Amplitude’s bleedin’ gorgeous fantasy-strategy 4X game Endless Legend will blast free of Early Access and launch in full on Steam this September 18.
The European retail boxed edition will be released one day later. The physical copy comes with an art book showing off the game’s distinctive visual style and each of Endless Legend’s eight playable factions.
Amplitude has also released the game’s soundtrack for free on Bandcamp, and posted a making-of video to the GameAudioFactory Youtube channel.
Endless Legend is set in the same universe as 2013’s space 4X Endless Space, but swaps starships and lasers for dragons and arrows. Not that the game’s setting is your traditional fantasy world; each of Endless Legend’s factions are unique and visually stunning, taking generic fantasy tropes and giving them a interesting twist.
Gameplay-wise there’s the familiar 4X pillars of combat, diplomacy, exploration and technological research. Players build up their civilisation, do their best to enslave or destroy everybody else’s, and try not to die during the game’s punishing winter seasons, when food is scare and travel severely restricted. Oh, and the terrain and building design has that abstract, almost origami-style look. I’m rubbish at describing it. It’s very nice.
My main concern when I previewed the game earlier this year was that navigating the pretty but not very user-friendly menus and tooltips could be a frustrating experience. We’ll have to wait until September 18 to see if Endless Legend’s gameplay can match that stunning aesthetic.
