After spending a decade making sure everyone I encountered tried Endless Legend, my favourite 4X game, I might finally be able to shake things up. If things pan out, I'll be updating my proselytising by instead trying to get folks to play the sequel. That's because developer Amplitude has announced Endless Legend 2's early access launch window, and it's this summer.
I'd much prefer an actual date, granted, but it's good enough to know that it's coming soon. To get you ready, Amplitude's been revealing the first factions that you'll get to play around with, including the Kin of Sheredyn, whose ancestors you may have played as in the excellent Endless Space 2, and more recently the Aspects, a bunch of coral-loving cyborgs.
Conveniently, we've also just published our first Endless Legend 2 hands-on, and it sounds very much like it's heading in the right direction. "The sea-level concept of Endless Legend 2's new world already feels like a massive improvement over the drab winter one of its predecessor," Rob writes, "while a focus on narrative victories and the seedling of a relationship system show signs that Amplitude is trying to do away with convention and find more ways to fit storytelling into the 4X framework."
The "sea-level concept" Rob's referring to is Endless Legend 2's new hook—called tidefall—where the map changes over time, with the oceans retreating to reveal new land to explore and exploit. This will hopefully maintain the brilliant energy of the early game, where everyone's rushing to expand into new territory and uncover secrets, throughout a campaign.
There's a lot to look forward to, then, and while you wait, you can check out the handsome new trailer above, which shows off a tantalising swathe of the game.
