Endless Space 2 has more interesting mechanics I think, but the AI didn’t seem like it knew how to play the game very well. The factions were varied. I found GalCiv 3 fairly tedious, mostly because of the wide open hex movement through space, since there really isn’t much in the way of interesting features like terrain on land. GalCiv kinda just seems like it fallows the typical space 4X formula - very dry. But, the AI in GalCiv would more likely give you a challenging game - which is worth something. Endless Space uses Star Lanes as the main method of travel while GalCiv has free movement. Both games I played near release so each may have changed.
I’d pass on Stellaris. Other than having some interesting flavor text for events it is mostly a tedious slog. It can be interesting for a little bit during early expansion, and deciding where to station ships at chokepoints (also uses star lanes for travel), but that is it for me. Some people here like Stellaris quite a bit though.
Thanks everyone for responses, I’ll probably go with ES2. Does it still rely so heavily on rock-paper-scissors mechanic as the first game? I remember having to build fleets with specific weapon platforms just to have a chance in the fights.
Also, how are the prebuilt ships? For some reason I never enjoyed the ship builder feature in space 4x games.
Both games use the laser / ballistics / torpedo vs shields / armor / whatever the 3rd is type of weapon and defense systems.Endless Space 2 combat where you steer the flow - such as trying to maintain distance and emphasize a particular weapon. Their combat systems always seem better on paper than in practice, but they do at least try to make it different.
What sets it apart from the other games? I’m having a hard time mustering any enthusiasm for that one because it looks like pretty much every other unremarkable 4X that I’ll forget the name of in a month. Am I missing something?
One thing I love is the dual exploration mechanic. Not only do scouts go around and do their thing, as well as survey ships, you also use, I think, telescopes on your home planet to scan sectors, which take several turns. These scans can find new systems and much more, so exploration is ALWAYS happening, which is great.
Well, I spent a fair bit of time with Interstellar Space: Genesis tonight, and I’m just not seeing it. The telescope thing you mention isn’t really that significant, and it’s certainly not much different than the probes in Endless Space 2. Overall, this feels like a fan-made tribute to Masters of Orion 2, but minus much personality. For a far better example of this kind of game, I heartily recommend Stars in Shadow. But in terms of space 4Xs, these sorts of “hey, Master of Orion 2 sure was cool back in the day!” designs have nothing on Star Ruler 2, Endless Space 2, GalCiv 3, or even Stellaris.
Personally I’m still struggling to find a space 4X that holds a candle to MOO II (and I have all the GalCivs, both Endless Space games, and Stellaris, though I haven’t gotten to playing the latter, maybe I’ll love it. It’s not like I’ve bounced off every single Paradox game I’ve ever tried… oh wait.). But the imitators never seem to capture the magic either.
I didn’t play either it or MoM when they came out (I didn’t even have access to a computer back then, being like 8 or 9 and my mom having other priorities like food and shelter), so I’m not sure that’s it, especially since there are subgenres I think were much better served by later installments than the first one(s) I played (Civ IV, for example, is way better than the first Civ). I think they just have a particular alchemy of good ideas, personality, and a certain unconcern for balance that no one’s quite got a handle on these days. (Especially the unconcern for balance.)
There is a great deal of nerdy “put that in cuz it’s cool” in MoM and other early 90s PC games. A lost art, sadly, in our mega corporate publisher age.
There is just something magical about utterly destroying stacks of thousands with a black hole generator after hours of teching and struggling.
Current generation of devs just don’t seem to appreciate that the whole point of climbing the power curve is to become powerful. And we end up with sillly bland and balanced systems in single player games that takes ages to complete even though you have won.
But I have no idea when I’d be able to buy and/or play them (and I certainly don’t have the money or the time now), so no immediate threat to my wallet.
@rhamorim: Yeah, I was also intrigued by a Kill la Kill The Game. By a complete coincidence I just got done watching the first 3 episodes of that show last week. It’s so over the top I wonder how one would do a game, and would it be a fighting game or an action adventure? The episode in which they have to overcome a series of traps to get to the Academy is one I watched last night. That seemed almost a video game by itself, and yet, would be a pretty hard thing to implement as an actual video game.
