I haven't played that many 4x strategy games and I'm barely familiar with the term, but I have played an immense amount of strategy games and you can see Endless Space being influenced by many classics, like the Galactic Civilization series. Endless Space is a 4x turn based strategy game that puts a heavy focus on exploration, diplomacy, economy and war, but don't expect something combat focused like Sins of a Solar Empire or Freespace, this game is more focused on building your empire. You have eight different races to choose from, all of which have their traits, bonuses and negatives, and you can play the game singleplayer or multiplayer. Each race also has a massive tech tree, most of which is the same between all races, but each tree has unique technology specific to each race. There isn't a story based campaign in Endless Space and it is just big open sandbox style game that lets you customize everything. It came out on July 4th, exclusively on Steam and PC, and costs $30. The game can be played solo or with many other players online. For a general preview of the game watch this video, but the rest of this post will be focused on reviewing the different portions of the game.

The soundtrack in Endless Space definitely gives you a feeling that you are exploring a huge galaxy, but it is quite limited. The music is pretty good and fitting, but it could use a bit more variety and it becomes background noise pretty quickly, especially after you've played through a ten hour campaign. The combat sounds are pretty good, but they could use more emphasis on some sounds. For instance, explosions are quite underwhelming and missiles don't sound like they are giant metal contraptions of death flying through space. You could also make the argument that there should be no combat sounds at all, since it is space and space realistically doesn't have sound, but that just wouldn't be any fun.

The artificial intelligence in Endless Space is bound to make you appreciate it and dislike it at the same time. This is one of the few games out there that will actually let you have a peaceful co-existence with other the AI and after playing so many games that promise that, and fail, it is delightful to see. Each race has a focus, like diplomacy or economics, and they also have a basic demeanor, like friendly or warlike; the AI actually adheres to those. Furthermore, if you ally yourself with someone you don't have to worry about inevitable betrayal, especially if they are a friendly race. The AI does have problems though.

Endless Space is turn based and the turns are simultaneous, so each player goes at the same time, and the AI will take advantage of that and wait until you move. It is irritating at times to watch the AI cheat in this way, especially when you are trying to catch their fleet. There are also some odd design choices with the AI, like allowing them to force their allies in a ceasefire, which doesn't give the player any options other than to accept it. Even if you decide that the ceasefire is too much and cancel your alliance with an AI, it won't fix the problem. The ceasefire lasts twenty turns and if they force it upon you it is set in stone, even if you cancel your alliance. It will make alliances incredibly annoying and can make it so your ally wins the game instead of you. There are a few other instances where the AI isn't so pleasant to deal with, but for the most part they did a better job with the AI than most other strategy games, even strategy games from huge companies like Creative Assembly.


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Endless Space is one of the best turn based strategy games to land on PC in years. Sure some of elements of it are a bit lackluster, but as a package it is a impressive experience. If you are looking for something action packed and devoid of depth then don't look here, for Endless Space lets you control a massive galaxy of star systems and go through the game however you wish, but it doesn't let the AI work with in perfect synchronization. It is an impressive offering that has a ton of content, especially between singleplayer and multiplayer, and they are continually updating the game and planning for new features in the future. This is a well made, well supported game and it is worthy of your $30.