I don't know... I personally like them more than I did in ES1, same with the Cravers.

Oddly enough, I don't like the Sophons as much as I used to in ES1.

For me, the UE look exactly like I thought they would. The United Empire in the first game never felt like an authoritarian Star Trek Federation, but more like something you would get if you crossed WW2 Russia and America, gave them an Emperor, and put them in space. Both nations were industrial powerhouses and the UE felt no different to me.

Honestly, with most of the non faction related artwork, they're just generic pictures that happen to have humans in them. I do wish there was more diversity in races in those pictures, but it's a bit easier to relate to those situations when you have humans depicted in them.

I like the EU presentation so far (haven't played yet.  Just found out it's out) way way better than ES1.  I didn't really feel they were anything other than beurocratic cliche empire/humans in ES1, and frankly I don't love always having a "these are the good guy humans!" race.  Taking the 1984 vibe on it seems like a really cool way to give them some much needed flavor, and I ADORE the shipt designs (also since I was one person who complained about it forever ago, I just notcied they added the little human scales, which I think does a great job of letting you know just how massive some of these ships are).

The last two of the five pre-video images look very UE to me, fitting with their style from both this game and ES1. In my mind, the difference between them and the recruitment billboard image is that the two glossy, golden locations are where the nobility and the elite hang out, and the gloomy, polluted industrial cityscape is where most of the peons, ahem, *patriots* live. The imagery is definitely Orwellian when you're looking at it from the bottom up. And that's probably a clearer view of the political and social realities.

Where you thought the UE was going with the whole 'authoritarian Federation' thing, that's an interesting take that I don't think is very common. But I don't think it fits with the representation of the UE from the previous game (for example, in ES1 a UE hero went rogue because the UE was holding onto slavery for ideological purposes, even though she had proven its economic inefficiency). They were always a highly stratified aristocracy based on economic control, never really spending much effort trying to give the appearance of benevolence to themselves or outsiders. Plus the whole 'taxing them harder will make them work harder' faction affinity doesn't seem very utopian to me... more despotic.

A lot of people here look at the UE as a sort of mix-mash of Russia and America, fused in an unholy authoritarian union. To me they were always an image of what America could turn into, somewhat farther down the line, if it went wrong. WIth their presentation in ES2, it looks more and more like that to me - in some ways subtle, in others not. In the end I think their presentation is much more sophisticated than in ES1, which hasn't been the case for every faction (IMO).

I think it is entirely possible that all those images represent the United Empire. First, the prologue seems to show a lower class industrial sprawl and not somewhere the nobility and upper classes would live, so it is possible that they live in areas similar to those in the first pictures. Second, the UE is likely fairly diverse and the backstory states that the various noble families are able to run their personal realms with relative autonomy, so it is possible that the holdings of some families are a little less grim. And third, QUEST SPOILER the UE quest offers the opportunity to choose the path for the empire and you can imagine that the first images are the results of a more science focused empire.

Goetia wrote:

I think it is entirely possible that all those images represent the United Empire. First, the prologue seems to show a lower class industrial sprawl and not somewhere the nobility and upper classes would live, so it is possible that they live in areas similar to those in the first pictures. Second, the UE is likely fairly diverse and the backstory states that the various noble families are able to run their personal realms with relative autonomy, so it is possible that the holdings of some families are a little less grim. And third, QUEST SPOILER the UE quest offers the opportunity to choose the path for the empire and you can imagine that the first images are the results of a more science focused empire.

Wow, I didn't know about the nobility and the quest spoiler (lol). Thanks man! The United Empire is looking to be my main faction! :D

TheTakenKing wrote:

The last two of the five pre-video images look very UE to me, fitting with their style from both this game and ES1. In my mind, the difference between them and the recruitment billboard image is that the two glossy, golden locations are where the nobility and the elite hang out, and the gloomy, polluted industrial cityscape is where most of the peons, ahem, *patriots* live. The imagery is definitely Orwellian when you're looking at it from the bottom up. And that's probably a clearer view of the political and social realities.

Where you thought the UE was going with the whole 'authoritarian Federation' thing, that's an interesting take that I don't think is very common. But I don't think it fits with the representation of the UE from the previous game (for example, in ES1 a UE hero went rogue because the UE was holding onto slavery for ideological purposes, even though she had proven its economic inefficiency). They were always a highly stratified aristocracy based on economic control, never really spending much effort trying to give the appearance of benevolence to themselves or outsiders. Plus the whole 'taxing them harder will make them work harder' faction affinity doesn't seem very utopian to me... more despotic.

A lot of people here look at the UE as a sort of mix-mash of Russia and America, fused in an unholy authoritarian union. To me they were always an image of what America could turn into, somewhat farther down the line, if it went wrong. WIth their presentation in ES2, it looks more and more like that to me - in some ways subtle, in others not. In the end I think their presentation is much more sophisticated than in ES1, which hasn't been the case for every faction (IMO).

Hmm, very interesting! I like how they went down the route of having a faction which our world may actually turn into instead of just having a "good" and a "bad" faction. And since there isn't much known about the United Empire in Endless Space 2, maybe it's just a more authoritarian America where the rich have gotten filthy wealthy and the poor have had the ladder pulled on them, leaving them to fall into oblivion. There may actually be a middle class which isn't too grim for them, one where they are living in a place like the first image. I just hope that they haven't gone down the path where the 99% of the population is starving and living in pure poverty while the 1% live in wealth. I mean, that's what the Vodyani's for. Someone's got to be living in those massive skyscrapers!