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dkirschner's Endless Legend (PC)

[November 4, 2017 03:09:07 PM]

Wow. I haven't played a game, aside from the odd Hearthstone match, in three months, literally since the fall semester began. Who am I?

Seeing the light at the end of the semester-long tunnel, my body decided to become sick and so I took a few days off work last week. I mostly watched movies, which is another reason I haven't been playing games (learned I can rent DVDs from library + new Roku TV + free Hulu trial for 2 months means I've had more movies and TV than ever in my life, and I have indulged). But I'm working toward re-balancing media consumption. I'm also 7 books behind schedule to hit my goal of 30 for the year, which is more motivation for re-balancing.

Anyway, while I was sick I booted up Steam and downloaded 3 months' worth of game updates. Then I decided to spend an evening playing something. I chose Endless Legend since I had played the tutorial back in August and another "Endless" game before that. The main reason I had bought Endless Legend is because I want to like 4x games, and this one seemed different enough from the typical Civilization games to warrant my attention. Great reviews always mentioned more of a formal narrative arc somewhat different depending on which of the diverse races you chose, and a narrative with quests and goals (aside from one of the victory conditions) is something I always found missing in Civilization games.

So I played a game on Easy against the AI and lost. Then I played another against just one Easy AI and won. And I'd had enough of it because I guess it's still a pretty standard 4x game, just with sci-fi fantasy dressing. The faction-specific narratives provided nice flavor exploring the motivations of each faction for world domination and the characteristics of them and their leaders. But ultimately, yeah, you explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate. Just with "Endless" resources (dust, gold, industry, etc.) instead of regular game resources. And I don't play enough 4x games to be able to describe other differences. It felt the same to me, and I was a little disappointed. The next one that's been on my list forever is Crusader Kings, which seems like it has a lot more politics in it and is more grand strategy. Maybe I'll like it better.