When I first played Endless Space 2 on a Steam Free Weekend a few years back, I was awed. Exceptional sound design, beautiful UI, wonderfully animated characters, faction quests with impeccable voice acting. Never before has a 4X game been presented so well, and left such a powerful first impression. However, even the most beautiful art loses its luster if you see it over and over again, and as my attention shifted to the game mechanics and actual gameplay, I grew ... appalled. So many balance issues! Entire game systems trivialized due to various loopholes! For instance (skip the rest of this paragraph to avoid spoilers), my first planetary invasion was a blood bath. I lacked the technology to drop many troops, and had to wear down the defenses of the planet over a dozen turns, while the defenders kept conscripting civilians until nary a soul was left alive. I was impressed. Finally a game that portrayed the overtaking of an entire system with the gravitas it deserved! And then I discovered that troop transports don't just transport troops, but also raise the deployment limit. As often as you want. My next invasion was over in a single turn. On so was every invasion after that. And I could name many other examples. Needless to say, the AI is unaware of these loopholes. In fact, the AI is incredibly passive even with utterly obscene production bonuses. And so I stopped playing. Beauty is only skin deep.
