Endless Space 2 isn't just a very solid 4X game. It's also quite the narrative experience. Every faction has a story to tell, and every game will see you playing to their strengths while learning that story.

Endless Space 2 offers hundreds of ways to play, an interesting player-driven narrative experience, and above all the addictive turn-based gameplay we've grown to love.

This is one of the deepest strategy and management games we've ever played, and it delivers everything 4X fans can ask for.

Some may prefer the accessible Master of Orion, some may want the complexity and diversity of Stellaris. Bur for now Endless Space 2 is my first choice: challenging, suspenseful and sufficiently versatile, but still accessible enough, so I don’t tumble into one failure after another.

Where other 4X titles lean towards a more utilitarian presentation, Endless Space 2 starts with a great 4X game and layers on good art, great writing, and excellent UI design. There's a wide variety of play in the available factions and a deep political system that underpins the entire thing. The combat disappoints and the AI could use some improvement, but Amplitude is known for its expansions and improvements. What's here is already a 4X class act.

Just as Endless Legend and Civilization V are now far superior to how they started, so can Endless Space 2 be. It’s odd to talk of foundations in something so markedly floaty and space-based, so perhaps it’s better to think of this as an outpost, plonked down on a planet waiting to be colonised. It’s a fertile planet, sure, but one that’s yet to be fully exploited.

Sleek and competent and detailed and not really very exciting. [Issue#263, p.62]