Stellaris vs Endless space 2

[Brevundi]

Tried Stellaris for abit now and will play some more in the free weekend but I am wondering if Endless space 2 is a better pick compared or not?
Wanna state that I don't have much experience with these games and the genre in general only watched reviews and tried Stellaris in the free weekend.
Any advice is appreciated.

[Kriss]

Endless Space 2 is more narative driven with many quest lines and a story for each race, has prebuilt species and each one is very unique in the gameplay, the game is turn based and the battles are using some strategic cards which determine what tactic you are using, on land and in space... The art design is gorgeous on every level and the UI is quite neet.
DO NOT BUY AWEKENING, IT GIVES CANCER!!!!
Balancing is for the weak! The multiplayer will make you rage quit...
Horatio best waifu!

Stellaris build your own empire with its own politic, origin and species and there are MANY options, ascension percs which can be game changing to forgettable or even HERESY (xenocompatibility, imagine what happened in mass effect after male Shepard banged every alien females of his crew without condom 9 months later), the game is real time, you have mid and end game crisis... The UI is meh, and the graphics are good.
The game is quite balance even there are still bad exploits...
Xenophobia is life, xenophobia is love.
Toasters are the way to go.

By the way, Paradox hate its Q&A team so much they love to keep bugs for years in the game and they are master in the art of having good ideas but adding them in a so poorly way that unless you are a new player you prefer older versions...

Both OST are top noch.

Even if Endless Space 2 is more linear than Stellaris, you are freer in certain area and is more diverse dispite being less open...
I prefer Stellaris but Endless Space 2 is a solid game more polish and less buggy than it.

Don't forget that Endless Space 2 is now a finished game but Stellaris is still in development...

[Yvan]

Quite different games, I personally like both. But lately I'm a bit bored of Stellaris (ater many hours). Nevertheless, I'm going to try the latest update right now.

Other than that Kriss just gave an excellent explanation of their differences.

[Razor Feather]

Also a fairly big difference between the two is that in Stellaris wars are often for various reasons not to the death, while in endless space they usually are.

[Journeyman Prime]

Stellaris: Near infinite customization, incredible and breathtaking sense of scale (on larger maps), and a complex but intuitive culture and societal system. Amazing modding community, one of the best in fact, and beautiful designs. Suffers from bugs, rampant imbalance, and community spaces dominated by censorius moderators. Perfect for those who like to RP heavily with some elements to please meta-gamers.

Endless Space 2: Very in-depth combat system, both naval and ground. Decent political system with a genre-standard tech progression system. No culture system that I am aware of. A good number of opportunities for RP, but mostly through pre-written narrative paths only. Interesting gimmicks and playstyles, with significant differentiation between faction playstyles. Beautiful and artistic graphics. Suffers from not really allowing xenophobia beyond being a Craver, which is just a Devouring Swarm, not having much of a modding community that I am aware of, not so much customization with regards to your empire's society and culture, abstracts out pretty far and doesn't allow for much micro-management of planets or planetary specialization (sci-fi staple), and feels extremely cramped in terms of scale. In Stellaris you can expand as large as you like so long as you do your economic homework, in ES2 you are more or less hard-capped on size. A Good game for 4x meta-gamers or aspiring meta-gamers.