Amplitude Studios’ Endless Legend was a bleak, lore-filled 4x strategy that turned a lot of heads in 2014. And its first expansion Guardians brings enough new quests, buildings, and primeval titans to keep the diehards happy and stir some new blood into the pot.

Amplitude Studios’ Endless Legend was a bleak, lore-filled 4x strategy that turned a lot of heads in 2014. And its first expansion Guardians brings enough new quests, buildings, and primeval titans. FREE TO GUARDIANS These ancient giants, extensions of the Auriga itself, have broken the chains that the Infinites imposed on them. Own your legendary power and impose your supremacy over the other empires! Find and equip yourself with precious stones (a new category of objects) to strengthen your Guardians even more with new skills.

Discovering and systematically taking control of the hex-based grid that was the world of Auriga was one of my favorite parts of 2014. Endless Legend has enough familiarity to settle seasoned strategy gamers into it quickly. But it was all the strange pieces of minutia that Amplitude added that made it a truly wonderful turn-based experience.

Endless Legend was never satisfied with the standard civ on civ competition: that style of gameplay that pits one society against another, largely-identical society that boasts slightly varied bonuses and a differently colored flag. No: when you struggle for dominance in Endless Legend, it is against nemeses so different in playstyle and appearance that they come off as utterly alien. Winning the game means mastering a new style with each faction you take up arms with: from manipulation and diplomacy to waging endless war against all oncomers.

Guardians merrily continues that tradition, throwing a heavily diverse, new range of shininess to add to your faction’s toybox. These wondrous new buildings, abilities, and quests add a true leg up to whoever is cunning enough to claim them first, and bring a fresh sense of urgency to your game’s choices and timing.

Shared events fill Guardians, offering up mutual hardships beyond the frozen specter of the occasional winter. Sickness, bad luck, and the literal wrath of the gods will affect all factions, sometimes stopping carefully-laid plans in their tracks. There will be other opportunities for you to work together with your erstwhile foes, bringing manpower and resources to fuel a common cause.

But the most intriguing addition to the latest expansion of Endless Legend is its namesake: the Guardians. Ageless, titanic protectors of Auriga, guardians can be summoned and maintained by any faction, and their presence is the definition of a game changer. While some can dish out massive amounts of damage, another can heal entire armies, and yet another can expose huge tracts of undiscovered land. While they are by no means unstoppable, the very presence of these Guardians adds yet another level of tension to every turn and decision.

That’s not to suggest that this new expansion has solved every issue that its original might have had for some. The rudimentary combat system still leaves a fair amount to be desired, and the lack of visual customization in units (beyond their sword and shield) stands in direct contrast to the gorgeous and varied surroundings of Auriga. But when it comes down to it, these remain pithy complaints in the face of such a unique and exciting 4x experience. Endless Legend: Guardians offers even more material for one of the most satisfying strategies in years: definitely enough for anyone who’s been waiting on the sidelines, wondering if this contender was worth a play.

Endless Legend was one of Phil’s favorite games of 2014! Do you think it deserved the hype? Let us know!

Endless Legend is a turn based4X fantasy-strategy game developed by Amplitude Studios and published by Iceberg Interactive for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X in September 2014. The purpose of the game is to dominate the world of Auriga with one of the fourteen races/factions through either diplomacy or war while developing new technologies, exploring new lands and founding new cities.^[1][2]

Endless Legend is the second game made by Amplitude Studios in their Endless series of titles, following Endless Space.

The game was later published by Sega after they acquired Amplitude Studios.

Gameplay[edit]

Endless Legend is a turn-based 4X strategy game, in which players take control of a fantasy faction to establish an empire through exploration, conquest, diplomacy and research.^[3] The game is set in the land of Auriga, with the layout of its landmass and ecosystems being randomized per game, represented on a model-like map made up of a hexagonal grid.

The map is populated with a variety of terrain, each made up of biomes within the world which have effects on the player's units. Tiles and their layout are all randomly generated to create a unique playable world with each separate playthrough.

Fog of war covers the play space requiring exploration by the player's units to find resources, minor factions, and races that players must utilize and exploit to benefit their growing empires.

However, unlike other 4X games, the world map of Endless Legend is formed of separate regions. Once a city has been established within the borders of a region for the first time, the entire region becomes part of a faction's territory and control. At the start of each game, each faction begins with a settler unit to establish their first city and region. Regions can only host one city each within their borders.^[4]

Faction[edit]

Players can choose from one of the fourteen available factions, each with their own unique characteristics including appearance, units, abilities and play-styles:^[3]

• Wild Walkers: Former forest dwellers who have harnessed magic to control and shape the natural world.
• Broken Lords: Knights of honor and chivalry who have lost their humanity, remaining as specters within their suits of armor.
• Vaulters: Great smiths and craftsmen who have lived in solitude underground for most of the history prior.
• Mezari: Space settlers who must adapt the best they can to Auriga's terrestrial conditions due to a loss of their ship and technology.
• Necrophages: A great hive mind of insectoid creatures that can spread plagues while infecting and controlling others.
• Ardent Mages: Sorcerers who warp their bodies and minds to achieve great magical power and sustained life.
• Roving Clans: Travelers and merchants from distant lands of a nomadic tradition.
• Drakken: An ancient dragon race whose longevity has made them a wise race of scholars and diplomats.
• Cult of the Eternal End: A fanatical cult that spreads influence on lesser races, mechanical in their appearance and thought, who wish to destroy the relics of the Endless, the advanced alien race that once counted Auriga among the planets under their possession.

The following factions have been added in game expansions (denoted in parentheses):

• Forgotten(Shadows): Survivors from a 'thought to be extinct faction' embracing the shadows by specializing into deception, infiltration, and sabotage.
• Allayi(Shifters): Ancient beings from the time of the Endless who change form with the seasons and hold a tight bond with Auriga.
• Morgawr(Tempest): Ancient underwater folk who rose from the depths of Auriga.
• Kapaku(Inferno): Emigrants forced from their volcanic homeworld who seek to transform Auriga into a 'paradise of ash and fire'.
• Mykara(Symbiosis): A race of fungal humanoids who arose with the newly awakened Urkans.

Resources[edit]

Faction controlled cities are used to generate resources, construct buildings and recruit armies. There are five different key resources each faction requires to remain stable and grow: food, industry, dust, science, and influence.

• Food is used to increase and sustain the population.
• Industry is used to produce units and buildings.
• Dust is the standard currency in Auriga.
• Science is used for research.
• Influence is used for empire level actions, in which the player gains boons like a boosted attack on units or additional resource gain. Influence is also required for diplomatic proposals with other factions.

Resources are gained through the properties on game world tiles within a city's border, buildings the player has constructed and research. How much of a resource a city can gather is dictated by a city's workforce, gained by its native population, which can grow.

Workers are the main tool for gaining resources. They are placed to collect certain resources for the player, with more workers on a certain task gaining more resources.

Research[edit]

Another aspect of Endless Legend is the progression of research. Research is cut into four areas within multiple eras. The four areas of research are military, science and industry, empire and expansion, and economy and population. Each aspect is intended to tailor the experience to the player and pushes toward that player's specific goal of victory.^[5]

Cities[edit]

Cities are where armies are raised. Armies are composed of individual units spawned by the player, with different units types having their own abilities and uses in combat. Players move armies through an action points system. Each movement and interaction subtracts one action point until the counter hits zero, at which point no further actions can be taken.^[3] The units are used for exploration, combat, diplomacy, and questing. Units in an army can be outfitted with different equipment researched and purchased by the player or found. Acquired equipment can change the statistics of a units to the player's liking. Armies can also include a hero, a powerful unit with the ability to gain skill points to temper the character to a player's playstyle.^[5]

Quest[edit]

Endless Legend also has a quest system where quests are found in the game world. Many of these are completed through the use of armies. Quests differ between factions and are the main source of story content throughout the game.^[4] Completing all of the player's chosen faction's quests is also one possible victory condition for a player. Armies can accomplish quests given by other faction for diplomacy points. Diplomacy is used to gain favor with other faction, and if enough influence points are gained alliances can be formed.^[4] On the other hand, a declaration of war between the player and another faction can also occur if a player helps that faction's enemy. Outside of both peace and war, all players begin in a state of 'cold war'.

Win conditions[edit]

There are nine win conditions in the game:

• Quest Victory: complete all of the faction's quests and the epilogue quest.
• Elimination Victory: No other faction is left alive.
• Score victory: having the highest number of overall points at the end of the 300th turn in a normal game.
• Expansion Victory: 80% of the map is claimed by a player.
• Economic Victory: in a normal game, 555.500 Dust has been collected by a player.
• Diplomatic Victory: in a normal game, collecting 3000 Diplomatic Points.
• Wonder Victory: complete all of the faction's quests and build the associated Wonder.
• Scientific Victory: the player must discover five of six technologies in the 6th era.
• Supremacy Victory: be the only remaining player in control of their starting capital.

Reception[edit]

Endless Legend received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Metacritic gathered an average rating of 82 out of 100 based on 35 reviews for the PC version.^[7] and GameRankings gathered a score of 83% based on 20 reviews.^[6]

PC Gamer US gave it an 89 out of 100 stating,'Amplitude Studios has created another astounding story-driven game, that really has taken the best bits of RTS, RPG, and 4X, drawing much from Endless Space, and spun it differently for every faction.'^[4]IGN commented, 'It combines style, substance, and setting into a marvelous overall experience for both empire management and tactical combat.' giving it an 8.3 out of 10 ^[10]GameSpot warned of passive and weak AI but remarked, 'Endless Legend's driving forces are so thoroughly executed that it serves as an imperfect, but well worthwhile step in the series, and hopefully a sign of things to come.' giving it an 8 out of 10.^[9]

Rock, Paper, Shotgun named Endless Legend Game of the Year in 2014.^[11]

Endless Legend Guardians Units

References[edit]

1. ^Barret, Ben. 'Endless Legend's Early Access Not Endless, Ends Soon'. Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
2. ^Kaiser, Rowan. 'A Cartographer's Dream'. IGN. IGN. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
3. ^ ^abcCampbell, Colin (22 July 2014). 'Endless Legend seeks the perfect imbalance to keep players exploring and exterminating'. Polygon. Polygon. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
4. ^ ^abcdeGriliopoulos, Dan (14 October 2014). 'Endless Legend review - PC Gamer'. PC Gamer. Future. Archived from the original on 28 December 2014. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
5. ^ ^abParrish, Peter (6 May 2014). 'Endless Legend Early Access Preview'. incgamers. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
6. ^ ^ab'Endless Legend for PC - GameRankings'. Archived from the original on 9 December 2019. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
7. ^ ^ab'Endless Legend'. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
8. ^'Endless Legend - Test'. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
9. ^ ^ab'Endless Legend Review'. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
10. ^ ^abKaiser, By Rowan. 'Endless Legend Review'. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
11. ^'The Bestest Best Game Of 2014: Endless Legend'. Rock, Paper, Shotgun. 24 December 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2015.

External links[edit]

Endless Legend Guardians

Endless Legend Xbox