Heads up people, a new 4X space game will be arriving to town, soon. Endless Space is its name and it sounds like a very promising title currently under development by Amplitude Studios, a recently founded game development company with a “create the best strategy games!” moto.
“We definitely want to inherit the values of: Master of Orion, Civilization and to some extent Total War all of that with a strong focus on Multiplayer. ~Amplitude Dev Team
Endless Space seems to have it all. A compelling story, which features an ancient super civilization, several factions to choose from, a big emphasis on discovery (powerful artifacts left from precursors), luxuries and strategic resources management, a tech-tree system, trade, diplomacy, state-of-the-art graphics, modular spaceship design, customized civilizations setup, an innovative and dynamic simultaneous turn-based gameplay, multiplayer, different victory conditions, an hero-character system with unique ability trees and specializations… Check here for all about the features and all other game info. There’s an interesting thread in Amplitude’s forums that talks a great deal about the game design features also. I strongly recommend you check it out!
The game follows a community-driven development approach: the Games2Gether platform. In fact and apparently the same team that is developing Endless Space is behind such platform. Endless Space is as it seems its first experiment. The idea behind this community platform is for players to take part in the game developement process without the need to code. At first glance it seemed like essentially a different flavor for alpha funding, with community participation and goodies involved.
I’m not found of making direct comparisons and cheesy statements but in this case I think Endless Space may be the 4X space strategy game we were looking for next. Stunning graphics, an interesting background-story, an innovative turn-based gameplay model, lot’s of depth apparently. It surely looks promising. I couldn’t find a release date but judging from their progress info they seem to be half-way through alpha phase with about 80% of the game done.
(actual game trailer starts at 1:11 mim. The first part is a Games2Gether presentation)
The discovery of this new gem was not of my making, thanks to AAshbery76 in the Wargamer’ forums for the tip.
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Now that seems something to be looking forward to.
Not a fan of space battles with the same feeling of the old Trafalgar one but I love the planets graphics, the simultaneous TBS, and the character system.
I’m really interested to see what the character system is like. This is something that no 4x game has perfected.
I agree. The best one perhaps is still the MoO2’s one.
This is the one, I can feel it as well Adam. It has everything you might want from a 4x game along the MOO guidelines and in beautifully fully 3D graphics. The only thing I quite didn’t enjoy was the solar system presentation, since the planets seem arranged in a line; it kills the mood in my opinion. Nevertheless this one seems to blow SOTS, GC2 and DW-L out of the water completely; if this game is everything it seems it will be, there is really no contest. Furthermore the whole community driven development concept, although not new at all and if done correctly, should really guarantee an excellent game.
Pd: I am Fernando Rey, had to register to comment :(
Yes, I have a good feeling also. One guy at the Sins forums asked for a beautiful 4X space game that would be a cross between Sins and GalCiv2. Well, this may be it.
PS: Were you upset to need to register? :( I think it would be best this way in order to releave you guys the hassle of having to fill the form every time you comment. Now you just arrive at the blog and comment straight away (if you check the “remember” option that is).
Yeah, I guess is better this way. But since the browser always remember whatever I input in the form, I never had to enter that stuff. The sad part is that I lost all those posts I wrote before today, but I will try hard to get my new post count up again :D
Hum, so the browser always remembered the credentials for you. Ok, but this way credentials are always the same from anywhere you post from when you login (from your PC, friend’s, cafe, etc).
If you entered the same email you used before you should keep your old comment count ;)
Hmm… The ‘Dust’ resource seems a lot like a global mana pool in games like Master of Magic, Age of Wonders, and Elemental. Master of Magic in space? Yes please!
When I read the “Dust” I immediately though about The Spice :D
Yay! Another one. So now I’m waiting for this and Legends of Pegasus! Let them come to me!
If you mean 4X space games for the near future you’re waiting also for StarDrive, Sins Rebellion (if you’re not in the beta already) and Empire of the Eclipse (if you own an iOS device) ;)
Ye, I know. I will for sure play Sins Rebellion and maybe StarDrive. But this and Legends of Pegasus are TBS :D
Haa yes, I totally understand ;)
In fact I was becoming a bit worried to see only space RTS 4X games coming out these days, not that they’re not enjoyable or all that, but TBS is really something special. LoP and Endless Space seem to be good candidates to keep us busy hitting end-turn.
I think the fun of TBS comes from the anticipation and surprise factor of seeing what where the results of our actions in big chunks, while RTS offers this continuously but in fewer amounts. But that’s a topic for another day.
Yay, a turn-based game. But boo at real-time combat. Are there no more turn-based space combat?
I get excited hearing about a turn-based 4X game, but then find out that the combat is either abstracted away, or real-time, and my spirit gets crushed a bit more :(
The trailer suggests real-time yes, but, I’m still a bit puzzled on how it will actually work. Look at what the devs state about space combat:
«The manual battle is a special game mode. The opposing fleets are presented in a 3D view near the system center planet of the system. The battle is broken into battle phases where each player plays one or more actions (up to three) to attack the enemy, defend his fleet, or apply modifiers to the battle. The battle ends when one of the fleets is destroyed or retreats, or if there is no conclusive winner at the end of the combat phases. If both fleets survive a space battle, the fight can resume at the next galactic turn.»
They talk about “battle phases”, “one or more actions (up to three)”, “battle ends (…) at the end of the combat phases”. What do you make of this?
Their descriptions sounds like “Attack, Defend, or Special” options. Maybe it’s “Rock, Paper, Scissors” mode? In any case, it don’t sound like a turn-based combat, perhaps more like Frozen Synapse’s where you issues orders then watch it get carried out in real time?
They said more details will come, so I’ll keep an eye on it. If all fails, I still have Beyond Beyaan :)
Yea, could be rock, paper, scissors. It doesn’t sound like turn-based alright. It’s funny you mention Frozen Synapse which also uses a simultaneous turn-based system, maybe it’s a similar system here. Issue orders and watch could also be a possibility yes.
I’ll keep two eyes on it :)
I read it as some form of simultaneous turns too. Should be interesting to see how it turns out, although, I am a sucker for full real time battles.
This looks pretty sweet. Between it, StarDrive, and Legends of Pegasus, this could be a banner year for 4x gaming!
hi adam,
from what I read on the forum the game has a strong MP focus but includes AI opponents, ao I suppose it too has SP. Do you know if this is right, since I mainly play SP I’ d like to be sure before getting involved.
Many thanks
btw is there a way to change the password, I certainly won’t keep the automatically generated one :-)
OK I should have checked it myself before asking. I already changed it. :-)
I had the same doubt as you. So much emphasis in multiplayer also led me to believe that SP could be simplified, or perhaps even not present at all?? There is SP alright, that’s confirmed here “The game puts a number of empires into confrontation, either controlled by human players or AI players.”. Uff… that was a close one :)
If what I saw was a tech tree, wow, looked really expansive. Something more than Civs? Hopefully!
I will say out of the great previews you show us Adam this one has me excited most.
Yes, it’s the tech tree :)
Thanks Kyle, I was excited myself and that probably showed.
Wow that looks amazing. Exactly what I have been looking for since MOO2. Will definitely be getting this then Legends of Pegasus.
I’m a bit late in reviewing this but…
Cut to the chase…if you can get this for free, go for it! BUT…I would NOT buy this game at this point in its development. Definitely not worth $40, in my opinion. There are plenty of things to fix in this game that the developers have yet to address. Perhaps after several MUCH NEEDED patches and updates, this may be a viable game to consider for $40. So, give it 4-6 months, to see if things get fixed, before you decide to invest your entertianment funds on this game.