced with a choice on how you want to win, whether it's dominating in resources and wealth, pacifying all your enemies, or expanding your overwhelming influence. The goals are shown and directly laid out, and it makes figuring out the best way to win easier. I went for the overwhelming wealth and aimed to have 20 of each strategic resource and hold them for 5 turns. I had a ton of land and currency already, so expanding to get the new resources was quite easy.
It's also great to take advantage of the quest system to get more resources more easily. A lot of the quests will lead you to investigate places or fight specific enemies, and there is a story that comes along with it. However, the Deeds are my favorite. These are game-wide quests where, if you complete them, you get a major bonus that nobody else can claim. The rewards are fantastic, and can range from extra movement for all your units and an extra city cap, to an extra assimilation slot and permanent population bonuses. I loved rushing to get to these, and the bonuses can be game-changing.
There really are so many mechanics that can influence how you play, and I love it. This really feels like an evolution of Endless Legend, and while I missed creating custom units, I like the direction they are heading. With this being early access, we are missing some key features that I would like to see, like faction customization and multiplayer, but I know those are on the way. Still, for what is being offered, I had a great time.
Going into Endless Legend 2 on the Steam Deck, I was worried. Not only are 4X games generally not optimized for controllers, but this is an early access game that still needs to go through optimization in general. However, I was unaware that Amplitude was not only taking care of controller support, but was also seemingly getting it ready for playing on the Deck.
As soon as I booted up the game, I was shown gamepad prompts, which confirmed to me that the game does indeed have controller support, and it's pretty solid so far. There's a radial menu that has some of the more important menus, like the Heroes Circle and Technology, and almost everything was accessible with a combination of the Dpad and Joystick. I was pretty shocked, and while it took me a moment to figure out how to get to everything, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was.
However, performance is another story. As soon as the game starts, we are hit with a 25 FPS lock, and that's before we even start building our empire and expanding our map visibility. I also loading into my game where my empire has expanded monumentally at turn 144, and it drops even further down. Zoomed in got around 20 FPS, while zoomed out sat at 16 - 18 FPS. It's a little bit too brutal, and makes playing on the Deck much harder.
When I went to play around with the video settings, I realized that there wasn't any there. So, I used the SteamDeck=0 %command% launch option to see if maybe they were hidden on the Steam Deck-specific build, and it popped up. From this, I was able to gather that Amplitude is definitely making a specific build for the Steam Deck, and they locked off video options, which is something I don't necessarily enjoy. But, with the lowest quality settings on the non-Deck build, it ran much better, getting 30 FPS zoomed out on the turn 144 save. However, gamepad support isn't implemented here, so you will have to use keyboard and mouse.
Selecting which one I preferred was tough. The gamepad support is super nice, but the extra performance was great. However, I personally went with the gamepad support. The performance may not be as good, but the visuals are nicer, and it was just more comfortable to play and use overall. I also felt the text size and UI were nicely attuned to the Deck's screen, and I couldn't move past it.
The game does have some specific accessibility settings where you can toggle subtitles, change their color, change the font size, left-click to order movement, and modify the game's overall color scheme. There are also some gameplay settings to toggle tutorials, battle focus, maximum number of auto-saves and frequency, panning speed, volume bars, and change some UI features like the language and size.
The game does support 16:10 resolutions, as well as cloud saves and controller support. There are no HDR settings.
Endless Legend 2 became exactly what I was hoping for in a sequel to one of my favorite 4X games of all time. It took the best parts of the previous game, the RPG-esque quests and equipment, while streamlining the 4X features overall. The inclusion of Tidefall events makes finding new lands exciting and opens up new avenues with a more natural progression of resources, while the changes to heroes, The Council, and cities make for an exciting game. It is missing some key features like Faction Customization and multiplayer, but with this being an early access game, I will hold off on my disappointment as they are working on it.
I am shocked to see how well Endless Legend 2 looks and feels on the Steam Deck, and it seems Amplitude is working on making it playable on the go. I am pleased to see it. It does need some work on performance, and I wish the video settings were available to play around with, but I am overjoyed by the solid controller support that they have. I would maybe wait to get this on the Deck for now, but if you have no other way to play, it's still going to be decently enjoyable.
No matter what though, if you enjoy 4X games and RPGs, this is a fantastic experience. It has quickly moved its way up and become one of my favorites, and I can't wait to see how it will develop through early access.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Endless Legend 2 is an incredible follow-up to the previous entry and shows some great promise as both an early access title and one to play on the Steam Deck.
