MYTH MAKERS

Asymmetric fantasy 4X ENDLESS LEGEND 2 parts the murky waters to unveil a new world, new factions, and a new way of revealing the map

- Ian Evenden

W elcome to Saiadha. It’s nice here. There’s plenty of coastal real estate for refugees from Auriga to build a new life, rich in resources and blissfully separated by sea channels from other races who might be looking for a fight. There are none of the harsh winters of the first Endless Legend’s setting, but this new planet does have some meteorological quirks of its own.

Endless Legend 2, Amplitude Studios’ new 4X which will be heading into Early Access this September, with a demo available on Steam by the time you read this, picks up after the first game, with the survivors of a hasty exit from its frozen planet – some familiar, some new – landing on an ocean world and having to deal with their new home’s idiosyncrasies as well as one another.

Beside the setting, there’s a lot that’s new about Endless Legend 2.

It’s been 11 years since the original game, and in that time Amplitude has released four full games and joined and left publisher Sega – Endless Legend 2 will be published by Hooded Horse. It’s lost one of its founders (Mathieu Girard, who would go on to release Solasta: Crown of the Magister) and continue to attract talent from across the world.

It’s something the game’s director Derek Paxton, aka ‘Kael’, knows a bit about. He’s new to the Endless series, having moved to Paris just to work on the game, but having started making games with Fall from Heaven, a total conversion for Sid Meier’s Civilization IV, released back in 2005. Paxton was then a design consultant on expansion pack Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword, and was also involved with Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Colonization. He later worked with Stardock on Elemental: War of Magic, Fallen Enchantress and Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, and was lead designer of Elemental: Fallen Enchantress in 2012.