I went looking for a good strategy game and was reading reviews that rated Endless Legend (EL) highly. What a disappointment. Here are my criticisms.  1/  Tutorial is very vague and I often find myself giving up hope of finding what I need to get were or what I want.   2/   Technology development doesn’t flow and you end up having to jump around and research things just so you can get to the next era.  3/ The graphics. WHY????. The colour scheme is far too busy. The colours clash and gives me a headache. What ever happened to the idea of sharp clear images.   4/  What is with the native armies. They are already bigger and stronger inside the first 12 turns and I have just got my first tech repurchased. And this is on the easy level??  5/ Why do I feel like this is just a copy of Beyond Earth (which I did not like at all for simular reasons). Think I will go back to Civ 5.

O...Okay thanks...bye!

No need to liky, perhaps endless space would be more suitable for thee.

You know you can always check out gameplay videos on youtube. At least that's what I do before I buy.

 1/  Tutorial is very vague and I often find myself giving up hope of finding what I need to get were or what I want.   

I mean, I had some problems with the Tutorial, but nothing like what you describe, as everything was lit up by the UI. My main issue with the Tutorial was that I did some things BEFORE the Tutorial asked me to, like Assimilating the Sisters of Mercy right after pacifying them, and the Tutorial didn't realize it, so I ended up having to Deassimilate them and then Assimilating them again to finish the Tutorial.

2/   Technology development doesn’t flow and you end up having to jump around and research things just so you can get to the next era.  

Both systems have their pros and cons. This system doesn't allow you to minmax that much, but I don't think a Skill Tree system is intrinsically better or makes that much sense. Plus a minmax-intensive system like a Skill Tree could probably break some factions in this game too (since they already start off with powerful, distinctive traits)

3/ The graphics. WHY????. The colour scheme is far too busy. The colours clash and gives me a headache. What ever happened to the idea of sharp clear images.   

This is completely subjective and I will have to disagree completely. The game maps are really pretty to look at, unless you close up on the buildings. My only problem with the UI is that sometimes the text of Diplomatic Declarations is hard to read with some Faction colors. Plus, even if you dislike it, you could have seen it even in the game's trailers.

4/  What is with the native armies. They are already bigger and stronger inside the first 12 turns and I have just got my first tech repurchased. And this is on the easy level??  

What faction are you playing? The Cultists and Morgawr start off very weak and you they to assimilate the natives to have a decent army, which is part of their design, but other than those, I think any faction should be able to beat any non-Kazanji/Silic/Haunts villages even with 1 Unit and 1 Hero at least until Era 3 or so. And note that if you beat these villages that have strong units, you get them for your own army too.

Difficulty modes also affects mostly the AI Empires. Roaming armies are the same in all difficulties, I think. In Fast Speed they come out more often. So if you put the game on Easy and the Speed on Fast, the biggest problem you should have in the entire game is the Roaming Empires. And even those should amount to little, unless you are the kind of player that just sits around and skips turns until there is nothing else to build in your City. If you don't explore and do Quests, and don't Settle new areas until there is nothing else to build in your City, you will probably also fall behind. But that is a really boring way to play, anyway, and not what even the Mission Quests encourage you to do.

I need to say that the game was a goft to me. I did not see it before hand. Therefore I had not previewed the game. 

What people need to understand is the importance of colour and clear graphic images. For example try reading pale blue writing on a white background. Now think about how many people ware glasses to read. These problems are overlooked far to often and need poiting out.

damandblastit wrote:

I need to say that the game was a goft to me. I did not see it before hand. Therefore I had not previewed the game. 

What people need to understand is the importance of colour and clear graphic images. For example try reading pale blue writing on a white background. Now think about how many people ware glasses to read. These problems are overlooked far to often and need poiting out.

I feel this may still be subjective, and/or you are a special case, since this is the first time I've ever seen Endless Legend's palette and art style described as bad. Even among critical Steam reviews, the artwork was usually praised.

In any case, having gripes with the tutorial is understandable, there's a few nuances that it doesn't teach you very well. However, the vast majority of things in this game can be grasped rather easily by watching gameplay or just running yourself through a few games on a faction that's not too crazy, such as the Wild Walkers or Vaulters. If you were struggling with the minor factions, you were almost certainly either playing an empire with really poor early military, or you hadn't figured out retrofitting and your basic units were running around without armor.

YHorror wrote:

The biggest headashe of the Endless Legend art are cliffs facing away from the player view. They are hard to notice at any map resolution, especially in forest environment and on region borders. As a result, with one careless click on a neighboring hex, you can send your army on an exciting journey on all its moves. Too many times these cliffs spoiled all my pleasure from the succesful game.

Another bad thing, but not so annoying, is to distinguish the deploy zones on the battlefield preview: the factions colors that highlight them are too pale.

I think there are a few mods that might help you with your second problem. :)

YHorror wrote:

The biggest headashe of the Endless Legend art are cliffs facing away from the player view. They are hard to notice at any map resolution, especially in forest environment and on region borders. As a result, with one careless click on a neighboring hex, you can send your army on an exciting journey on all its moves. Too many times these cliffs spoiled all my pleasure from the succesful game.

Another bad thing, but not so annoying, is to distinguish the deploy zones on the battlefield preview: the factions colors that highlight them are too pale.

Now these two criticisms on the games visuals I feel are totally true. Unless you've zoomed in a lot, terrain height drops from south to north are hard to notice, and you don't usually zoom too much because it makes management harder. These totally need to be highlighted.

The deployment color zones I feel are particularly annoying with lighter colors, but is also overall true.

damandblastit wrote:

I need to say that the game was a goft to me. I did not see it before hand. Therefore I had not previewed the game. 

What people need to understand is the importance of colour and clear graphic images. For example try reading pale blue writing on a white background. Now think about how many people ware glasses to read. These problems are overlooked far to often and need poiting out.

I have a feeling you might be colorblind like me. I had a problem with the faction color pallet of EL at first (maps and cities seem fine), too many of the colors are too similar and I have a hard time telling the factions apart looking at the map. After a little trial and error I've been able to get 6 player games with easily distinguishable colors.

As for the rest of your criticisms, is seems like you just may not be that experienced at 4x games. The tutorial wasn't perfect, but it was enough to introduce the unique mechanics of EL (with the exception of leveling city tiles).

For your first game, start with the Vaulters or Wild Walkers. They are the most straigtforward fashion, just keep in mind that their starting units are ranged units, so they are a little squishy

Perhaps it's useful for you to check out these mods dealing with colors?

a) Rich Colors

b) Easy Colors

c) Rainbow Colors

d) Neon Colors

e) Palette Expansion

f) Crown Jewels of Auriga - Best of Rich Colors

g) Strike the Colors

h) Extra Colors Mod

i) ColourChange

j) Cliched Palette

k) AltDrive Color Palette

I fully agree on the restrictions on the hero interface being rather pointless, and feel the same about mobilizing units on top of ruins/villages. 

But the Fog of War is so amazing to stare at and explore precisely because of those minor hints that need "just one more step" to be confirmed, and it is the same for invisible units and units hidden in the fog being somewhat spooky. Plus, I don't think multiplayer gives you time to abuse either of those features, and there is no harm in abusing them in single player, I believe. Plus neither is nowhere near as annoying as having to mash click at the start of each turn to escape a roaming army and things like that, which don't make EL a "clicker game".