I’ve been playing the limited preview demo for Endless Legend 2, and have fallen in love. As a 4x aficionado, Endless Legend 2 is shaping up to be an all-time classic, and it’s not even out yet.
Amplitude Studios recently delayed the Early Access launch of 4x strategy game, Endless Legend 2, to September. As recompense, the developer dropped a surprise demo on Steam. The catch? The demo only features a fraction of the content, and it’s only available through August 18. [UPDATE 8/18/25: The demo has been extended!]
Burdened with a tense deadline, I nonetheless quickly fell in love with Saiadha: the world, the quest events, the art style, the soundtrack, and most importantly, the rich gameplay that blends tactical combat with strategic exploration and expansion.
Read on for our Endless Legend 2 Preview!
A Whole New World
The tutorial drops players onto the oceanic planet with the Kin of Sheredyn faction. The Kin of Sheredyn are a bunch of zealous, militaristic humans — descendants of an interstellar empire. They’re the most traditional faction, recruiting human and robot soldiers, expanding their territory, and fortifying their cities. They specialize in military fortifications, making their people happier with defensive structures, though they aren’t necessarily keen on conquest.
The world of Saiadha is absolutely gorgeous, and an obvious improvement over the original game from 2014. The terrain is realistic, varied, and saturated with color. The elegant UI and easy-to-read maps also make a return, elements that I’ve come to expect (and adore) from this seasoned strategy game developer.
For the first 20 or so turns, it’s business as usual for anyone who’s played a Civ-like strategy game (and there are several options these days). I build resource-producing districts from my capital city, explore the surrounding territory and build camps to claim them, and interact with Minor Factions. Minor Factions come in different exotic flavors, from half-snake orcs to humanoid crystals, and can be conquered, or pacified by completing a quest.
Pacifying a Minor Faction allows me to add them to my empire as citizens, and build their signature combat unit.
The quest from a nearby camp of Sollusk (that’s the snake one) wants me to kill some newly spawned bandits near my city.
Combat received a nice overhaul in Endless Legend 2. I love the Endless Space and Legend games, but the auto-combat-with-cards was never their strong suit. Endless Legend 2 finally provides full, hex-based tactical combat, a la Age of Wonders. The battlefield takes place right on the map, using the existing terrain, similar to Amplitude Studio’s previous 4x effort, Humankind.
Units have their own movement values and stats, and heroes have additional active and passive abilities.
Battles are much more engaging and interesting in Endless Legend 2
Hero units return from Endless Legend, with their full skill trees and equippable items to shape them over the course of the game. Heroes can also form bonds with one another, and apparently acquire rivals.
After reaching a quest site I acquire my first hero, a powerful archer. After a number of turns I can hire an additional hero, and I choose a defensive soldier. I stick them in the same army along with some archers and soldiers, forming a powerful squad.
And that’s when the first Tidefall hits.
Parting of the Sea
Tidefall is a new addition to Endless Legend 2, a global event that affects the entire plane. Tidefall lowers the sea level, revealing entirely new areas, pathways, hidden ruins, and anomalies. It’s an awesome way to evolve the world alongside the players. The Tidefall mechanic also creates safer, more isolated starting zones.
After exploring the new areas opened by the Tidefall, I find my enemy, the Necrophage, the classic eat-everyone insect-people from the first game. Diplomacy isn’t exactly at option with these guys. They have the numbers, but I have the superior firepower thanks to my sturdy heroes and balanced army of ranged and shielded units.
While battling the pithy but annoyingly numerous Necrophage armies, I can explore dangerous ruins, sending armies to plunder sites for new treasures, and turn them into free camps. Camps are needed to claim territory, and eventually turn into cities, or attach the entire territory to a nearby city.
As with other modern 4x games, Endless Legend 2 is leaning toward fewer but larger cities, cutting down on the tedium of rebuilding the same buildings and districts in a dozen different cities. By attaching a camp to my capital city, I gain new places to place districts, increasing my Dust (money), Industry, Science, Influence, and Food production.
Expanding cities and placing camps cost Influence, which is also needed to activate my special faction abilities. Like heroes, my faction “levels up” by reaching certain milestones, granting special new abilities, including taking another turn with my army.
The monsoon events spawn powerful enemies and violent clashes
One of the elements I’m most pleased to see return from the original game is the musical composer, Arnaud Roy. Endless Legend’s soundtrack is criminally underrated and beautiful, and Roy is back with another achingly beautiful soundtrack, helping to bring Saiadha to life.
Rainy Season
Nearing the end of the demo (around 90 turns), I wage a serious war with my Necrophage neighbors, only to be rudely introduced to their sturdy behemoths, which absolutely wreck my army when I attempt to invade.
Thankfully, my leveled and equipped heroes don’t permanently die, but remain off the board for several turns while they heal. After reaching a certain level, heroes can even build their own homes within their home territory, and take on a Companion for further bonuses.
But I won’t have a chance to explore the Hero Haven; the second Tidefall hits the planet: a mansoon. This violent, world-wide event breaks temporary bridges, creates rifts that spawn nasty enemies, and cause minor factions to become much more aggressive and dangerous. I barely eek out a Score Victory when the demo ends, giving me a taste of Saiadha’s seasonal dangers.
The demo also includes the Aspects as a playable faction. I messed around with the unique faction, which focuses much more on Diplomacy, and spreading their all-important Coral to expand their cities, heal their units, and explore the world. They’re like robot water-hippies who are all about the peace and love, man.
The Aspects specialize in spreading coral and playing nice with neighbors
It hasn’t been entirely sunshine and roses during my time on Saiadah. Enemies simultaneously moving when I do is jarring in a turn-based game, and I kept experiencing a weird bug that caused quest windows to disappear as soon as they opened.
The demo’s only been out a week, and already the developers are gathering feedback and sharing survey results. With Early Access still a month away, they already have a list of bullet points to cover, including adding more factions, improving AI, and expanding diplomacy. Endless Legend 2 is already a solid strategy game, and it’s only going to get better.
Endless Legend 2 Early Access will launch September 22 on Steam.
