Start a game with one of them and you'll find yourself with a single settler, a hero and a couple of military units. All are full of personality and offer a radically different way to play. You've got the nomadic Roving Clans, who can't declare open war, but can manipulate the economy and hire mercenaries to cause chaos in enemy provinces the insectoid Necrophages, who consume the corpses of their enemies and can make absolutely no alliances with anyone (though amusingly, for a race of aggressive, carniverous insects they're very polite during diplomatic negotiations) and the bizarre Cult, who look a bit like Smough from Dark Souls, can only create one city, and rely on indoctrinated minor factions to fight their wars and gather their resources. Rather than a few different stat bonuses and the odd unique unit, each faction plays a drastically different game on the campaign map. Along with the excellent art design this imaginative world-building gives each race a distinct personality,which stretches to their in-game mechanics.Ĭombat is almost entirely hands-off, and therefore not that interesting to play. The Broken Lords are a bunch of honourable, courteous knights who just happen to consume the life-force of their enemies, while the Viking-like Vaulters are actually crash-landed survivors from an advanced, space-faring human civilisation. Amplitude has borrowed liberally from typical fantasy tropes – elves, noble knights, norsemen, sorcerers, all-devouring monsters and so on – but given each familiar genre convention a thorough makeover. While the mechanics of the game don't always live up to the same high standard as its world-building and writing, Endless Legend still offers a refreshing take on the 4X genre, with a misfit cast of factions full of variety and character.Īh, the factions. In terms of art style it's probably one of the most unique games I've ever seen, with a beautifully designed sci-fi fantasy world and an appealing minimalist aesthetic.

Endless legend vs civ 5