This might not be something for strategy enthusiasts, but if you're looking for a game that is more about watching a different story unfold every time you play it, then you should definitely have a look at this game. For example, you can build a religion that worships cats and lamas, or one that is all about summoning demons and such. Sure, it does not have much of a gameplay impact, but I don't think that's the point. The point is, this is simply a fun and relaxing game to play.
It's hard to compare this game to anything else simply because it's so unique. Making choices, trying out different things, insulting or flattering opponents in tactical "combat", hyenas that laugh at you and mummies that just want to cuddle... This game is nothing if not original. The only real downside is that there are no random maps or anything, and you can explore all the maps in just three runs taking a few hours each if you aim for it. But I guess that's a good thing to say that the gameplay is so fun that I wish there was more content to explore.
I was just playing my first game, and I was thinking I wasn't doing too bad. I wasn't swimming in wealth, pretty okay in research, made some rookie mistakes, the people where reasonably happy. And then I suddenly got a game over out of nowhere and I don't know why, or what I could have done better. I'll probably still give it a second chance, but generally, I don't like games that start on punishing difficulty like this and have no easier mode, nor games that don't give you feedback when you're doing something wrong and are on the way to a game over. Also, the exploration probes recently missed notes that were displayed to be just in range, which kinda annoyed me since it cost me in-game time and money. Apart from that, it actually looks pretty interesting, so I hope this was just me having my usual share of bad luck.
The game showed promise at first, but I stopped playing after a few hours. The story is interesting, and I would have liked to learn more about it, but the core gameplay simply does not work for me. Specifically, what pushed me over the edge was a moderately difficult encounter where I had several options of how to approach it in the end, tediously checked all of my party members in turn but still had no idea what the best approach was because the game didn't tell me what was needed in advance, picked one at best guess, and was brutally wasted. The UI is not very friendly, and I spent a lot of time just clicking around to get where I wanted to go. At several times I made unintended choices because the UI was confusing, and sadly there's no undo button like in other games that I know. Also, the combat and challenge system is a weird card mini game that is hard to get right and quickly gets annoying because you have to do it all the time.
I hoped this would be something like Dungeon Keeper 2, but sadly, it is not. This is less of a relaxing dungeon building experience, and more of an RTS where you're constantly trying to douse one fire or another. If you like that sort of thing, this might be a game for you. But for me, it was not enjoyable to play even on normal difficulty, and there doesn't seem to be a better setting. Also, the narrator and main character constantly break the 4th wall, which is maybe funny the first time, but after that it quickly gets old. The game tries to be funny, but it really just gets across as trying too hard. I also constantly ended up in the wrong menus, like when I wanted to select my creatures I constantly ended up in the "creatures" menu, which is not for selecting but for hiring creatures, and I never hit the build menu quickly enough, which would be fine if the game was a bit more relaxed. But in a game where you're constantly in a situation where every second counts, that's not good. There's also a research tree, but I never really got to think about what I wanted to get because I also needed to direct my creatures in the overworld, while simultaneously building my dungeon in the underworld... you get the picture. Adding in an overworld was a nice try, but I think it would have been better if the game had just focused on a nice dungeon building experience. As it is, I won't play the game any further, even though I am technically curious about what else it would have to offer. However, since it is simply not enjoyable to play for me, I am going to miss out on that.
It's a really interesting game to play, but personally, I found it too tough to enjoy, even at the simplest difficulty, so I don't think I'll play it a second time. However, for people who enjoy a challenge in resource management, this might be just the thing. It's very thematic too, and the game mechanics work well too. I just really wish there was a casual mode to this game so I could enjoy it too.
This game allows you to do a lot, and there's always a lot going on too. Ship building is the most complex I've ever seen in any game, almost a science in its own right, and I eventually gave up and stuck to the pre-built ship designs. Diplomacy is also something that is permanently happening, and I constantly forget to allocate research simply because there's so much other stuff going on. If you like feeling challenged by your games, you might enjoy that. However, if you want a relaxing space empire building experience where you feel like you're on top of things, then this might not be the game for you.
I really enjoyed the original Endless Space, played it time and time again, so I was looking forward for more enjoyment here. Instead, I ended up quitting for good during my second game. Why? In short, because the game sucks. It has good graphics, but that's literally all it has to go for itself. The tutorial was already kinda messed up, it gave me tons of systems to the point where everything started rebelling and no hint about what to do about it, and then a warning came that another empire was close to winning the game because it had even more systems, gave me quests I had no chance of completing, and so on... The second game fared not much better, trolling me left and right. Systems that I was specifically guarding with a fleet suddenly turned into pirate systems just as my colony ship arrived, neutral empires that I was about to assimilate suddenly disappeared for no apparent reason, and hacking is an absolute joke! The game constantly prompts you to start hacking, then warns you about hostile traces (still no idea what that is), asks if you want to cancel your operation, but says that you'll incur a penalty for doing so, but if you continue then the hacking fails and you get a penalty anyway, and gives you no hint about what to do about it all. All together, it feels like this game has been developed by several teams that did not talk to one another except via mail or Jira tickets, and that's why it's a jumble of moving parts that do not fit together at all. Unlike you enjoy suffering from poor design choices and such, better give this game a pass. Positive aspects are the good graphics, catchy soundtrack and interesting playable species. I would have really liked to try them all out, only it turns out the game is actually not fun to play at all.
If you enjoyed the Roller Coaster Tycoon games, then you're going to love this game too! It takes all the solid basics and improves on them. For example, you can freely change the length and size of ride segments such as curves, slopes and loops, as well as the banking, allowing you to absolutely go nuts with your designs. Also, tunnels are built automatically when you intersect with the ground or water, which allows cool things like vertical loops that are half-underground. The decoration feature where you have to hide "unsightly" buildings behind scenery is surprisingly fun to deal with too. The only thing I really miss is that there's no feature to ride your coasters. But apart from that, this is a really great game.
A game for people who enjoy variety! We all now random maps, events and missions, but this game tops it all with random production chains! In addition to the aforementioned randomness and a number of different biomes, you also get random selections of buildings in every game that challenge you to build your strategy around what recipes are available to you. Sounds tricky? It certainly is! But it is also expertly balanced, so you'll never really get stuck because of the randomness if you know what you're doing. The game also features several different difficulties, some of which introduce wholly new game mechanics, so you can learn the basics of the game at a reasonably tame level and then crank up the difficulty once you feel ready for more. All in all, this game offers endless hours of non-repetitive fun, but still allows you to apply learnings from past games to future ones. It's definitely the most thrilling city builder I've ever played, partly also because there's no save-and-load in this slightly rougelike game. There's only one direction to go, and that is forward, into the unknown.
