Is Endless Space fun?

[Zeebob]

Big fan of Total Warhammer and Rimworld. Tried Stellaris for an hour but it didn't click for me. This game any better? It's already cheaper than Stellaris at base price so that's a plus. Can anyone convince me?

[hellatze]

Originally posted by Zeebob:

Big fan of Total Warhammer and Rimworld. Tried Stellaris for an hour but it didn't click for me. This game any better? It's already cheaper than Stellaris at base price so that's a plus. Can anyone convince me?

lore is amazing. the battle is autobattle, with you choosing cards and battle tactics at start. the faction is unique.

[hellatze]

estimate is like 5 - 10 hour play time.

ship design is well designed. the choice still like Rock paper strats (missile, projectile, beam).

the game rarelly updates.

[mmmcheesywaffles]

Last played it June 2019
Played 550 hours - enjoyed maybe 80% of that. Got annoyed by bugs then uninstalled it and not kept updated or interested since Certainly won't buy any DLC whilst I have several thousand hours of DLC installed for games I have over 1000 hours of fun play waiting for me.

[Fulano]

I'm a fan! It's not too complex to pick up, and as you get to know the game there's a lot of depth to dive into. I like how you don't have to learn the entire game to start but most of the mechanics can be left alone until you figure them out later.

I love the character animations. The assymetric race mechanics makes for great changes of pace each round. It's got lots of lore and quests going on as you play as well.

For me the main downside is the bugs... so many bugs... But they recently hired a modder to make a bug patch, which fixed a lot. Then using the ESG mod fixes most of the rest of the bugs.

[mmmcheesywaffles]

Originally posted by Fulano:

I'm a fan! It's not too complex to pick up, and as you get to know the game there's a lot of depth to dive into. I like how you don't have to learn the entire game to start but most of the mechanics can be left alone until you figure them out later.

I love the character animations. The assymetric race mechanics makes for great changes of pace each round. It's got lots of lore and quests going on as you play as well.

For me the main downside is the bugs... so many bugs... But they recently hired a modder to make a bug patch, which fixed a lot. Then using the ESG mod fixes most of the rest of the bugs.

One of the worst features for me is the Diplomacy dynamic. Unless that is one of the fixes the Modder you mention has fixed I am not interested.... I need more from the game , but failed Diplomacy was a major disappointment for me

[Fulano]

Originally posted by mmmcheesywaffles:

One of the worst features for me is the Diplomacy dynamic. Unless that is one of the fixes the Modder you mention has fixed I am not interested.... I need more from the game , but failed Diplomacy was a major disappointment for me

Good Point. The diplomacy is still not great. I just turn off alliances and basically ignore the diplomacy. I'm sure the ESG mod does something with it but I haven't used it enough to know if there's a difference.

[ZumZoom]

It's fun. DLC aren't required for the fun, unlike Stellaris.

[Druitt]

It's sort of like Stellaris, but streamlined and fun.

The person who mentioned annoying bugs was correct, but missed the recent update, which fixed a LOT of stuff. Unlike Stellaris, it is not in a continuous update mode and there won't be any new DLCs.

[Bozobub]

Originally posted by Zeebob:

Big fan of Total Warhammer and Rimworld. Tried Stellaris for an hour but it didn't click for me. This game any better? It's already cheaper than Stellaris at base price so that's a plus. Can anyone convince me?

If you like turn-based 4X games, I'd say it's pretty good, if flawed in some ways. Frankly, the 1st game in the series was a better *war/strategy* game, while ES2 is the better *4X* game.

Notably, if you link your Steam account to a Games2Gether account (where ES2's main forum is located), they'll give you a copy of ES1 (with all the DLC) on Steam for free, no purchase of ES2 is necessary.


It's NOT the same as ES2; it has (imo of course) significantly better combat and wargame mechanics, but is also rougher around the edges, dryer presentation, weaker diplomacy, less (but still interesting!) lore, and so on. The "card" system is still used in battles, but you select THREE of them, and can also add/change them as the battle progresses (until you reach that card's phase). There's also a LOT more different upgrades for leaders that they can generally share, on top of their base traits. It's a solid game in its own right, and is good "prep" for one thing, especially, besides the lore, specifically the concept of simultaneous movement. Put simply, all turns *happen at the same time*, even though they are taken sequentially in actual play. This sounds odd, but imo is perfectly natural, once you get used to it. Nevertheless, ES1 isn't just a free game, it lets you decide if you can deal with this mechanic, which I think will probably be the biggest "ask". It's also pretty much bug-free, unlike ES2 ^^' .

https://steamcommunity.com/app/208140/discussions/0/1742232339930889598/

I'd say ES1, and ES2 even moreso, is very good at making very asymmetrical factions play rather evenly vs. each other, overall. It's not just a single building and/or unit, like Civ; rather, each entire faction literally plays completely differently from all the others. It's quite an achievement!

[hardy_conrad]

As it happens I just quit Stellaris and returned to this after a long hiatus. I'm really not a fan of how Stellaris tries to shove dlc down your throat either through outright buying or a subscription. Endless Space isn't perfect, nothing is after all, but it has a lot of nice aspects. Has personality maybe although of course these things are subjective.

[Sabaithal]

Depends on what you're looking for. Atmosphere, music and such are S grade in this game, you won't find better.

The space battles are hands off, but your tactics do matter. Also they're ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ spectacular to watch.

Also the factions are asymmetrical to varying degrees. You have the United Empire and Traders which function somewhat similarly, but then you go to factions like the Vodyani or the Umbral Choir which is like playing a completely different game in comparison. Nice to see faction and lor differences actually reflected in gameplay.