ENDLESS SPACE PC DVD

This is a solid 4x game which could easily occupy hours of your time as you progressively develop your empire. There are some bits which could be developed further, but this is a well rounded game, especially from an independent company.Graphics: clear and colourful. The UI is good and zones of influence, resources, research paths and diplomatic/trading options are easy to understand. The stap map scales smoothly as you zoom in from galaxy view to star system and then to each planet. Each race has its own character and their ship designs reflect this well. For example the "Cravers", a warlike robotic species have industrial designs while the "Amoeba" use biological ships. However, the battle camera could be improved. If you let it run itself it usually picks up the key moments, but the free camera view has limited options.Sound: the music is ambient. Pleasant but there are no catchy tunes. The number of tracks could be doubled to help avoid the repetition - you'll spend hours playing so more variety would be good.Gameplay:* Winning - You can win in a number of different ways: militarily, economically, scientifically and diplomatically, although specialising is not advisable. In one game I thought I had it all wrapped up - strong fleets, powerful economy, top-notch research... but the friendly alliance I had been trading with got too powerful and won through diplomatic score. If you don't research the right technology you'll find your fleets being overrun - counter measures are just as important as weapons - and if you don't keep any eye on morale your people will stop working.* Heroes - this is a well implemented feature. You can deploy heroes on planets or in your fleets. They accrue experience which can be used to enhance the system's productivity or improve combat performance. They also gain special cards to use during battles - which becomes increasingly important. The heroes all have specific character histories and abilities, but there are only a limited number (you often see your opponents using the same people on 8 player maps).* Ship design - you can design your ships using technology you research. More advanced ship hulls have different characteristics, although they could be made a litte bit more distinct. There are a decent range of modules, but more diversity is possible. Also, the colour scheme of the icons could be improved to make them look different - they're currently shades of blue with brighter sections to indicate how far along a particular tech path they are. However, in battles they have very different effects - simple laser beams turn from green to blue to purple with dual bolts; missiles get different colour trails etc. There's a rock/paper/scissors system in ship design which affects battles quite noticeably - subtle but effective.* Battles - your fleets have a rating. When they run into a hostile fleet you can tell the computer to calculate the outcome or run the battle itself. The "auto" function seems to be pretty good at getting the same results, but if it's a key battle and you want to make sure your hero plays a particular "card" it might be worth taking control. The cards have different effects - boosters to weapons or defences, repair rate, sabotage etc. It makes battles moderately interesting, but that's about as far as it goes. Basically the fleets approach one another and shoot. There's no control over manouvres, which is something the developers should look to improve. The game engine they've designed is solid, but more could be done. Planetary invasions are even more basic - your fleet has a rating and when you arrive in orbit you can elect to invade. If the rating is higher than the system defence rating then it will tell you how many turns you need to orbit to take over.* Diplomacy works quite well, although there are some flaws which ought to be corrected, or at least the mechanic should be made clear so players can avoid certain situations (e.g. alliances where an ally agrees to a ceasefire from a besieged enemy just before the player captures a valuable system). The trade system is pretty nuanced and provides an effective way of gaining tech. Players can trade a variety of different resources, all of which have different effects and values depending on circumstances.In summary this game has a lot of depth, but sometimes lacks for fun. There is no single player "campaign", but someone has put quite a bit of thought into the background, the Endless, the Dust, the races, their characters, histories etc so there is story to be told. Colonisation can be very slow and samey: Planets have different characteristics and can be improved over time, but I can't help but feel that it just becomes a mechanical exercise - exploration could be made more entertaining. Combat is very strategic and you have to think quite carefully about moving your fleets, but the tactical side is a bit limited. The graphics and music are solid, but some tweaks could go a long way to improving the game.I think this game deserves a good score and I hope the developers continue to improve on this very solid start.

The game looks pretty good; you can configure a lot of settings. The main down side is the battle portion, yes you can make ship designs and assemble basic fleets, but here is little depth to the battle phase of the game. When you meet your enemy, you have no control over the ship movements, only very basic tactics which offer little effect on the outcome. The diplomatic element of the game is also lacking and could use some work to make it more fun.The other slight negative is that this game requires steam to be installed in order to play it. So be prepared for adverts and the usual memory/bandwidth loading steam generates.Overall this is a pretty good game. It's in the vein of Master of Orion, but that had a better combat system. Still lots of hours of game play exploring, researching and expanding your empire.

It's more or less as I expected, a turn based strategy in space.However, there is no tutorial, and at first there were no real clues as to the importance (or irrelevance) of the various resources, techs an improvements. This can be learnt will trial and error, but I lost my first 5 or so games without being told why.It plays quicker than Civilization, so I do keep returning to it, but it doesn't have the same grab or depth as Sid's masterpiece, and I don't feel as involved with the other races, never vowing vengeance for some transgression they have commited.If you enjoy Civ and fancy a change, then this is worth trying for a tenner.If you don't have Civilization 5, then buy that instead, especially with the expansions.

I'd say it's a simple game that has everything you'd like. Systems have multiple planets around stars, there are asteroid belts. The reason it's simple is because colonizing is straight forward, economy is easy to master, moving ships or creating fleets is intuitive. It's a complex game presented very straight forward.Drawbacks include not too many differences between the races, ships are pretty much pre-designed, battles are not as fun. There is no campaign and I didn't encounter the elder race.But overall this is a nice experience.

I found the game boring to the extreme. It is trying to emulate fore-runners such as Imperium Galactica but failed miserably on all levels. Instead you will be drawn into a tedious and ill-conceived process of game play and sub standard graphics. This is clearly a game that was slapped together purley to exploit a genre but does not have any new ideas or actual substance. It was like going back in gaming history and experiencing the worst aspects of gaming all bolted together in one tragic package.

In some ways a bit disappointing; too much effort had gone into fight graphics & not enough into the actual planets. It would have been great to have a game that showed the service of them & teraforming changes. Also it was almost impossible not to give battle.Its nearly a Civ4 in space but not quite - Game designers please take note!!!!!! We don't all want space shoot it up.

I was looking for a space 4 X game and out of all the reviews this looked like a good choice and for the most it is thou it can be a little slow even on a high end machine plus the graphics could better. But it does offer a lot of replay value and is a game where you could lose a few hours.

One of the best 4x-strategy games i've ever played, or ever will play. Graphics: modern quality excellent. Gameplay: innovative, replay-able, fun, challenging, much better than others in its category. I searched for a year for a good 4x game, one that hit all the marks. Sins Of a Solar Empire was fun, but the graphics were "eh" and the game a bit sloppy. No, graphics are not the end all be all, but i'm a quality snob and sometimes I need good, no, great graphics to fully immerse myself in the experience. Anyway, get this game, you WILL NOT REGRET IT!