Endless Space | a Review
originally published on 22/09/2020;
Hello everyone, I am the resurrected G.E.M.Simov, a goon who’s been gone from the face of the internet for a while, and I am back, after a short foray into a few realms, ready to bring you the tea on a game known as Endless Space.
Simple review details - I rank games on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it. Also, I am a gameplay designer and a writer so I got the credentials to talk shit.
Gameplay
Endless Space is a 4x strategy game. The 4x stands for four X-es, which are - Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate. Very dour, I know, but it is not that bad (it is). That does not really tell the reader much, as it does not tell anyone much of anything, other than the fact that there are, apparently, those four things for doing in the game.
In reality, Endless Space is a turn based empire management game that incorporates a few values that the player would like to see grow, as well as a set of enemies the player would like to see shrink and, after a while, disappear, much like the Endless. That does not tell us much of anything, so let me get in depth.
Endless Space begins by having the player select whether to play alone, as they should, or make the mistake of going into multiplayer, which will lead up to that player never seeing a screen announcing victory or defeat, as games take so long that no normal person would want to spend that much time playing with total strangers who might have a very, very nasty strategy, when it comes to playing.
Picking the superior option then leads the player into selecting their faction, which is a high point of the game. There are thirteen factions, and each is relatively unique, although some more so than others. How does that uniqueness come into play? Well, each faction has a set of bonuses and, maybe, negatives, to add a bit of spice to the experience. Those bonuses are usually five or six, and, with the negatives, the total amount of interesting bits that can be had increases to up to, maybe, eight. In addition to that, each faction has a 100% unique trait that gives them a push into what kind of game the player should expect to be playing. The bonuses vary from being relatively reasonable, to the equivalent of mount Everest’s weight, in gold, dumped in the player’s hands at the start of the game and a note that says ‘You do you’, which is an interesting design choice.
When the game starts, the player controls a single star system, and in it - a single colonized planet. The player also has a ship that can travel vast distances, an explorer type vessel, and a ship that moves at a pace a disabled turtle would laugh at, a colony type ship, which allows the player to colonize a planet in a star system, as long as the planet CAN be colonized by the player.
The player has 4 values that govern everything, 1 that governs those 4, and then some other values that don’t matter as much.
Scientific output - how much science does the empire create. This helps the player research technologies faster.
Food output - how much food does the empire create. Depending on how much food one has, being produced in a certain star system, the planets in that star system will get populated faster, once colonized, if one has a lot of food. If you don’t, well, prepare yourself to play the waiting game.
Dust output - how much money does the empire create. Everything costs money, so the player needs money. The more money you make, the more money you have.
Industry - how much work gets done. The higher this value is, the better. On a per-planet basis, though, because having industry allows for quick and efficient construction of things. If the player has high industry, they will get shit done. If they don’t… Well, they are not going to ever find a use for that star system, except maybe, just maybe, wiping off the map.
And then the juggernaut that rules everything - Happiness output - how glad one’s empire is to exist. This value does not go up naturally. The player needs to go out of their way to generate happiness. But, doing anything remotely related to 3 of the 4 ‘X’es leads to unhappiness. Watch out, because that sucker governs how well the other 3 values rise. Feeling unhappy? Tough luck, science output is down, industry is garbage, and you are losing money, because taxing people makes them unhappy.
The player needs to do a few things when the game begins. First, the player needs to take a look at their science queue.
The player has a massive science tree, which is different for each faction, due to being ordered differently and having some additional technologies which are unavailable to other factions, as well as having some technologies have a different effect than what they have for other factions. This science tree is very reminiscent of a skill tree from an RPG, as it is split into four categories:
Colonization - if the player wants to colonize more types of planets, such as hellholes of the barren variety, or maybe arctic wastelands, maybe even deserts, and, perhaps, asteroid fields, the player should go into colonization. It also offers some bonuses in the form of new ship types, as well as increased movement capacity for every ship controlled by the player. It contains the sacred formula to terraforming, and, at the very pinnacle, contains a technology that allows the player to win the game after building 5 buildings.
Economy - if the player is finding their empire to be lacking in funds, or is finding themselves to be not liked, they should consider the economy technologies. It provides options for making more legal tender, getting more ways to fool the population into thinking they like having a 100% tax rate on everything, allows the creation of treaties between factions, forming alliances and exchanging goods. It also contains plenty of boosters to the production of food. But that is not all - it makes heroes better, it makes your military larger and also is proven to show you the merits of capitalism. At the pinnacle there is a technology that does nothing… Unless the player wants to get another technology, at the end of another science tree.
Military - if the player is a beta cuck, pretending to be an alpha chad, they can look to the military tree. It provides options, such as: More fire power, more defensive capabilities, and, at the very peak, a technology that is utterly worthless. Unless, of course, the player wants to get another technology, at the end of another science tree.
Science - if the player wants to make things easier for themselves, by reaping the rewards of knowledge, they can take a look at the science tree. What does that entail? More scientific progress, more industrial power and a chance at winning by doing research. It also offers increased ship capacity, as in, more military power, more military options as well as the certified, BEST way to deal with ship fights, the nano-bot. More on that later. At the very top of this tree the player will find the “I win” technology, which requires a metric ton of scientific output to complete. How much? More than you can get in a hundred turns. How do you get past this barrier? Simple. Research all other trees. Get the useless technologies, and they will cut the cost by 33%. There are a total of 3 of those, which is quite the nice boost.
Now, does this make the player think to themselves that they can focus on something and become a powerhouse in that regard? Maybe. But after a single, the player will know that it is all or nothing. If the player decides to not research every technology, they will find themselves deep in the trenches, filled with urine and excrement, as a caveman who does not simultaneously possess the knowledge in all four elements is unable to even fathom victory.
Want to colonize? Not if the player does not have good industry, to build colony ships, good science, to research the technologies on how to colonize more wild planets, good food technologies, to populate those planets, and, most importantly, lies to tell the people, because the people do not like it when the empire expands. They get very, very upset.
Want to do economy and win by having the dough? Not if the player does not colonize, to have more planets producing money, get good industry, to build the buildings that produce money and then just have the systems change their industry into dust production, not if the player does not have science, to research technologies on how to collect shekels, and not if the player does not have food, to make more workers, to make more money. Don’t forget, the population needs to be very, very well controlled, through the use of shopping malls, perceived freedoms and infinite vacation, otherwise the tax percentage cannot go to 100. And a money grubbing empire needs the tax percentage to be at 100.
Want to science? Well, as explained, one needs industry to build stuff that generates science, one needs population, as in, food, to have workers making science, one needs more planets to have more scientific output, and, of course, one needs to keep the masses happy, otherwise nothing will get done.
The science tree looks as if it is four separate ways the player can go - but it is not. The player needs to look at it like an onion - with layers. First, the player researches the technologies on the first layer - the first circle of hell - and then they go on to the second layer, and so on and on. Otherwise, they will not be performing optimally. And not performing optimally, on any difficulty that is not the “Newbie” difficulty, means death.
Did I forget to mention military? That is because the player CANNOT forget to spec into military. There are at least one other people out there, and they will see that the player either has no military or is doing very well, and they will decide to engage the “I don’t like you winning” move, by declaring war and sending countless goons at you. Pray you can win. There are also pirates. Pirates are weird, and they have no function other than to ruin the game. They, somehow, always take out at least one ship, even if greatly outmatched, as in, I have 20 ships and each of them has 1450 health. The pirates only have 450 health each, and there’s 5 of them. Why do those little micro penises blast cummies at such a rate that, even though having only 90 military power per vessel, they destroy 2, or even 3 ships. Why?
Military is artificial, but it follows the laws of nature. Who is at the top, excluding humans? The biggest, baddest animal. Thus, the player should follow the directions of: get the biggest ship - the dreadnought class, in the colony tree. Get the highest possible tonnage, in the science tree. Get all the health upgrades in the military tree, get the command point bonuses from the economy tree. Make a ship with 50000 health, put it in a fleet with 4 others like it, and let them go out in the wild. Do not forget - every battle, every option there is - nano-bots. Because what is better than a ship with 50000 health? A ship with 50000 health that is restoring 30% of its maximum health over the duration of the battle.
To win, the player needs to specialize in each technology tree, have a strong military, or at least the facilities to produce a strong military in the blink of an eye, and possess many star systems. Much like real empires.
Back to what the player needs to do when they start their game. Each star system has a production queue, and, depending on the technologies that have been researched, there are options for improvements to be made. The queue has no limit, as far as I know, so nothing is stopping the player from assigning every single improvement to be built, and never again looking at that star system. The player needs to pick something to build - typically, the best idea is to maximize industry first, get an improvement that makes money, then go into food and, lastly, get science. Happiness? Instantly buy that with Dust, otherwise nothing will ever be built, because, when the player goes over the number 10 in colonized systems, any new acquisitions hate their guts, and are either striking or outright rebelling.
After making the decisions as to what to research and what to build, the player is left with a vast galaxy to explore, which is the finest part of it all. Do I go to the red giant, or the white dwarf? Do I venture into the proto-star and find a system that will be completely worthless until 60 turns later? So many choices.
The best course of action is to send the explorer off to pick off discoveries, while taking a very critical glance at the surrounding systems. Which one says it is likely to heave planets that require minimal resources to colonize? Pick that one, and send the colony ship there. Pray that there is a terran, ocean or jungle planet, because everything else, for the most part, is a no-no.
I mentioned discoveries. Yes, star systems that have not been visited by a player before have a high chance of brandishing a blue star symbol, which means that there will be an exploration event, once the system is discovered. What can those events be? Well, they can be nice things - like getting a lot of dust, science, or increasing one of the 4 outputs by a large quantity for a number of turns. It can also grant the fleet, that has discovered it, experience, which is never worth it, because an explorer is absolutely terrible at fighting.
Exploring a system, however, can always make the locals appear. Pirates, the scum of the earth, can just magically poof into existence, the moment the player sets foot in a system filled with GAS GIANTS, each of which is branded with the Kessler Syndrome, making them actual hellholes to live on, and impossible to exist upon. Where did the pirates come from? How did this happen? I don’t know. All I know is that I lost my ship, and I can’t be arsed to make another one. I pray only that I can colonize my second system before these goons come over and shank my colony ship, ruining the game for me.
Lastly, there are heroes. Heroes are goons who can be assigned to either govern a star system or lead a fleet. What does that do? It makes the fleet, potentially, up to 3 times more powerful, or makes a star system up to 50% more productive, depending on how lucky the player got with the hero’s specializations. Heroes level up, be it when something is built in the system they are governing or when they just blow up enemy fleets, and then they have access to perks, which make them very, very nice.
All of this is just the surface. There are many more nuances of the game. There’s diplomacy, but everyone will hate the player, because the player will have a high score. Having a high score is a sin, and hell is the only destination for people who allow themselves to be anywhere above the lowest place in the score bracket.
There are random events that can either make things nicer or set the player back 10 turns. Pirate fleets, spawning on the player’s home system, with the capacity to siege it down in 5 turns, and there is not much that can be done.
The game is wonderful, when it comes to playing it. Clicking the buttons and seeing the numbers go up, witnessing the empire expand as I stroke the beast that is my military, capable of siege-ing down 5 systems at once, capable of withstanding a combined attack from all other factions. I sit in wait, as my income of 20000 dust per turn only leads me closer to victory, my highest industry systems are building wonders, while my science team is researching the “I win” technology. There are very few things quite like having made the right choices, or having gotten lucky with a six planet system that was not hot garbage, and knowing one will be victorious.
However, it has some problems. When the player orders a fleet to move, the fleet is instantly deselected, even if it can do more things after moving - maybe even move more. Selecting a fleet is also a chore, as, god forbid, the player has a stack of fleets somewhere - clicking a fleet (which appears as a single ship on the map) instantly selects all fleets. Sometimes, the player might think they have selected the fleet they wanted, and then they click to move it somewhere… And suddenly all fleets, other than the intended one, go blasting through space in the direction. Strangely, the fleet that was meant to be selected is now selected.
Sometimes clicking on a planet to open it up does not work. I don’t know why, but it infuriates me. The path-finding in the game is atrocious, even though it is, supposedly, the most efficient. Why can’t I just click that system there and travel directly to it? I have the technology researched! I guess getting to it faster is better than getting to it safer. After all, who cares about the enemy blockade my fleet will slam itself in two systems down the line, or the roaming pirate fleet that will, absolutely, spank me? It’s perfect the way it is - being stupid.
The worst sin committed by this game, and any 4x game, is the difficulty slider. Each difficulty, instead of making the AI more capable, makes the game harder for the player by providing the enemy with bonuses that make them unbelievably advanced, while also making the player suffer negatives. What kinds of bonuses, what kinds of negatives?
Well, for starters, even on the lowest difficulty, when the player is supposedly equal with the AI, that is not so. The player has an expansion disapproval that is modified, times 4. The AI? Its expansion disapproval is modified, times 3. But it does not end there. The player has everything being normal, all the values, other than the expansion disapproval. The AI? The AI gets a +15 to happiness.
That is the lowest difficulty - it is already forcing the player to fight at a disadvantage. That is not how one does difficulty. But it gets much better. How about the highest difficulty, as a comparison?
The player has an overpopulation disapproval, equal to 1.6 times what it normally is. The expansion disapproval? The value is 7 times greater.
The AI gets so many bonuses it’s ridiculous. The AI’s overpopulation disapproval? It’s equal to the value times 0.4. The expansion disapproval? The value is only modified by 0.6. Happiness bonus is +50. That is equal to more than two technologies combined, built on every single system. How expensive things are? 90% less expensive. How much upkeep do heroes and ships have? 60% less. How much industry does the AI need to build improvements? Only 0.4 times the normal value. To research technologies, the science needed is 0.75 times that of the normal value. To heal their units, the AI players need only pay 20% of the original value. Did I mention the AI’s fleets just do a flat 100% extra damage? Their defenses are 65% more efficient? They have a 50% bonus to food and industry? And a 30% bonus to science?
This is idiotic. I am not, at all, pleased by this. The only difficulty one should consider when playing this game is the “Newbie” difficulty, which should be rebranded to Normal, while all the others should be called some variation of “hard”. That makes me very sad.
And one last thing. When doing battle, there are two options - do it automatically or do it manually. This is a lie. Even when the player does battles manually, they are automatic. There is no control over the ships, there is no difference in anything - the Player does not get to see a cue for what kind of maneuver the enemy will perform (Presentation issue, but affects Gameplay), there is no opportunity to counter. It just shows the player the ships moving slowly and firing at each other. Do yourselves a favor and never do manual resolutions in this game. 2/3
Presentation
Endless Space looks quite nice. I played it on the highest graphical settings for a while, but my stone-age laptop decided that the republic of gamers would go on strike, much like the populations in the game do when unhappy, and I lowered them to the lowest setting. It still looked good to me.
The artwork is good, with the exception of the leader of one of the factions, the United Empire. He looks bad. Other than that, the paintings the player is treated to when they win, while loading into a game, or while going through the introduction cinematic for their faction, are all wonderful. Another splendid thing is the work done on the icons - each improvement/building icon is unique, and the player comes to know what each thing does just a game or two after starting out. The little things pop and look quite pleasant.
Clicking things produces a pleasant sound. Entering a battle produces a sound that is more alarming, but that’s par for the course. Ending the turn creates a different jingle. The ambience, the music, the sound of this game is spectacular. I enjoyed it greatly, and I think I might get myself a copy of the soundtrack for recreational listening while I write other things. It is very pleasant, soothing yet also invoking unease. I love the sound.
The models of the ships are also quite nice. I made the mistake of manually leading a battle only 2 times, because I wanted to see what it feels like, the first time, and because I wanted to see how dreadnoughts annihilate little enemy fleets. I was left wanting when it came to Gameplay, but it did look nice. 3/3
Story
From what I gathered, Endless Space has a story. About some Endless dudes who existed but don’t. I’m not sure what this is all about - there was no campaign, and the only type of story I was provided were the opening cutscenes into each of the factions. Each technology and each improvement also have a bit of flavor text, adding a bit of explanation, but… Nothing was made clear. There are some events that occur in every game, but they also left me unaware of what was going on.
The lore for this game - it does not exist. I did not find it in the game, and so it probably is not even real. 0/3
Legendary Point
Does this game get the legendary point, so cherished like an empire’s happiness and wanted, much like star systems with 6 planets that are all methane gases with gardens of Eden and moons with temples?
I think yes, it does. It may have its shortcomings, but this is the damn best 4x game I have played so far. The factions were actually unique, presenting a WANT to actually play them all and see what kind of interesting mechanic would differentiate them from the rest. That has not happened before, not in any 4x, or strategy, game I’ve played. The sound design, the emptiness of space, the potential to manage so many things and make everything be the way one wants it to be… That was wonderful. 1/1
Conclusion
6/10. It could have been a lot better, but it is, by far, the best thing I’ve sampled in this genre. I recommend it to people who like managing fictional empires, who like painting maps in a single color or people who like Civilization 4/5/6/Beyond Earth, but want more variety in their factions.
I tuck it under my belt, another shining achievement that I proudly display. Rough around the edges, it remains a glamorous treat to enjoy.