Endless Legend 2 Could be The Best 4X Game I Have Ever Played - Preview

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When I would play 4X strategy games, I almost always defaulted to Sid Meier's Civilization 5. It was such an addictive game, and was a favorite among my friends and me. However, there was one 4X game that I loved, but none of my friends were into it: Endless Legend. It felt like it took some of the great aspects of Civilization and added more of an RPG spin to it. We could create our own units and factions, level up our heroes, and mold ourselves with much more in-depth fine-tuning. So, when I heard a sequel was coming, I was so excited, and now I had a chance to try it for myself and see just how awesome the game is ahead of its early access release, and it looks like developer Amplitude Studios is cooking here.

Right off the bat, I felt the UI was significantly more refined. The animations and information on screen were all very obvious, and it makes the experience feel more modern. I like the shine of each button as I press it, and I love the way our reserves, heroes, and equipment are presented. It's all clear and again, feels so modern. No longer am I constantly thrown pop-up windows every time I meet a new minor faction, it's all nicely contained in a Notification tab!

As I was playing Endless Legend 2's demo, after choosing one of the two unique factions available to me, it all started to kick in. It still has the core mechanics of Endless Legend, which I love. We can manage population in cities to fine-tune the resources we get each turn, build districts to enhance tiles with better production, science, or food, stack units on top of heroes to create armies, and even manually controlled turn-based battles are here. And it still has that 4X feel, where we walk across hexagon grids that each have their own bonuses on it.

However, I did notice a few key differences. To take over new territory, you instead build a Camp on it that costs influence. Over time, you can use more influence to either connect it to an already established city or evolve it into its own. This replaces making a specific unit to use and build a city automatically. Attaching a camp to a city provides that city with bonuses from the tiles around, but you have to start fresh from the camp, so there are no developed tiles around it, and you can only have a specific number of attached camps. They also share a production line, so you can't make two different districts or units at a time.

I actually really like this change. We have the choice of increasing the amount of resources one city can get or creating an entirely new city, both of which can change the course of our game. I ended up doing a combination of both to stretch across my kingdom. We also have tide-changes, which can reveal new tiles of the map out of nowhere, and Quests are much more engaging to experience. The goals of each leg of the quest are clearly defined, and some even have split objectives that give different rewards.

I am aware there are some other new mechanics that aren't being shown yet, but what we have here so far shows a ton of promise. I am hoping for more details on making custom units, but from what I have seen so far, the game is going to be just fantastic.

I did also try testing the preview on the Steam Deck, but it wouldn't work for me. Everytime I was about to load into a match, it would crash back to the game details age. So, I can't say how it's going to run on the Deck just yet, but I do have hope!

Overall, playing Endless Legend 2 has been amazing. It brought back my love of the first game while also showcasing a much-improved UI, streamlined mechanics, and some great new additions that make this entry worthwhile. If Amplitude Studios keeps the current course, I can only see success, and it may become my favorite 4X game.

Endless Legend 2 will be going into Steam Early Access this summer and can currently be wishlisted.

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