The Good: Outstanding user interface,
meaningful flexible ship design, extensive non-repetitive technology tree,
recruited leaders gain experience, streamlined colony management, distinctive
races, humans can replace AI players online, multiple victory conditions
The Not So Good: Uneven AI, little
interaction during battles
What say you? An efficient, user-friendly
4X turn-based space strategy game: 7/8
MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION
Endless Space exploded onto the strategy gaming scene when
the “alpha” was released in May. I say “alpha” in “quotes” because it was a
very polished, almost feature complete version that wasn’t really a true
“alpha” (if you’re used to looking at early preview builds like I am, the first
Natural Selection
2 build was a true alpha: a barely functional tech demo). I guess
“alpha” now means “beta”, and “beta” means “demo” (Battlefield
3 and it’s “beta” demo comes immediately to mind), when things are
turned over to the public. In any case, the game made a lot of noise thanks to
its streamlined features and slick interface. Now, the game is officially
released (after a two month alpha and beta period? uh huh) and we can take a
critical eye towards the heavens and see whether Endless Space offers endless
joy or endless sorrow.
GRAPHICS AND SOUND
The graphics of Endless Space are good for a space strategy
game. The map is not cluttered or dominated by distracting backgrounds (common
in space games), placing the visual emphasis on what’s important. The planets
are nicely animated and visually distinctive, as are the extremely detailed
ships employed by each race. The battles are also very nice to look at, with
lasers and explosions aplenty. All of this visual splendor means nothing if the
game is unplayable, so thankfully the interface of Endless Space is likely the
best I’ve seen in a strategy game. All of the important information is accessible
from the main screen, and small icons display the most pertinent values (cash
flow, happiness, leaders, diplomatic relations) at all times. On the main map,
you have one-glance access to the number of planets in each system (with
color-coded indications showing whether they can be colonized), plus the
population size, hangar fleet, and current production in each owned system. The
game displays a handy list of game events, showing finished production,
research, or heroes that have leveled up. You can also press a button to move
ships before the turn ends (useful if they will reach their destination this
turn), but I would also like to have an idle system and idle ship icon and the
ability to auto-explore. The empire screen provides a spreadsheet for all of
your systems, which can be sorted according to population size, approval
rating, any of the four resources, current production, hangar size, AI governor
setting, hero availability, and whether they are being invaded. The research
tree includes a search box so you can find specific technologies (why didn’t
people think of that before?), although I’d like the search keywords to be
expanded to include the actual benefits (so I can type in “speed” and it will
cycle through all the techs that increase ship movement rate). Still, the
interface in Endless Space makes accessing information very easy. The sound
design is dominated by the fantastic music and distinctive effects for
notifications. There isn’t any voice acting, but you won’t notice as you push your
ships across the galaxy. Simply put, Endless Space has an interface of a
quality other strategy games can only hope to meet.
ET AL.
Endless Space is a 4X turn-based strategy game, where you
eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXhibit eXtreme Xenophobia by killing numerous alien
races (also known as eXterminate). The game features eight races that come with
different starting tech and attributes that roughly define their overall
strategy: the human United Empire has higher ship hit points and an increased
income rate, the scientific Sophon specialized in research, the militaristic
Hissho gets damage and production bonuses after victories, the diplomatic
Amoeba has the galaxy explored from the start, the populous Horatio enjoys mass
cloning, the machine Sowers have specialized improvements, and the happy
Pilgrims enjoy system retreat. You can also create a custom race using any of the starting attributes available to the eight default factions. The galaxy composition can be defined by the
user, setting shape, size, age, density, planets, resource, and connection
attributes. In addition, higher difficulty levels give bonuses to AI opponents,
higher game speeds can increase movement and research rates, and neutral,
hostile pirates cause earlier ship construction (pirates can be unbalanced enough, throwing outrageously large fleets at you early in the game, where I simply disable them for all my games). Several victory conditions are
available: expansion, scientific, revenue, supremacy, diplomatic, wonder, and overall
score if the 300-turn time limit is reached. Endless Space can also be enjoyed
online, played in real time against human foes. Interestingly, you can join a
game in progress and replace any AI player, and resume games later if you have
coordinated players. Tutorial messages pop-up the first time you play; while
not as good as an interactive introduction to the game, they do serve their
purpose. Overall, the features set of Endless Space is pleasant and fulfilling.
There are four resources to worry about in Endless Space.
Food is required to grow your population, and is the resource you’ll worry
about first. Industry determines how quickly improvements and ships are
produced in your systems. Dust is used to pay for ships, leaders, and most
improvements. And science determines research speed. In addition to these four
basic resources, you’ll also encounter special luxury and strategic resources
on some planets; once you have researched the appropriate technologies to
unlock their use, luxury goods provide income or happiness, and strategic
resources enable better weapons or ship hulls. Each system actually comprises
of a number of planets that can be individually colonized; the resource amounts
derived from the individual plants, based on their planet type (undesirable types
come with a hefty negative approval rating) and randomized attributes, add up
to determine the overall resource values for the system as a whole. Each
individual planet can have one exploitation that increases production of one of
the four basic resources; some planet types have an additional bonus, and
better exploitations can be researched. System-wide improvements can also be
constructed, which usually exchange dust for more food, industry, science,
approval, trade, or other effects. Since improvements act on the system as a
whole, you don’t need to worry about placing new items on the “correct” planet,
which is a helpful simplification. There are some improvements that should be
built in all systems (the basic ones that improve food, industry, and science
output for little cost), but the later improvements usually have a high cost
and should not be spammed in locations that would not fully benefit from them;
this strategic choice makes improvement construction more interesting. It is
very important to keep your systems happy: approval rating directly effects
production, and ecstatic systems are the only ones that maximize their output.
Happiness is primarily increased by lowering taxes, but approval-raising
structures can also be built. If there is nothing suitable to build, you can
convert some of a system’s industry output into science or dust to balance the
checkbooks, and if you have many systems, and AI governor can be assigned with
an area of focus (but I found system management to be controllable in all but
the largest games). Thanks to diverse planet types, a straightforward economy
with exploitations and improvements, and a dynamic approval system that impacts
production, colony management is an intriguing part of Endless Space.
Of course, what’s the point of having all of these resources
if you’re not going to use them to build a massive navy? Other than the
low-level starting ships, there are no pre-designed vessels in Endless Space,
but thankfully ship design is a painless process. First, you pick a hull and
then click to add weapons and defenses. The game uses a clear countering
system: deflect stops kinetic rounds, shields stop beams, and flak stops
missiles. So, it’s simply a matter of finding out what the enemy is using (the
pre-battle display shows the designs of all the enemy ships involved in the
upcoming skirmish) and then designing your ships (and guiding your research) to
counter that strategy. For example, if the enemy is using missiles and shields,
you should opt for kinetic and missiles, with flak for defense. Larger ships
can also be equipped with additional power modules, planetary invasion weapons,
armor, improved engines, enhanced scouting range, or repair capabilities. Ships
must be organized into fleets (although you can have a fleet of one ship),
which makes finding and managing your military easy. Each fleet can move,
guard, invade, attack, or merge together. Overall, the ship design and
management aspects of Endless Space are easy to grasp.
A number of leaders can be hired to lead fleets or manage
planets. They start with two classes, a mix of military and production
persuasions, that determine the starting bonuses they will provide. As they
gain experience through battles or management time, you can choose new skills
that add significant bonuses to your fleets or systems. Although there is a
large selection of skills to choose from, Endless Space does not provide a
skill tree to figure out the best path to the most desirable skills for your
current strategy. High-level leaders become important parts of your empire, as
their bonuses can be very significant.
The research tree in Endless Space is very extensive, and I
found myself opting for different techs in each game, depending on my current
situation (at war, trade-heavy, colonizing, production enhancement, et cetera).
There are a lot of choices, including planet terraforming, improved weapons,
faster research, enhanced industry, alliances, trade, faster movement, new ship
hulls, and a host of system improvements. Each new technology usually unlocks
two new things, like an empire improvement (such as faster movement speed),
hull type, star system improvement, strategic resource, ship module, improved
exploitation, or new battle cards. While individual techs become memorable over
several games and your starting research strategy seems to play out the same
each time, there are certainly a lot of options to choose from.
Diplomatic options in Endless Space are pretty standard,
although some wrinkles are introduced. To start, every alien race your
encounter starts out in a “cold war”: you can attack their ships and even
invade colonies that are not within their sphere of influence. Beyond that, you
can declare war, make peace, enter a cooperation agreement (for trade), or
initiate an alliance. Other options include trading dust, strategic or luxury
resources, technologies, or entire systems; these are useful in sealing an
important diplomatic deal. The game displays a clear indication of who benefits
more from a particular agreement, and the AI will agree to things that are near
neutral (or on their side, obviously). While Endless Space fails to bring
drastic innovations to the diplomatic table, all of the appropriate options are
present.
While combat is completed in real time, you don’t take
direct control of your ships. Rather, you play three battle action cards that
give different bonuses, each of which can cancel the actions of another type of
card: offense (more damage) counters tactics (a mix of offense and defense)
counters engineering (repair) counters sabotage (less accuracy for the enemy)
counters defense (uh, better defense) counters offense. Some cards are more
appropriate for specific ship loadouts (no need to improve your missile
accuracy if you don’t use missles), and more options are present through
research. I feel the battle action system in Endless Space is innovative, and
while some users will bemoan the inability to choose specific targets and
interact with your ships during combat, I think those features are beyond the
scope of the game. Really, ship design plays a much larger role in determining the
victor than playing the right cards or choosing the best target. The cards
really only become significant when two evenly-matched fleets are duking it out,
but it is fun to see which tactics the enemy employs during battle, and attempt
to counter them.
The AI in Endless Space is a mixed bag: there are
things it does quite well, and things it does horribly. The AI knows how to run
the economy, maximizing production and out-producing experienced strategy
gamers (namely myself) in the early game. The AI loves to build system
improvements, even ones that it doesn’t really need, which can lead to a mid-game
economic crash when the AI cannot afford the upkeep required to keep all of
those structures (and its military) running. The AI is very good at building large, impressive
fleets, and then not using those imposing vessels effectively, haphazardly
invading systems with a single fleet, if at all. The AI is simply not aggressive enough, especially when it has a vastly superior military force: it will park several to many huge fleets in one of their systems while you invade their border systems, even if you leave your adjacent systems complete undefended. The smallest military force can still beat the AI because the computer isn't intelligent enough to use its massive forces effectively. The computer does change or vary ship designs on occasion, giving you a sense of uncertainty when you do engage in battle. The AI colonizes too many bad systems early on (gas planets,
barren worlds, and asteroid belts), which leads to low approval ratings until the appropriate structures are built. The AI shortcomings are really evident when
you join an online game and replace a computer opponent: you spend the first
handful of turns just cleaning up their mess, selling back unnecessary
structures and managing their poor economy because of a large military it doesn't use. I suspect that,
on higher difficulty levels, the AI players are given significant bonuses to compensate for
some of their poor decisions. No amount of economic bonus, though, will make up for poor tactics. While the AI can play well on occasion, there are several deficiencies that add up to less than satisfactory overall
performance.
IN CLOSING
Endless Space is very successful at bringing streamlined
gameplay and user friendliness to turn-based strategy. It starts with the
almost perfect (just missing a couple of small notifications) interface, which
provides an accessible game, always important in the strategy genre; the sorted
empire display and technology search feature are just two of the highlights.
The economy is easy to grasp and provides flexibility as you choose your
colonies and improvements; while the most prudent strategy is to focus on food
first, industry second, and research last, choices can be made to nudge your
empire in the desired direction. The research tree is extensive and provides
many options: I never repeated the same path twice, always adapting to the
current game situation. Leaders can be recruited and attached to any colony or
ship, providing significant bonuses to either assignment and allow for further
customization. The diplomatic options are fairly routine (although the initial
state of “cold war” is unique) but allow for trade and alliances. When peace
talks fail, it’s time to roll out the hardware, and simple but important ship
design utilizes a classic rock-paper-scissors format for weapons and defenses,
as each gun has one counter. You do not interact directly during combat (which,
honestly, is fine with me), but do choose cards to enhance your abilities or
counter enemy actions. The AI, the biggest issue with the game, is all over the
place in terms of competency: it starts out well, but eventually implodes by
building large, expensive fleets, making poor colony choices, exhibiting ineffective tactics, and investing in
unnecessary system improvements. Game options provide for customization, and
multiplayer matches allow you to join during a game and replace AI nations. In the end,
Endless Space is a very notable entry in the 4X genre, and should be earmarked
by all strategy gamers, if you can forgive the occasionally wonky AI.
