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Notes -
Not defending HoI here - any game is ruined by the PDX DLC treatment, IMO - but the endless games are overrated trash. Visually over and mechanically under-designed, they're the darling of games journalists who play for ten minutes before giving them a glowing review, but a waste of time for anyone who tries to explore any depth.
Endless Legend 2 is basically SMACx, mechanics- wise, although it has more tradeoffs in that researching any technology increase research costs of other technology, so getting all the techs is quite a challenge.
So .. under-designed? How?
I'll agree that it's insufficiently racist and something like the population system from aow would've been preferable, but apart from that it's as good as it's ever been outside of those games written by people who feel they should've been staff officers.
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Damn, tell us how you really feel.
I’m not attacking your credibility—anybody who plays Shadow Empire is clearly looking for something Endless * doesn’t offer—but there’s more to games than depth.
Absolutely true, and anyone looking for visual spectacle will be better served by Endless than by HOI or SE. But @No_one above specifically cited Endless as examples of deep games, which is a point I strongly disagree with.
Endless Space is kinda .. simple, especially combat wise, but Endless Legend is definitely not 'shallow' in the slightest. Sure it looks simple, however..
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