Amplitude Studios is poised to expand its celebrated Endless universe with Endless Legend 2, and early glimpses suggest a deep, narrative-rich 4X experience. On the world of Saiadha, the Aspects faction introduces a unique coral mechanic. This is not merely decorative; half the world can become carpeted in purple sprouting flora (or fauna) that significantly impacts gameplay. For the Aspects, this coral growth is a core-al mechanic, improving tile yields, healing their armies, and acting as a super-highway that allows units to move faster across the map. The coral strategically weaves towards water bodies, where it spreads faster, and towards villages of minor factions—such as eel-beings, riders on giant owls, or vicious dark unicorns. A key benefit is that the coral automatically pacifies these minor factions, bringing players a step closer to assimilating them into their empire. Furthermore, coral serves as a tool in diplomacy, a speciality of the Aspects, allowing them to offer its benefits to friendly factions who choose to embrace it.
Asymmetrical Factions: The Kin of Sheredyn Example
True to the Endless series’ philosophy of asymmetry, the mechanics described for the Aspects are entirely unique to that faction. Each of the game’s six factions—some new, some returning—will offer totally different ways to play. For instance, the preview build featured the Kin of Sheredyn, a faction of militaristic zealots reminiscent of Dune’s Sardaukar. They boast fervour-fuelled iron giants among their ranks and accumulate ‘zeal‘ by improving cities’ fortifications. This zeal can then be expended to issue commandments, which range from creating divine populations in cities to smiting enemy armies on the campaign map. The Kin of Sheredyn might be considered one of the more conventional factions in Endless Legend 2, yet this is relative in a series known for its diverse and imaginative factions like corpse-eating plague insects, creepy faceless cultists, and fungus-spreading mushroom folk.
Core Gameplay: 4X Strategy and Narrative Victories
At its heart, Endless Legend 2 is a 4X turn-based strategy game. Players will engage in familiar activities such as building cities, researching technologies, raising armies, and competing with other factions to achieve one of multiple victory conditions. While classic score and domination victories are present, the game introduces seven as-yet-unrevealed ‘narrative’ victory types. This marks a significant shift from its predecessor, Endless Legend, which featured one ‘Quest’ (or narrative) victory alongside standard economic, diplomatic, and scientific victories. The Endless series is a prime example of how great writing and storytelling can be integrated into the 4X format, so it is fitting that its victory conditions align with these strengths rather than relying on tired genre conventions. While the specifics of these narrative victories are unknown, the foundation for a more story-driven endgame is in place.
City-Building Evolved: Foundations, Camps, and Ministries
Endless Legend 2 enhances the original game’s acclaimed city-building system, which allowed for multi-tile cities. The sequel maintains this approach of sprawling cities across multiple tiles but introduces new layers. First, players must build foundations in tiles adjacent to existing city tiles. Districts are then constructed on these foundations, followed by district-specific improvements like observatories for laboratories or Legionnaires Workshops to convert defensive Strongholds into mini-factories.
A notable new mechanic involves camps. To claim a region, players must first build a camp. Subsequently, this camp can be expanded into a full city using Influence, or, for a lower cost, it can be attached to an existing city. Attaching a camp transforms it into a ministry, which functions as a kind of secondary city center for the main city. This allows for the construction of new districts around the ministry and funnels the resources of an entire new region towards the existing city. This system can reduce urban micromanagement while still providing a satisfying sense of empire expansion, offering options to play tall by developing super-cities or prefecture-like territories.
Dynamic World of Saiadha: Tidefall, Exploration, and Combat
Endless Legend 2 is set on the world of Saiadha, a lush planet filled with resources, ruins, and remnants of the galaxy-spanning empire known as the Endless. Like Auriga from the original Endless Legend, Saiadha subjects players to extreme natural cycles. However, instead of Auriga’s encroaching winter, Saiadha is shaped by an extreme planet-wide tidal cycle called Tidefall. Initially, monsoons strike, causing minor factions to become more aggressive and reducing unit visibility. The true transformation occurs when the waters recede, revealing new lands. With each Tidefall cycle, more land is unveiled, keeping exploration a key element much later into the game. For example, a Tidefall event might reveal precious Glassteel deposits or previously submerged fortresses.
When combat ensues, battles in Endless Legend 2 take place on a dedicated battle screen, though auto-resolve is an option.
There’s a good level of tactical depth, featuring elements like high ground, special tiles, deployable special abilities, adjacency bonuses, and numerous potential upgrades for units. However, in the early version, the AI’s tactical prowess in these battles was found lacking, particularly in fortress encounters. While higher difficulty settings might adjust numbers, the AI’s tactical ineptitude could affect enjoyment if not improved; Amplitude has time to address this.
Engaging Systems: Resource Marketplace and Cultural Integration
Endless Legend 2 brings forward several engaging systems, some inherited from its predecessor. The resource marketplace, for example, features a proper supply-demand economy where individual resource prices fluctuate based on market activity. This dynamic system adds another layer to economic strategy.
The approach to cultural integration, also seen in Endless Legend, is another highlight. Through bribery or diplomacy, players can bring disparate tribes under their wing, and this assimilation is reflected in the empire’s social makeup. For instance, a player leading the Kin of Sheredyn might have Liara from the Consortium (a faction of courier centaur-elves) on their empire’s council, while mighty owl-riders from Hoy and Ladhran could serve as the de facto Royal Air Force of their military. There are many imaginative touches here that showcase Amplitude’s design strengths.
New Frontiers: The Personal Relationships System
Among the new features in Endless Legend 2 is the promising personal relationships system. This allows players to nominate a friend and a companion (essentially a lover) for their hero. Once a companion is chosen, two ‘Havens‘ (described as love shacks) randomly appear within the empire, granting bonus yields. Heroes will also develop enemies over time, and even a ‘nemesis‘. Defeating this nemesis in battle will yield bonus rewards.
Currently, this system doesn’t feel fully fleshed out, but this is typical for an Early Access phase. There is potential for these relationships to be affected by narrative events, player choices, or characters fighting together in battle, leading to dynamically changing relationships rather than static nominations.
It’s great to see Amplitude let loose again creatively after their foray into history-spanning territory with Humankind. While Humankind was by no means a bad game, its real-world trappings inevitably restricted the studio’s freedom for wild world-building and storytelling. The sea-level concept of Tidefall in this new installment’s world already feels like a massive improvement over the drab winter mechanic of its predecessor. Furthermore, a focus on narrative victories and the nascent relationship system indicates that Amplitude is actively seeking to innovate and find more ways to integrate compelling storytelling into the 4X framework. At a time when developers in this venerable genre have sometimes become bogged down in human history themes (with games like Solium Infernum notably bucking the trend), Amplitude has chosen an excellent moment to sweep players off once more to its singular sci-fantasy universe. Based on initial impressions, Endless Legend 2 appears to be heading in the right direction.