I like the battle system in Endless Space. I played and enjoyed very much Sword of the Stars 1 (never could get into 2), and I prefer Endless Space's system. Some of the things people complain about with ES, I consider strengths. I don't want to control ships myself. There are plenty of real time strategy games out there that give you control of combat. I don't play any of them. I like that you can autoresolve and get similar results compared to manual battles--this is HUGE.



Now if your looking for a complex combat system, ES will leave you wanting. However, the combat system allows for fast play. My friend and I can easily play a game on a large galaxy with 8 players (6 AI) in one or two sessions. This is possible because we autoresolve most combats. The game is mostly about strategy and empire building. The combat system is fun and fast. It doesn't slow the game down.



I understand some people want a more epic game that goes on forever. Or they want absolute control over their fleets. Or they want mega-sized fleets. Fine. There are games for that. However, if you say combat in ES is a weak point in the game, you are missing the point altogether (and may be playing the wrong game for you). IMHO, the combat system for ES is near perfect for the game.

Your not spoiled, its terrible rock, paper, scissors and the AI always knows what your going to throw. At least the battle cards loosen it up a tiny bit. But its still extremely shallow. Actually all the gameplay systems are shallow and boring. I think the problem was the artists had way too much technical control over the games direction but they did a fantastic job on the art, go figure. IMO the second biggest mistake was Endless Space couldnt decide if it wanted to be a competitive multiplayer game like SINs or an immersive single player 4x. They ALMOST nailed everything perfectly but these two issues led to shallow game systems. Im not saying its a bad game, just that is definitely fell short in some key areas like the battle system. This post is mostly critical but there is still plenty to be praised about ES. It wont be leaving my steam library any time soon