PC Critic Reviews

ENDLESS Legend 2 is a great turn-based strategy game. It takes familiar genre ideas and enhances them in fun ways, while featuring eight factions that play differently. City expansion and development is the game’s most complex and engaging element, while tactical battles are its most familiar and, after a while, boring. Tidefalls and monsoons tweak the familiar rhythm of a 4X, and, alongside the many narrative-driven quests, keep exploration interesting in the long term. The title’s many interlocking systems can be somewhat opaque for genre newcomers, but reading explanations for keywords helps a lot. My biggest problem with the design is that there are only three victory paths to work with, and some factions don’t feel suited to them. I’ve already spent close to 80 hours with ENDLESS Legend 2, and the game has the variety to deliver fun turns for at least 80 more.

Endless Legend 2 is a magnificent example of why Amplitude is so loved by 4X fans.

Endless Legend 2 makes a strong first impression, but its gameplay fails to captivate in the long run.

A worthy sequel parsing together features from Amplitude's other strategy games.

The biggest issues with 'Endless Legend' were addressed in the second installment. You have more control over the battles, and more attention was paid to the development of your cities. Still, we miss the charm of the first game. Although 'Endless Legend 2' looks stunning, we feel that visually it lacks the appeal of its predecessor. Each faction also has its own story, which we found to be rather unconvincingly written. And while the battles are certainly better, the AI controlling your opponents often turns out to be brain-dead. Despite these criticisms, this is a standout in the genre that we can wholeheartedly recommend.

You can still feel that Amplitude has undeniable expertise when it comes to 4X games. The work put into giving each faction a different approach is successful, but unfortunately fails to break away from a shared progression that follows too rigid a set of rails. This is all the more frustrating because the tide mechanic is a fantastic idea and the real selling point of Endless Legend 2, even if it forces the game to lean a little too heavily toward expansionism. It's a perfectly decent game, but not necessarily one you can easily see yourself sinking hundreds of hours into, and for a 4X, that's still a bit of a shame.

All in all, though, this Early Access version of Endless Legend 2 is very promising. The devs know what they want to do with this game and have clearly focused on showcasing the vision, building a strong foundation they can expand upon while leaving enough room for community suggestions. [Early Access Review]

However, for more traditional 4X players, this focus on narrative is going to be a point of contention. For some, the focus on story and the way it shapes how you play will be an incredible addition to the formula that makes each new game unique. For others, the constant pop-ups to interact with the story will feel like distractions from the traditional 4X elements they came for. A potential issue I can also see with the storytelling is that the decisions you make are directly responsible for the rewards you receive. Multiple playthroughs will already see players exploring the same story over and over again, and the temptation to pick the optimal reward will discourage players from exploring other options simply for the sake of fully experiencing the narrative. [Early Access Review]

At its core, Endless Legend 2 not only satisfies that itch for one more turn but also for proper set-up and preparation for what future turns could hold. [Early Access Review]