Endless Legend - Game Review

Endless Legend – Game Review

So recently I was trying to complete the four 20 mode on Five Nights at Freddy’s. However partly because it’s stupid and partly because I suck I couldn’t do it so a friend recommended I give a game on steam a go. It was called Endless Legend and there was a free trial for it on Steam at the time so while I don’t often play strategy games I thought it was worth trying out. A few weeks later here I am having clocked in far too many hours into it and recommending it to anyone I can find.

 

Endless legend is a 4X strategy game based in the fantasy lands of Auriga. The first thing that struck me when opening the game was its beautiful art style. To be blunt the game looks great, the varying climates of Auriga all look superb and each individual unit and city style to each faction has a unique and interesting look to them. The fantasy setting gives the game a unique feel and it was a joy to explore the map of Auriga.

 

Looking nice is great but the real important thing in a game is gameplay so what’s that like? On the surface it is similar to any other 4X strategy game. You found city’s you create military units to battle against other players as well as the minor factions scattered across the land, the games currency dust is used to upkeep your city, units and accelerate your production of buildings and units. Depending on where your city is built different stats, are increased, you research new technologies and you can win by eliminating everyone else, reaching a certain amount of wealth or by being diplomatic, the usual. However Endless Legend has some very unique and innovative features. Each faction has a unique quest line to complete and completing all your quests first grants you a victory. This was interesting as each faction had a different quest line with a cool story attached. The aforementioned minor factions can be pacified through bribery, destroying and rebuilding or completing a quest for them. Then you can assimilate them into your empire which not only gives you a bonus depending on the minor faction but also gives you access to a new type of unique unit. Maybe your faction you are using doesn’t have access to archers then assimilate the Jotus, a two headed wolf type people, and you’ll be able to use their archer units.

 

Another great feature is the battling system. You can automate battles but you can also move your units manually for a tactical fight. Each unit has different speeds and attacking power and defence and sometimes using terrain to your advantage can be key. Once I had a huge army, vastly outnumbering a friends but he had some extremely powerful archers on top of a cliff. My units had to go the long way round to reach his archers and thus they were picked off before they could reach him. Tactics like this mean the battles require thought and are not just reliant on numbers and having the most powerful units. This is further epitomized by the heroes in the game. They have built in RPG elements, they level up and you can place new skills into three separate skill trees. Depending on your empire and situation you may find it better to assign a hero to an army for that extra edge in battle or it may be beneficial to assign them to a city to boost your income and science. Even when assigned to a city they can still defend it if it is attacked and they can be reassigned as many times as you please so picking the appropriate skill points is vital.

 

Heroes along with normal units can also be upgraded with stronger equipment as you find and start mining better strategic resources. You start with basic level 1 iron equipment but as you progress through the research eras you gain access to stronger iron equipment. You can also mine strategic resources that can be used to create even more powerful weapons and armour. The catch is you have to wait until you can mine them so while you would like to give all your troops Hyperium weaponry, if you’re at war and need units quickly this may not be possible. You can however upgrade your earlier units that start with iron and give them stronger weapons once you have acquired the materials meaning your earlier troops do not become useless during the late game. What the game calls luxury resources are also available. Using these gives your empire a boost in a certain way, wine for example makes all your cities a lot happier, I guess they’re all too drunk to notice what’s actually going on.

 

What usually puts me off strategy games is after a couple games it feels like I’m just repeating the same things over and over. So far with Endless Legend I haven’t experienced this at all, each game feels fresh and new. This in part is due to the 8 different factions. Unlike other strategy games each faction plays differently, whether it’s never being at peace with the Necrophages or only being able to found one city with the Cultists or my personal favourites, the Broken Lords not having access to food but instead using the games currency dust to grow population and heal units. Each faction not only looks completely different they all have unique traits and abilities making them more suited to certain playstyles and situations. This gives a different experience every time you pick a new faction to play as. All this means you are never having the same play through twice as you never know where you’ll find certain recourses or what you’ll have access too.

 

I found a lot of enjoyment through the Diplomacy screen. You can trade with other empires, form alliances, ask them to attack other empires and generally feel like you are interacting with the other players in Auriga. The research system is also enjoyable, instead of research trees like other games you can research any technology from your current era. This allows you to not limit yourself to one playstyle as you play through the game.

 

There is one noticeable problem I found however that is worth mentioning and that is that the game isn’t quite as polished as other games available. Both my friend and I have experienced a few crashes and the game can be a little buggy at times. Sometimes I would click on something and it wouldn’t register and once I had a hero randomly disappear. The AI at times also isn’t great, units can go completely the wrong way in battles, costing you their lives and sometimes the enemy AI is not very responsive when they’re supposed to be at war.

 

What Endless Legend does have however is personality. The visual style as well as ambient sound track provides a superb setting for a game you will invest a lot of time into. This game gives a unique and innovative take on the 4X strategy game genre and I found its occasional lack of polish to be irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. With some great gameplay, interesting lore and backstory and superb ambience to boot, Endless Legend is a game I can definitely recommend.