Ship designs vary greatly between factions, often mimicking the appearance or evoking the attitude of the commanding race. As the phases of battle progress, the camera cuts to different angles, highlighting the action against beautiful expanses of outer space. Gorgeous battle sequences break up the inevitable monotony of micromanagement.Д¬ombat is also the only time the camera shifts perspective, revealing the grandeur and might of your spacecraft. Unless the tables are tipped in your favor, manually assigning commands is the best way to mitigate damage from an opposing star fleet. You can assign a move for each phase consisting of offensive or defensive maneuvers, or you can opt to auto-battle if you wish to simply roll the dice.

Combat consists of three phases: long range, medium range, and melee. Quite often, though, enemy encounters result in combat. Depending on your faction and resources, it may be best to butter up your opponent with a peace treaty until you've acquired the proper warfare tech to penetrate their defenses. Though Endless Space is daunting in the beginning, deciphering the game's verbiage and developing your potential are what make it a rewarding experience in spite of the challenge.Д®ventually, you encounter outsiders, and before you are thrust into battle, you can negotiate the terms of engagement. You may not comprehend the entirety of the game's systems during your first few matches, but frustrating losses quickly give way to incremental improvements, and each successive match bears the fruit of your experience, narrowing the gap between victory and defeat. The AI is punishing, even on normal difficulty, forcing you to constantly correct past mistakes and improve your ability to micromanage. Give your neighbors a space inch and they'll take a space mile. Newfound dangers and opportunities pop up when you least expect them, and if you don't adjust accordingly, you can count on your opponents to take advantage of your mistakes. Planets are randomly assigned anomalies and advanced resources that further complicate your empire's development path. Just as the densities of star systems and planets vary, so too do their attributes. Lose your footing due to the nonlinear progression or complicated terminology, and kiss your progress goodbye.Д®ven if you've honed your ability to navigate the tech tree, there are some conditions that are completely out of your control. Without proper experimentation, it's easy to waste time and energy on lackluster technology simply because the description is unclear. You do get a clear understanding of the bonuses rewarded once you've acquired a particular tech, but quite often they are only vaguely defined in the initial description. Words like 'epigenetics' aren't common and are bound to leave a few people scratching their heads. One barrier that stands in your way is the elaborate language used to identify and define various technologies. Your empire's technological growth is in your hands. Quite often, what worked during your last match might not be as useful in the next, so it's important to diversify your knowledge of the entire tech tree. The nonlinear design ensures you exhaust numerous matches finding your way within the sea of possibilities. There are four research branches to explore encompassing 138 unique technologies. On the flip side of the coin lies the incredibly complex tech tree. This may not sound impressive, but for a genre that requires a ton of micromanagement and has historically lived deep within complicated menu trees, the UI's ability to communicate in an organized and logical fashion should not be taken for granted. You're not forced to dig through menus time and again instead, you click on notifications to easily access research, production, and expansion tools in an instant. Tutorials appear when you initiate menus for the first time, and there are always reminders when anything of consequence happens during the course of a turn. Thankfully, Endless Space's intuitive UI holds your hand as you stumble down the unbeaten path of galactic domination. To even stand a chance of emerging victorious, it's imperative that you hit the ground running. Earth-like planets are some of the best resource producers around and should be colonized as soon as possible. Before you know it, you're in command of two spacecraft on your home planet with the forces of enemy empires looming on the horizon. There's enough backstory to justify the sci-fi setting and your chosen faction, but little else. The character and environment art are a treat, but their time in the spotlight is short and very much to the point. Once you've committed to a galaxy and faction, you're treated to an intro cutscene in the form of a motion comic. Now Playing: Video Review - Endless Space

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