Endless Legend - Civ V & Fallen Enchantress had a baby

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Coming to you from Amplitude Studios, the minds behind Endless Space and Dungeon of the Endless comes a game that wears Civ V very openly and throws in a bit of Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes to the mix.

IMAGE(http://cdn2.gamefront.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/endlesslegend.jpg)

IMAGE(http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1197/11970954/2445660-endless+legend+-+vaulters+negociation.jpg)

IMAGE(http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1197/11970954/2445659-endless+legend+-+vaulters+battle+deployment.jpg)

OUT NOW!

Yeah, this game looks freakin' awesome.

It looks good and Amplitude has a way of making great strategy game UI. And I am a sucker for fantasy 4x games. But I am waiting on this one.

tboon wrote:

Amplitude has a way of making great strategy game UI.

It's just a shame about the AI. I never really got into Endless Space because the AI was so poor. I'll be watching this with cautious hope, because the art style really tickles my nethers.

Quite interested in this. I know Endless Space received a lukewarm reaction but at least it had a reasonably interesting theme compared to other space 4X games. I still have one of ES' loading screens in my wallpaper rotation.

I'm enjoying it so far, but the current alpha turn limit is 200. It will open up later. The narrative structure of each faction is interesting.

I've played maybe five hours or so. There's no tutorial yet, so some aspects of the game are still murky to me.

The game is all kinds of pretty - in fact, the map is on the verge of being too busy with pretty stuff; thankfully, that's mitigated by the slick mouseover help system. The interface is very good - I was only stuck at one point trying to find information, and a quick search of the interface turned it up. Movement, construction, and gaining information about the world is intuitive and fast.

The basic gameplay works like this: you build one city per region, and it initially only gains resources from the six hexes around it (apparently you can expand later, I haven't done this and I'm not really sure how it works). Every region has a minor faction in it; these factions can be pacified by force, pacified by quest, or each individual village can be bought off. You can build a city in a region that has not been pacified (which is what usually happens with your first city); if you do that, expect the occasional siege or battle until you get the local villages calmed down. Once you've got a city and pacified villages, you can assimilate that minor faction, which allows you to build their units and add them to your armies. Putting a city in a region gains you control over that region and expands your borders, presumably helping you win the game.

The combat is pretty straightforward, you move units around in armies. When you make contact and start to fight, the map zooms in, your units spread out, and your location on the strategic map becomes the center of the tactical map. This means that where you start the fight has some tactical implications, and there are gains to be had from proper deployment. It's an echo of how armies used to fight - moving in columns, and then spreading out before actually going into battle. You don't directly control your units, but rather give them general maneuver instructions and targeting instructions; once that's done, two rounds of the battle occur before you can change orders.

Your heroes and units gain experience and level up, while your heroes can also equip new equipment, either found or researched. Some of this equipment has resource requirements, which can be met either via quest rewards or resource extraction (which I have not yet figured out how to do). Exploring consists largely of searching ancient ruins, which sometimes give you monetary rewards, items, or quests. The quest rewards are good, and they give your heroes a purpose besides just scouting. Some of the quests are quite difficult, and it's possible to screw yourself by taking on too many at once; for example, I took a "clear monsters" quest from one village to pacify it, went and killed the monsters, and checked in at another village on my way back ... who gave me a quest to attack the first village, which caused my first quest to fail even though I'd already killed the monsters.

Downsides: I have not yet seen a city be taken, either by roaming minor faction units or by organized armies. What happens instead is the city comes under siege, which causes it to lose access to the resources on every hex but its own. When this happened, I brought an army back and broke the siege, so I'm not sure if you can eventually take a city by laying siege to it or if there's another way. So far I've been militarily dominant, although that may be because the Wild Walkers, the default player faction, start out with all ranged units. I have lost units in combat, so it's certainly possible, I just haven't lost a battle with a hero-led army yet. The AI, even when it declares war, doesn't really seem interested in fighting. I have yet to see an enemy hero, although I nearly had my ass handed to me by some giant tree things.

So overall, it could be a smooth-playing, fun, fantasy-themed Civ; the infrastructure is there, but I'm not yet able to tell if they pulled it off. Multiplayer is in the menu, but is not available in the alpha.

On expanding: You can choose "Create Boroughs" or whatever the verb is, and you can pick a hex to expand outwards from. Not only do you get that hex, but all surrounding hexes.

The game sticks with the same 4 resources from the previous endless games: F.ood I.ndustry D.ust and S.cience. Food defines growth for your society, Dust is currency, industry defines production and science defines research.

Also, you can have the battles auto-resolve.

The narrative structure seems similar between factions, but gives you quests which act as your impetus to explore the map and learn the history of the factions. They all play slightly differently, for example: the necrophage starts out with a quest to kill other armies, where the Vaulters have a quest to explore a certain amount of ruins.

Your Heroes can also garrison cities in order to provide a bonus on something. This is chosen in the heroes tech tree.When they level up you can assign them specific skills that work for battle, diplomacy or production.

I'm having a lot of fun exploring the game, and keep starting new games to try out new strategies. Recently, there was discussion on their forums on what to do with Winter. The forum goers brought up the idea that all production outside of the city proper would stop. Currently, you get a negative bonus on your food production among other things. It's interesting to get involved in this level of discussion.

I really look forward to see where the game goes.

I'm really interested in this. Is this easier to get into compared to Endless Space??

More interesting?

I'm also very interested but instead of giving in and picking it up I just did another 5 hour sessions of Civ5 instead.

The description of this game makes it sound like a higher budget (and less dense) Dominions 4-type of affair. Is there any truth to that?

Balthezor wrote:

I'm really interested in this. Is this easier to get into compared to Endless Space??

More interesting?

Have you played Civ V? If yes, then yes. If no, then maybe.

AndrewA wrote:

The description of this game makes it sound like a higher budget (and less dense) Dominions 4-type of affair. Is there any truth to that?

Yes, that seems apt. The vibe I'm getting is if Stardock's Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes was influenced by Civilization and not Master of Magic it would be very similar to this. I meant that in the best way, not in the denigrating way people talk about the Elemental/Fallen Enchantress series.

Interestingly,the Dominions series most reminds me of a more dense Master of Magic. I feel like we're playing three degrees of separation here. lol

Of course, take what I say with a grain of salt, I've been watching a bunch of LP vids when I can but haven't played it myself.

garion333 wrote:
Balthezor wrote:

I'm really interested in this. Is this easier to get into compared to Endless Space??

More interesting?

Have you played Civ V? If yes, then yes. If no, then maybe.

I love Civ 5!!!

But I never really got into Endless Space. Which Im worried abou

This looks nice. Loving the resurgence of the mid-tier PC game we have been having. Back in '08, it looked like the only turn-based games we would get would be Civ and an occasional East European concoction that was completely broken. Now we get a handful of cool ones each year.

Don't forget Warlock 2 if you're into these kinds of games. That could fill the wait nicely.

I have to admit, I keep nearly buying the game, both because of the awesome title (Endless Legend... it's an aspiration), and the slick looking gameplay/graphics.
Then I remember that I haven't played Civ 5 in... a long time, haven't played Sins of a Solar Empire in longer, and couldn't get into Endless Space and I realize I love the idea of a 4x game, but it always ends up boring me (blasphemy, I know).
So I haven't bought this yet.

Taharka wrote:

I have to admit, I keep nearly buying the game, both because of the awesome title (Endless Legend... it's an aspiration), and the slick looking gameplay/graphics.
Then I remember that I haven't played Civ 5 in... a long time, haven't played Sins of a Solar Empire in longer, and couldn't get into Endless Space and I realize I love the idea of a 4x game, but it always ends up boring me (blasphemy, I know).
So I haven't bought this yet.

I can relate. I really like 4x games, but I've grown incredibly bored of Civilization. Civ is a great game, but there's only so many times I can research Writing.

Based on what you wrote I see absolutely no reason for you to buy into an early release game in a genre you may be interested in but don't like playing.

Taharka wrote:

I have to admit, I keep nearly buying the game, both because of the awesome title (Endless Legend... it's an aspiration), and the slick looking gameplay/graphics.
Then I remember that I haven't played Civ 5 in... a long time, haven't played Sins of a Solar Empire in longer, and couldn't get into Endless Space and I realize I love the idea of a 4x game, but it always ends up boring me (blasphemy, I know).
So I haven't bought this yet.

I'm right there with you. I love the idea of 4x games and find myself struggling to stay engaged in one. With that said I found Warlock 1 scratched that itch nicely, as did Endless Space. It was a case of less being more. The limitations placed on the player made the game feel more focused and more about unit tactics than empire management.

I'm tempted by Endless Legends, but I'm playing Dark Souls 2 right now and want to play Warlock 2 so I may have to put this on the 'Steam Sale' list.

Carl

Also keep in mind that it is currently in Alpha with a ways to go. A more fully featured product will be waiting for you when you come back around.

Yup, it's on my Definite Buy list, but I'm waiting for it to be complete rather than early access.

Farscry wrote:

Yup, it's on my Definite Buy list, but I'm waiting for it to be complete rather than early access.

That brings up an interesting question about Early Access (all Early Access), as we've seen with Minecraft, these "betas" can take years to complete.
Are you sure you'll still want to play Endless Legend in 2+ years?

Quite certain. Heck, I only first played Master of Magic about three years ago and loved every minute of it.

I'm interested if only because it almost seems like "Game of Thrones Title Sequence: The Game" from an aesthetic standpoint.

indy wrote:

I'm interested if only because it almost seems like "Game of Thrones Title Sequence: The Game" from an aesthetic standpoint.

Certainly not a bad thing.

QUE THE STRINGS.....NAH NAH NAHNAH NAH NAH NAHNAH NAAAAAAHHHHHH

Carl

indy wrote:

I'm interested if only because it almost seems like "Game of Thrones Title Sequence: The Game" from an aesthetic standpoint.

I'm sorry, but every time I hear "Game of Thrones title sequence", I think of this:

Taharka, Carl, garion... If Civ 5 bores you, try Crusader Kings or Europa Universalis 4.

Not trying to knock Endless Legends, in fact, I'm going to buy it. I'm just saying, there's more to grand strategy than Civ-alikes, as good as they can be.

Robear wrote:

Taharka, Carl, garion... If Civ 5 bores you, try Crusader Kings or Europa Universalis 4.

Not trying to knock Endless Legends, in fact, I'm going to buy it. I'm just saying, there's more to grand strategy than Civ-alikes, as good as they can be.

Is Crusader Kings the one I've heard is incredibly buggy?
And EU4 seems daunting. Even though we now have a "Sands Teaches" video for the GWJ community.

Robear wrote:

Taharka, Carl, garion... If Civ 5 bores you, try Crusader Kings or Europa Universalis 4.

Not trying to knock Endless Legends, in fact, I'm going to buy it. I'm just saying, there's more to grand strategy than Civ-alikes, as good as they can be.

I've certainly given those a shot. I have them both in my library of shame. I haven't given up on them yet but right now Dark Souls.

Carl

Neither of them have been buggy in the last few years, to any noticeable degree. This is in stark contrast to Paradox's earlier reputation, but both the base games and the supplemental releases have been remarkably bug-free and smooth. No fear on that point.

Check out the discussion threads for both of them if you are interested.

I have the budget for a single new game and am trying to choose between Warlock 2, Age of Wonders III, and Endless Legend. Tough choice. Any opinions?

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