I’ve been forcing myself to play several games of this (as different races) to really get a full experience with the game, after owning it since early access and firing it up for the odd game here and there. I’ve come away with the conclusion that… I just don’t like it much. I don’t hate it, but I don’t care much for it either.
The good parts are the presentation and the different races, they really did a fantastic job there. Each race is lovingly crafted, each with their own playstyles, story, etc. In that regard, it’s the opposite of something like Stellaris where races are randomized and put together via Lego blocks. Narratively in that way, this game is fantastic.
There’s also some features that I want to like but don’t quite work for me. The combat system falls into this category, because in a 4X I think the idea of hands-off battles that you can still influence with the techs you research, how that ties into the ships/fleets you construct, and the playing of Tactics cards sounds exactly what I want in a game like this. I end up just finding it mostly meh, though, and not as engaging or interesting as I hoped it would be.
Influence/diplomacy are kind of in this boat too. I find there to be a lot of interesting concepts at work but they just don’t quite come together and gel in a way that engages me. I find system as a whole is less than the sum of its parts, unfortunately. There’s Influence and diplomatic pressure and actions like diplomatic embraglios, but they never seem to amount to a whole lot and everything can get immediately trumped by simply going to war. I wish going the diplomatic route was more of an option, instead I feel like I have to have a superior military in all situations, in which case I might as well use it to conquer after investing all that tech and industry in building the baddest fleet in the galaxy.
For Heroes, I like the idea but don’t like their implementation. I kind of hate how every hero has skill trees that are pretty evenly split between planetary bonuses and fleet bonuses. I always have the problem while leveling up that I end up with a bunch of filler choices for governors or fleet commanders just to reach the next tier/ring of abilities. I also don’t like how there are no items you can equip the governors with to improve their capabilities, unlike Endless Legend. In EL, I liked getting access to a particular resource and getting the right tech so that I could equip them with items that increased productivity or gold output in the city they were in charge of. Why did Amplitude get rid of that here? Those things combined makes governor heros feel incomplete to me.
Lastly, there’s the things I actively hate. The bugaboo for me is of course the diplo AI, which is a very common complaint I have with the genre so I’m not singling out ES2 here (it’s better than several of its peers, in fact). Still, this is part of the reason the diplo/influence stuff just didn’t quite work out for me. I think with some more attention on the AI, this could be improved.
I really, really hate all the message spam that happens every turn. Every turn, I get bombarded with pointless diplomatic messages from nearly every race in the game. Some of them don’t even make sense. An example from my current game, I’m allied with the Lumaris. We are currently at war with the Horatio, who I am sieging 2 planets simultaneously with a third fleet running around and blowing up their ships as I see them. The Lumaris don’t appear to be assisting in the war effort in any way, but I chalk that up to the fact that the AI isn’t the greatest. That would all be fine, except EVERY DAMN TURN I get yet another stupid message from the Lumaris AI with a “Wounded” mood about how I’m just not helping the war, that this is when allies need to step up and help. The next turn will be a “Distressed” message that they need help (which I’m doing), followed up by another “Wounded” message the next turn. Repeat this ad infinitum.
It doesn’t stop there, though. Horatio also has to send me an insult or dismissive message every turn. The cravers have to message me either turn with either a threat, a demand for tribute, or an angry message because I didn’t pay tribute. This is also in a loop. Add that in with the United Empire doing the same, the Hissho making threats, the Sophons saying hey what’s up, etc. And every message results in a pop-up coming up after my turn has started I’m and already trying to do something. I have to dismiss this message to get back to the action I was trying to complete, but then the 6-7 additional diplomatic messages described above storm through. Then I get notified about 3 quests, whether they be starting, completed, failed, or nearing their end. That’s followed up by Empire A, B, or C might be nearing one of the victory conditions (although they’re obviously nowhere close). I finally filter and sort through all this crap, tell me one planet with an empty queue to build something… then hit End Turn and repeat the process all over again. Argh!
The above would likely be the kind of UI annoyances that I could look past if I were more engaged in the game, but I’m just not. I can get some enjoyment immersing myself in the theme of a particular race and seeing how their unique mechanics work, but nothing else in the game really grabs me. At least not enough to compensate for the aggravations I have. I don’t come back to start a new game thinking “Ahhh, I’m totally going to try this strategy out this time!”, for whatever reason.
Anyway, sorry for the rambling but I’ve pecked away at this game for a while and only in the past month or so have really hunkered down and sunk enough time into it to really inform my opinion. Unfortunately, my feeling about the game ended up being what it was initially: great theme and race design, fantastic presentation and atmosphere, but with a bag of features that don’t come together to form a compelling game. I invested 80 hours or so according to Steam, so at least at this point I feel like I gave it a decent shot. Again, I don’t hate it by any means, but I think the conclusion I’ve come to that it’s just not for me. It’s a shame, because there’s obviously a lot of creativity that the developers showered on this game.