Endless legend. Ya or Nay?

[Bombiz]

anyone else here played/heard of this game? Ever since Beyond Earth Came out and has received a resounding meh i've been wondering what other Firaxis games I could play. right know i have my eye on Age of wonders 3 or Endless Legend. I've a lot of good things about both games but I can't get a grasp on wich is better.
Age of Wonders 3 has good Combat and a variety of factions but it's too much like Civ for my tastes and I like the over all ascetic of endless. but from what I've heard from most people is that Endless still needs a lot of work and has a lot of "bugs" and balancing issues.

So now i've come here to ask you dear forum users whats your experience with Endless legend. Have you played it? did you like it? have you even heard of it before this?

Basically I want to know if it's a worthy purchase or if I should wait for it to get better.

 

[Jandau]

First of all, where in god's name did you get the idea that AoW3 is like Civ? Because it's not. It's like, well, Age of Wonders 2, or Heroes of Might & Magic (insert number here), focusing on combat more than building your civilization.

As for Endless Legend, that IS kinda like Civ, but not really. It's design is fairly unique, the setting is cool, it has its own mechanics that aren't standard for the genre. It's a pretty damn good game overall, but the AI can be kinda wonky. Let me phrase it this way: Did you play Endless Space? Well, Endless Legend is to Civ-style games what Endless Space was to Space Empire games - Visually and thematically interesting, sprinkled with good ideas and dashes of actual originality, well designed in many aspects, but slightly marred by some of the ideas not really working out quite as planned and a shoddy AI.

Compared to Beyond Earth, BE is mechanically a better game, but EL is a more interesting one.

As for if you should get it... Depends on what you are looking for. If you can stomach some flaws EL is definitely a less boring prospect. AoW3 is a safer bet, but it's also VERY generic and kinda boring. I played about 2 hours of AoW3 before quitting in sheer boredom, while I played EL for a few dozen hours.

For me it was worth getting EL, but I can understand why some people might not like it. For what it's worth, EL did get better reviewed than either Beyond Earth or AoW3. Personally, I'd say go for it.

 

[sataricon]

Beyond Earth is boring.
Played any of the Civ games?....this is the same with different skins and some minor tweaks.
A glorified mod is the better word here and at that price it's not even worth it.

Endless legend on the other hand is interesting as each faction play completely different than the other ones and each has something very unique to them.
Get endless legend and feel free to ask anything about it.

 

[Bombiz]

Beyond Earth is boring.
Played any of the Civ games?....this is the same with different skins and some minor tweaks.
A glorified mod is the better word here and at that price it's not even worth it.

Endless legend on the other hand is interesting as each faction play completely different than the other ones and each has something very unique to them.
Get endless legend and feel free to ask anything about it.

I know Beyond Earth will be boring until they release the inevitable expansions for it but my mine question was who Does Endless Legend hold compared to Age of Wonders 3?

First of all, where in god's name did you get the idea that AoW3 is like Civ? Because it's not. It's like, well, Age of Wonders 2, or Heroes of Might & Magic (insert number here), focusing on combat more than building your civilization.

As for Endless Legend, that IS kinda like Civ, but not really. It's design is fairly unique, the setting is cool, it has its own mechanics that aren't standard for the genre. It's a pretty damn good game overall, but the AI can be kinda wonky. Let me phrase it this way: Did you play Endless Space? Well, Endless Legend is to Civ-style games what Endless Space was to Space Empire games - Visually and thematically interesting, sprinkled with good ideas and dashes of actual originality, well designed in many aspects, but slightly marred by some of the ideas not really working out quite as planned and a shoddy AI.

Compared to Beyond Earth, BE is mechanically a better game, but EL is a more interesting one.

As for if you should get it... Depends on what you are looking for. If you can stomach some flaws EL is definitely a less boring prospect. AoW3 is a safer bet, but it's also VERY generic and kinda boring. I played about 2 hours of AoW3 before quitting in sheer boredom, while I played EL for a few dozen hours.

For me it was worth getting EL, but I can understand why some people might not like it. For what it's worth, EL did get better reviewed than either Beyond Earth or AoW3. Personally, I'd say go for it.

For right now I'm leaning towards EL(Endless Legend) but I've heard from people that it still has a lot of bugs and issues in it. what is your experience with the game? Have you had any issues with it?It seems like peoples main problem with EL is it's combat system.

 

[Jandau]

I know Beyond Earth will be boring until they release the inevitable expansions for it but my mine question was who Does Endless Legend hold compared to Age of Wonders 3?

For right now I'm leaning towards EL(Endless Legend) but I've heard from people that it still has a lot of bugs and issues in it. what is your experience with the game? Have you had any issues with it?It seems like peoples main problem with EL is it's combat system.

Age of Wonders 3 is about tactical battles, heroes leveling up, learning spells, gathering items, etc. Cities and such are there only to fuel the war effort - to crank out units, research upgrades and new spells. As I said, it's very much like Heroes of Might and Magic series. Endless Legend is a 4X game, and combat is only one aspect of it. There are many way to achieve victory and it's entirely viable to go through a whole game without declaring war on any other player and only fighting when attacked by marauding monsters. Here, the cities aren't just there to produce units, but to also serve as a backbone for your empire, whichever path to victory you choose.

As for bugs, well... I don't recall any major ones, definitely none that can't be fixed in a simple patch (and there have been a number of those since release). The game runs fine and is stable, with no real gamebreaking issues.

The combat is more involved than in Civ games, but less tactical than AoW3 (where it's the main focus). The neat thing about combat in EL is that while it is turn-based tactical, with individual units facing off on the field, that field is the same one on which the strategic game takes place (instead of switching to a separate combat map like most such games would do). The one complaint might be that you give your units somewhat generalized orders and sometimes have to rely on the AI to correctly interpret what you wanted done, which it sometimes fails to do.

Overall, if it's down to AoW3 or EL, get EL if for no other reason then because it's more original and interesting. If you're debating it this much I assume you're short on either time or money or both, so go for the one that will make for a more memorable and unique experience, which would be EL.

 

[Ranorak]

Endless Legend is a really fun game. It combines things I liked about Civ and AoW3. The heroes are still there, and can be equipped with gear and weapons, but so can your generic soldiers. Better equip soldiers are stronger but require more building time.
Your default faction can only produce a few types of units, it's up to you to gather the help from "city state" like factions to increase your creature types.
There is an overarching story quest-line (even in the Multiplayer modes) as well as side quests that can be done to gain resources, covert other creatures, or gear.

Claiming land also works a bit different in EL, once you establish a city inside a region, that whole region is now yours. The placing of that city within the region is irrelevant for it's borders, but picking the right spot can still give you better tiles to work off.

The tech tree is also very different. You have several tiers of tech. Each with a number of technologies that are the same for every race, and a few unique ones. You begin with tier 1 unlocked. Giving you access to learn all it's technologies. Once you learned enough technologies from tier 1 ( IIRC it was 9), tier 2 opens up. The kicker; each technology you learn increases the cost of the next. Once tier 2 unlocks, you have to decide whether you start learning those (better) techs or, pick a few more from tier 1, but increasing the cost of the tier 2 techs. Only tier 2 techs will help you unlock tier 3, etc. So, while you have access to all tier 1 techs, you might end up skipping some in order to learn tier 2 techs.

Combat is like AoW3-light. Once you attack an enemy, part of the map will form a battleground, You can manually place your units at the beginning of the fight, and generally guide them a little. But most of the fighting is automated. Personally, I think this is a bit too much, and I'd like to have a little more control of my units.

As for bugs, I only saw one. My friend's hero (in a multiplayer match) Started to move on his own. Though my friend claims he didn't enable any sort of automated movement. I'm honestly still not very convinced this was a bug, or just my friend doing something wrong.

 

[Pink Gregory]

Far as I can gather from the cycle of Endless Space (which is also excellent, if a little drier, apparently); Amplitude games tend to start off with quite a few complaints about the AI, but they do genuinely develop it post-release.

Not that I'd know, I haven't been on a 4x bent in a long time.