Endless Space 2 is very Amplitude games. If you've played Endless Legend or Humankind you'll know what to expect. A lot of trimmings and set dressing for a game that wilts in the late-game.
Endless Space 2 is a turn-based Stellaris. It's very similar. As a result of being turnbased it has a few Civ-style accoutrements such as a visible tech tree and no limit to building slots. There are also lots of Stellaris influences such as limits to colonization behind certain techs, space anomalies, minor species, territory grouped by the solar system level and settling/relocation of pops by which species supports which habitability.
The lore and designed species are as much a bonus as they can be a drawback. In some ways they are too dry and sci-fi trope-y. They don't feel as engaging as you'd really like them to. While you can edit any of them, there's a distinct lack of customizable flavor compared to the Stellaris species portraits and government civics. Because the species are so lore inspired and voiced accordingly, it's jarring to customize many of them anyway.
This results in having a bunch of fairly high quality but pretty boring space empires. Without being attached to a broader IP like Mass Effect or Star Wars or Star Trek etc, there's no additional charm or lore to lean on. You get what you get, and what you get is generic. However, a significant strong point in this regard are the minor civilizations. Much like finding primitives or caravaneers in Stellaris, or city states in Civ, these minor civilizations have certain buffs and appearances. You can recruit them into your empire to gain their systems and pops. They are lore light but they are plentiful and vary quite a lot. They take on interesting appearances and broadly increase your empire's ability to colonize new lands. They are the strongest bit of original content in the game.
An advantage for Endless Space (probably because being turnbased makes games a shade shorter than Stellaris) is that you generally are able to research the colonization and teraforming techs faster. And there are more of them. You can settle every planet type (even if some of them aren't all that worthwhile) and you can do it early on. This is nice because settling planets is generally most worthwhile in the early game and microring newly settled planets in Stellaris can be brutal. So in comparison, you can get most of your desirable planets settled and queued a lot easier and faster in Endless Space 2 than in Stellaris. This is similar to Civ where settling new cities in late game is a more selective decision.
Endless Space 2 also relies heavily on a lot of stacked modifiers coming from things like tech bonuses and event decisions. This is an Amplitude specialty. What ends up happening is that bonuses can get so high that in the late game you're building multiple buildings in a turn. Or multiple ships. The AI can do this too but of course the AI doesn't min/max like a player can. This ends up making the late game both too simple and far too micromanage-y. You have to manage turn based battles between 30-50 ships and build more ships at a whim. It trivializes the game into something that moves too quickly and too slowly for the same reasons. You can build buildings and fleets in a blink which is silly but it also means you have more actions to take per turn.
This is at its worst when you hit the same point of ever 4x game. Just spamming next turn until you win. What's bad about Endless Space is that the end game is among the worst in the genre. Civ's end game is bad but there's a bigger cliff for Civ. The game is a lot of fun until it isn't. The addition of weather events and global warming in Civ VI addresses this a tad but Civ is super fun until it isn't. Endless Space's fun starts to decay as early as turn 30 or so. About an hour or two into your game and you'll lose most interest in continuing to putz around with Endless Space. Same thing with Endless Legend. After the excitement of exploration, which doesn't last long, the game begins to melt away. A lot of pretty trimming (the game is very pretty) but not a lot of depth. Easy ways to abuse game mechanics, even unintentionally, grate against the game's poor diplomacy systems and messy travel. The pacing begins to mush and eventually the game is more chore than it is fun.
4x games usually thrive on the explore part and sometimes do fine with the exploit bit. It's the expand and exterminate bits that can be like a chore. In Civ the exploration and expansion happens early and is mostly interesting. Exploit is the real fuel of the game, harvesting resources. Exterminate is tough given how slogging war can feel in a turnbased game with lots of units. Endless Space 2 gets huge points for the explore part. Uncovering new solar systems and anomalies and the minor civilizations is genuinely thrilling. The expansion that comes as a function of this is also quite pleasing. But war never feels very good in Endless Space and exploitation feels very boring. Very boring. Once the air of exploration is gone, the game falls to bits.
Meanwhile, in Stellaris you have an all-time great early game that hinges on the explore bit. Anomalies, colonizable planets, primitives, leviathans, relics, precursor stories. Stellaris is choc-full-of exciting early game content centered around exploration. The expansion is also relatively pleasing as is exterminate in Stellaris because war is nowhere near as slogging in Stellaris given that it's real time. Stellaris is the rarer 4x in that the most boring bit is the middle of the game. Stellaris has a tremendous end game with the end game crisis and an elite early game. The middle of the game becomes very stale causing you to simply up the speed and wait.
But Civ has a good early game and mid game. Stellaris has a great early game and a phenomenal mid game. Endless Space has a pretty good early game that doesn't last very long before the game falls to bits. There are better options out there that will scratch the same itch. Civ V and VI are better versions of Endless Space and Civ Beyond Earth is at least as good as Endless Space 2 if you want the space aesthetics. Stellaris does everything Endless Space 2 does but better.
I would look forward to an Endless Space 3 though. There's enough meat on the bone that you'll get a solid 25-30 hours out of ES2. If you can find it for cheap ($10-$15) it's worth the price. No doubt. It's pleasing. It's certainly visually very attractive. The way it introduces planets when you discover a solar system is fantastic. The music is pretty good. The other cinematography in the game is fantastic. Base Endless Space 2 actually looks better than base Stellaris, and few games accomplish such a feat. And that's Amplitude's style. A lot of style and meager substance. That sounds a harsher complaint than I mean it. Tons of games in this genre are pretty ugly and certainly light on visual spectacle. Endless Space 2 is gorgeous and somehow still manages to perform well on low spec machines. This sort of set dressing is so pleasing that it buys the game a lot more good will than maybe it otherwise deserves.
Is it fun? Yes. For awhile. It's worth your time. Just not worth as much of your time as the better games of the genre. The expectation in 4x games is many hundreds of hours of enjoyment. Endless Space 2 will give you 40 tops before you feel like you've experienced all there is to experience.
Endless Space 2 is a turn-based Stellaris. It's very similar. As a result of being turnbased it has a few Civ-style accoutrements such as a visible tech tree and no limit to building slots. There are also lots of Stellaris influences such as limits to colonization behind certain techs, space anomalies, minor species, territory grouped by the solar system level and settling/relocation of pops by which species supports which habitability.
The lore and designed species are as much a bonus as they can be a drawback. In some ways they are too dry and sci-fi trope-y. They don't feel as engaging as you'd really like them to. While you can edit any of them, there's a distinct lack of customizable flavor compared to the Stellaris species portraits and government civics. Because the species are so lore inspired and voiced accordingly, it's jarring to customize many of them anyway.
This results in having a bunch of fairly high quality but pretty boring space empires. Without being attached to a broader IP like Mass Effect or Star Wars or Star Trek etc, there's no additional charm or lore to lean on. You get what you get, and what you get is generic. However, a significant strong point in this regard are the minor civilizations. Much like finding primitives or caravaneers in Stellaris, or city states in Civ, these minor civilizations have certain buffs and appearances. You can recruit them into your empire to gain their systems and pops. They are lore light but they are plentiful and vary quite a lot. They take on interesting appearances and broadly increase your empire's ability to colonize new lands. They are the strongest bit of original content in the game.
An advantage for Endless Space (probably because being turnbased makes games a shade shorter than Stellaris) is that you generally are able to research the colonization and teraforming techs faster. And there are more of them. You can settle every planet type (even if some of them aren't all that worthwhile) and you can do it early on. This is nice because settling planets is generally most worthwhile in the early game and microring newly settled planets in Stellaris can be brutal. So in comparison, you can get most of your desirable planets settled and queued a lot easier and faster in Endless Space 2 than in Stellaris. This is similar to Civ where settling new cities in late game is a more selective decision.
Endless Space 2 also relies heavily on a lot of stacked modifiers coming from things like tech bonuses and event decisions. This is an Amplitude specialty. What ends up happening is that bonuses can get so high that in the late game you're building multiple buildings in a turn. Or multiple ships. The AI can do this too but of course the AI doesn't min/max like a player can. This ends up making the late game both too simple and far too micromanage-y. You have to manage turn based battles between 30-50 ships and build more ships at a whim. It trivializes the game into something that moves too quickly and too slowly for the same reasons. You can build buildings and fleets in a blink which is silly but it also means you have more actions to take per turn.
This is at its worst when you hit the same point of ever 4x game. Just spamming next turn until you win. What's bad about Endless Space is that the end game is among the worst in the genre. Civ's end game is bad but there's a bigger cliff for Civ. The game is a lot of fun until it isn't. The addition of weather events and global warming in Civ VI addresses this a tad but Civ is super fun until it isn't. Endless Space's fun starts to decay as early as turn 30 or so. About an hour or two into your game and you'll lose most interest in continuing to putz around with Endless Space. Same thing with Endless Legend. After the excitement of exploration, which doesn't last long, the game begins to melt away. A lot of pretty trimming (the game is very pretty) but not a lot of depth. Easy ways to abuse game mechanics, even unintentionally, grate against the game's poor diplomacy systems and messy travel. The pacing begins to mush and eventually the game is more chore than it is fun.
4x games usually thrive on the explore part and sometimes do fine with the exploit bit. It's the expand and exterminate bits that can be like a chore. In Civ the exploration and expansion happens early and is mostly interesting. Exploit is the real fuel of the game, harvesting resources. Exterminate is tough given how slogging war can feel in a turnbased game with lots of units. Endless Space 2 gets huge points for the explore part. Uncovering new solar systems and anomalies and the minor civilizations is genuinely thrilling. The expansion that comes as a function of this is also quite pleasing. But war never feels very good in Endless Space and exploitation feels very boring. Very boring. Once the air of exploration is gone, the game falls to bits.
Meanwhile, in Stellaris you have an all-time great early game that hinges on the explore bit. Anomalies, colonizable planets, primitives, leviathans, relics, precursor stories. Stellaris is choc-full-of exciting early game content centered around exploration. The expansion is also relatively pleasing as is exterminate in Stellaris because war is nowhere near as slogging in Stellaris given that it's real time. Stellaris is the rarer 4x in that the most boring bit is the middle of the game. Stellaris has a tremendous end game with the end game crisis and an elite early game. The middle of the game becomes very stale causing you to simply up the speed and wait.
But Civ has a good early game and mid game. Stellaris has a great early game and a phenomenal mid game. Endless Space has a pretty good early game that doesn't last very long before the game falls to bits. There are better options out there that will scratch the same itch. Civ V and VI are better versions of Endless Space and Civ Beyond Earth is at least as good as Endless Space 2 if you want the space aesthetics. Stellaris does everything Endless Space 2 does but better.
I would look forward to an Endless Space 3 though. There's enough meat on the bone that you'll get a solid 25-30 hours out of ES2. If you can find it for cheap ($10-$15) it's worth the price. No doubt. It's pleasing. It's certainly visually very attractive. The way it introduces planets when you discover a solar system is fantastic. The music is pretty good. The other cinematography in the game is fantastic. Base Endless Space 2 actually looks better than base Stellaris, and few games accomplish such a feat. And that's Amplitude's style. A lot of style and meager substance. That sounds a harsher complaint than I mean it. Tons of games in this genre are pretty ugly and certainly light on visual spectacle. Endless Space 2 is gorgeous and somehow still manages to perform well on low spec machines. This sort of set dressing is so pleasing that it buys the game a lot more good will than maybe it otherwise deserves.
Is it fun? Yes. For awhile. It's worth your time. Just not worth as much of your time as the better games of the genre. The expectation in 4x games is many hundreds of hours of enjoyment. Endless Space 2 will give you 40 tops before you feel like you've experienced all there is to experience.