Endless Legend 2 Game Analysis

Endless Legend 2 Game Analysis

All the basics
Name of the game – Endless Legend 2
Platform – PC
Time played - 6 hours
Demographics - TBD
Overview of the game

Endless Legend 2 is a 4x strategy game still in early access. When it comes to 4x any game will be directly compared with Civilization franchise. Endless Legend 2 has not only created a great 4x game but a competitor in this genre of games. A turn-based game which has fantasy elements and lore on each turn combined with Heros that can be customized with items, a hint of RPG is also introduced through this. Every step of the game feels different than Civ 6 or Humankind (I’ll be comparing the game with these 2 games frequently because of the highest resemblance, I haven’t played Civ 7 yet), exploration, enemies, AI behavior, economy, city development, expansion, war, diplomacy and lastly hero development. It might sound like the game will get repetitive at one point during a session but to counter that this game features a unique monsoon season during which random events can occur, enemies can get more aggressive, vision is reduced, this gives completely new experience every session. After monsoon ends, new land rises from the sea that joins the current map making you fight for the new land and the resources that comes with it. The battle for land and honor is enhanced by manual battles with unique active and passive abilities given to heroes. These abilities can be used strategically in battle to give you an upper hand, think of Baldur’s gate 3 battles but simplified.

Goals/Objective of the game

The objective of the game is to win the race of survival in the set number of turns through score, science, domination using the resources available in the world and doing whatever it takes to get there.

Rules/Mechanics

Gameplay loop –
Do the actions -> End Turn
Gameplay mechanics
Tidefall – changing the world landscape in real-time during the game
Spells and skills – heroes can be upgraded and have a skill tree
Minor settlements – Minor settlements can be assimilated in your kingdom by completing their quest or bribing them. They can even be destroyed by fighting them, but they don’t give any benefits after that.
Expansion, Exploitation, Extermination, Turn-based. The basic ones
Game feel

The world is set on a mysterious planet called Saiadha. The ground and foliage feel earth like, but when monsoon comes the mysterious feeling enhances, there is a wizard like feel to the world with gold dust spawning randomly in the world, golden lightning striking in places. There is a sudden mood change that also gives you a sense of alertness. After the monsoon ends, new land appears with fantasized minerals, alien-like foliage and resources, even the world wonders start to appear out of the ocean. A very grandeur feel is felt from these wonders as they are huge and animated with spectacular vfx. The army also gives a feel of fantasy world. The UI elements give an ancient feel mixed with modern fantasy world. The icons convey the medieval era (Aztec like) which is also conveyed by the design of the buildings and army clothes.
How effective is the tutorial of the game?
The game starts with a very descriptive tutorial, each and every step is guided very intentionally and it takes you to the next menu with proper UI elements that guides you were to click next and it takes you to the next page until you complete the objective that is given in the tutorial. This really helps any new player that is unknown to how 4x games work, and it really helps new players get accompanied to new games easily.
Since I am used to playing 4X games the tutorial was very quick and easy for me to follow. I went through the tutorial just for the sake of this analysis and I can definitely say that it was complete and it did not leave any gaps for a new player to start the game in the unknown.
One thing that could be improved was highlighting the button or the icon in a proper way because I spent a lot of time searching where to go when there was no proper UI guidance.
All the new aspects of this game were covered properly the tutorial ends and it gives you an option to continue the game from where you left.

Controls

The controls are straightforward, left click to select the unit, city or camps. Right click to move the unit or to go back to the map when any other menu is open.

How were the controls introduced?

During the tutorial every new event is explained in detail. Initial phase of the game, which is turn 1-50, all the basic controls and mechanics are introduced. Each event is guided to take you click by click to the intended action and explain what it is and how it impacts the game. Players familiar with 4x games might skip through it but I always go through each tutorial, so I don’t miss anything that is different or important.

Resource management

There are 5 basic resources (FIDSI)– Food is stored on a city-level. Every population consumes Food. If Food is positive the population progressively grows. If Food is negative the population progressively declines, starting with the ones that consume the most Food.
Industry is stored on a city-level and is primarily used to create units and structures or be converted into another resource via Convert Actions but can also have more exotic uses like powering converters or allowing landscaping. If a city is not using Industry, it will store up to one turn of their production as surplus. The surplus will be instantly added to the next construction when one is ordered. Everything that costs Industry will show the number of turns it takes to complete next to the cost.
Dust is stored on an empire-level and is primarily used to pay for army upkeep, accelerate constructions via Buyouts, purchase Strategic and Luxury resource, or bribing minor factions, but has numerous other uses as well.
Science is stored on an empire-level and is used to research technologies.
Influence is stored on an empire-level and is to build Foundations, attach or evolve Camps, and conduct diplomacy with other empires.

There are 6 strategic resources

Strategic Resources are Saiadha's common raw materials needed for the construction of certain Units and Improvements, and to unlock Unit Specializations. Strategic Resources are harvested from naturally occurring Deposits by building Mines.

Titanium, Glassteel, Lazualin, Hyperium, Eradione, Thalitne.

There are 16 luxury resources, each of them provides a different buff to the city, they can be used for trade. They are harvested by building quarries on them.

Trading is unlocked after researching a particular technology and building a trading post in a city. Buying and selling resources can be done with a demand and supply chain effect on the cost of the resources.

The strategic resources are revealed in the world in the later stage after 1-2 monsoons have passed, if you are not ready with your army to seize the new land emerged from the ocean then you can easily miss out on valuable resources. After 1 monsoon season the resources are revealed but they still can be captured by encamping the region, the area is still partially submerged, this allows you to prepare the army before the 2nd monsoon ends.

UI/UX of the game

UI that works

HUD is very clean, with very minimal screen usage when none of the menus are opened. The game is always in the focus even when there is a box container showing information.
The UI color matches your empire color, and the icons have a hand painted feel to it which gives ancient or medieval vibes. The leaderboard is very nicely placed just around the “next turn” button which updates after each turn.

All the menus are neat and instructive of what they are supposed to do. If any player skips the tutorial, then the UI will easily help the player understand how everything works purely based on intuition. It is very well designed to guide the player instinctively.

UI that doesn’t work

The notification menu is kept in a slightly disturbing area of the screen, when it is expanded the container takes up space in the play area of the screen which interrupts vision on the world. It doesn’t retract after clicking somewhere else or on ending the turn. Which feels like should have been the natural thing to do. There are 2 more buttons used to take you directly to the construction menu of a city and the second button that takes you to the army recruitment screen. Both buttons are the least used by me after playing 4 sessions.

Game progression

How does the player improve?
Cities are improved by unlocking more technologies which unlock more districts and their corresponding improvements, these improvements give huge boosts to resource generation or other benefits like reinforcement value.

The army is improved by unlocking skill levels after researching the technology for it. Each army unit has a different skill tree that can be unlocked using dust or by using rare resources. These resources are available in the world to be extracted.

These are few ways to improve the in-game assets. To improve the player’s own skill/gameplay strategies the only way in my opinion is to keep playing more sessions and understanding how to strategize. Taking control of zones with wonders and luxury/rare resources or expanding the army and attacking other empires to take their resources. Playing to the strength and weakness of your own empire is the key. The game gives you ways to improve your cities, army, policies, and heroes. But the game entirely falls in your strategy.

Is there grind?

The game does not feature very heavy grind in terms of focusing on one objective like collecting a specific resource or constantly attacking enemies to “farm” levels for your hero. There is a grind to survive each turn when there is pressure on your empire from other empires due to war or economic crisis. The grind involves smartly moving armies and focusing on vital technology research. There is a subtle grind of fighting any NPC armies that show up near your empire to give experience to your heroes. During monsoon you don’t want to miss out on the free gold dust that appears in the world, the grind the game offers is way less intense than other grind heavy RPG games that depend on repeating same levels just to level up your heroes or to gather resources.

How is the difficulty scaled?

Currently in the testing version of the game, the difficulty is not scaled properly. The AI is very powerful right of the start specifically the warmonger character who spawn hives and easily generate armies, it disrupts the game plan severely. I had to surrender before moving 70 sometimes because it becomes frustrating. Some might say it’s a skill issue but no matter what the skill of the player is, a game should be made to make the player feel fun and in control as much as possible for the player to come back and play the game. Over-doing hardcore/intense gameplay sometimes backfires.

Level Design

Level layout, is it effective?

The world design is very effective in what the game is trying to achieve, i.e. to create uncertainty, surprises, dynamic gameplay, opportunity. Once the monsoon goes away new land appears with rare and luxury resources. More difficult challenges, enemies that can be irritating sometimes but it makes sense to have weird looking armies spawn from mysterious land emerging out of water in a mysterious world.

Pacing of the level

The pace of the game is determined by how quickly you can collect resources and research technologies, after each passing monsoon new land is revealed. After 3 monsoons the entire land is revealed, and monsoons stop coming and the entire world is now land.

If you fall behind on any stage, if a war delays your growth, it is very difficult to get back into the game. I am playing on a difficulty one step higher than the default setting. Though this would be my 2nd time playing the game, I have never understood why 4x games have such imbalanced difficulty levels, one step higher and it gets multiple levels difficult. (skill issue I guess)

The pacing of the game needs major improvements, involving multiple monsoons that slowly reveal the world, starting the game with a few strategic resources available to grab. Like horses available to extract in humankind.

Explorations

World exploration is done using your army, heroes or by diplomatic relations with other factions. It is encouraged in the game to keep exploring the world to collect curiosities, dust (during monsoon). These things give small rewards every time they are collected.

Narrative & Storytelling

Does the game have a strong story?

The game doesn’t really feature a story, but the tutorial does deliver a jist of what the world is and what the objective of the game is. To find out what Saiadhia’s mystery is.

There are cut scenes whenever a settlement is made in a region that has a wonder or settled in a region that is submerged in the ocean before the monsoon came.

Art and Audio

How does art support the game?

The armies are fictional creatures curated for each empire type. Each one represents their strengths and weaknesses. Each resource is represented with a mystical asset and vfx that aligns with the mysterious world that Saiadhia is. Unique shapes justify each resource, and they make sense why they look the way they look. During monsoon the gold dust that looks like gold but floating and revolving almost like a liquid that is alive. Creatures that spread curse in the region look like monsters from another world.

The vfx used on icons and resources compliments the feel the game wants to give to the player, each and every vfx contributes towards the mysterious and fantasy vibe of the world

What kind of art is being used?

3D realistic models for the gameplay and 2d hand painted art for dialogues and character representation in the menus, icons, etc.

How is audio used to enhance the player experience?

During monsoon when lightning strikes, instead of the typical lightening sound there is a vivid thumping sound like a huge press falling on the ground. In the chaotic monsoon season the background music along with rain drops creates a variety and battle ready feel, as if anything can happen at any moment, an extra layer of caution is filled in mind before taking any steps.

In normal gameplay the music is melodious and soothing, giving a sense of calm and peace. This makes the player feel that their kingdom is thriving with no threats in the surroundings. A happy kingdom.
When the player attacks an army a more tribal, energetic background music is played, giving the feeling of war about to begin.

Comparison with other games

How does the game compare to its competition?

Age of Wonder 4, Humankind, Civilization 6 are the few competitions the game has. Humankind also being from amplitude studios is more of a friendly competition.
Age of Wonder 4 is the closest direct competition because it offers almost similar gameplay, the only few differences include art style, combat intensity and several QoLs improvements over endless legend 2.
The art style is more contrasty, more realistic than endless legend 2.
Combat and economy are slightly more complex in AoW 4 with several different tech trees to select from and more detailed and longer battles.

Where does it excel or fall short?

Endless legend 2 focuses more on world building with a simpler combat experience, it also features a world narrative which creates a different take on 4x games. The factions are presets with no customization which for me is a big minus, I like customization and creating different factions for yourself and the AI to play. Age of wonders 4 accomplishes that on the other hand.

A big plus point for me is that EL2’s combat system is simple, not very intensive, keeping focus on more important matters which are to build, work on economy, create strategic outposts and cities. On the other hand, AOW4 focus is on combat, very detailed, high intensity and strategic combats. The world also features several NPC armies that need to be defeated before accessing the resources that they are guarding, even wonders and guarded by NPCs. It feels kind of a bummer to not be able to attack the NPC which is 10 times stronger than you sitting on a very important resource.

The factions in EL2 are very versatile and different from each other. Each have a unique core system to survive and expand their empire. There are only 5 factions to choose from at the moment since the game is still in early access.

EL2 has introduced a unique mechanic which is the tidefall mechanic. The map dynamically changing every monsoon season is something totally different in 4x games (at least the ones I have played) this is something that differentiates the game from any other 4x game.

EL2 lacks replayability right now because of limited customization of factions which gives very little character to the game. AOW4 has custom builds, endless combinations of skills and spells that can be used in battles, to create different armies with different combinations of spells.

AOW4 has much more detailed small mechanics that boost the players’ passive abilities and economy by just doing good deeds or bad deeds. Depending on your traits of the faction you get benefits from doing certain actions in the game.

What would you change if you were a game designer?

The first thing I would add to EL2 is customization of factions, and even the world details. Humankind has very detailed settings that can be tweaked in the world to give a more suitable challenge or situation the player wants to face. EL2 still lacks that.

EL2 also requires a more balanced city building structure and resource balancing. Certain improvements require resources that are not available at all in the early game, city development sometimes gets stagnant just because you need to wait to gain access to that resource which is nowhere near your region.

I will also add spies in the game, spies are a part of every empire, old or new, spies always existed.
The AI factions need a lot of balancing right now; I can give the benefit of the doubt to the devs as it is still in early access. But if this goes in the launch games, I will balance out the necromancer faction and their ability to replicate armies in matter of few turns, expanding quickly and surrounding your kingdom before you even know it.

I personally feel none of the 4x games have nailed diplomacy so far, if I would focus on one thing then it would be diplomacy and giving a personal touch to it more than just clicking on few options that gives the exact same output every time you do it. Diplomacy is something way more than that, AI should be introduced in games with diplomacy and players should be able to convey what they want or feel for the opposition empire. If this is achieved a new level of diplomacy can be achieved in 4x games.

To conclude, EL2 is for sure in the top 5 4x games I have played, and it has created a special mechanic by introducing dynamic landscape/world generation during gameplay. That one feature changes the game by 180 degrees for me every time new landmass appears on the screen. They have attempted to put themselves between humankind and AOW4.