Craft The World
Craft The World
Game
Game2017
ENDLESS Space™ 2
Developer AMPLITUDE Studios
Endless Space 2 is a turn-based strategy 4X game developed by Amplitude Studios and published by Sega. It is the sequel to Endless Space, which was released in 2012. The game had been made available through Steam's early access program since October 2016. It was released on 18 May 2017, and received positive reviews. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
235 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Mastodon, Bluesky) · newest Nov 4, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
74
Fresh
172 positive · 60 negative
95% range 68–79%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 172 | 60 | 0 |
| Mastodon * | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Bluesky * | 1 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
10,354 of 12,644 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
72% recommend · 158 yes, 60 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 218 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Very Positive (19,260 of 23,123 positive).
Many players praise the game's visuals, music, and faction variety. [1][2][3] Some reviewers report game-breaking bugs that ruin saves or cause crashes. [4][5][6] A few players find the game shallow or unengaging despite its polish. [7][8]
Liked
Representative posts
- [14]
What an absolute piece of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hot garbage this game has become. The most recent patch took absolutely all fun out of this game. I have nearly 6k hours in it because it was my go-to game for chilling out and relaxing. Instead they made the AI super aggressive and built auto-cheats into the game. - No where near a given civilization? Have no fear, they're automatically aggressive with you and will attack you on …
- [1]
I write this review clocking in over 500 hours. TL:DR – I like this game. Game is great. Not perfect. But I play this more than Civ 4 and Civ 5 combined which is my benchmark for 4X games. Good points: Excellent game play, gorgeous graphics, good music and sound, interesting storyline and lore. For me, a key point is that each faction play very differently. The Empire is the standard (though not boring) human …
- [3]
I have been absolutely captivated by this game for the past 6 months. At this point I played it so much I've experienced every possible piece of content there is to see. And I still crave more. If you are still unconvinced about trying this game or not, I will outline my thoughts about it in the following sections. Positives Let's start with the visuals, absolutely stellar, pun intended. Jokes aside, this game has …
- [2]
Chill space 4x. 4 line review: Asynchronous design - great. Many Unique races - great. Performance is Good and pretty bug free for me. Lots of little narrative stories - great. Recommended. One good thing that stood out: Great Audio/visuals with the UI and game itself. One bad thing that stood out: First look at the technology tree descriptions, could do with a better one line summary explainer.
- [9]
the game has some of the most beatiful and distinct spaceships and races ive ever seen in any game. huge creativity from these guys. good game as well. would recommend
Summarised from 29 of the 221 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 11, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
ENDLESS Space™ 2 sits at 74% positive across 232 opinionated reactions from 3 sources. Fresh or rotten — where do you land?
Critics, per Wikipedia
Endless Space 2 received "generally favorable" reviews upon release according to review aggregator Metacritic.
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 235 · most liked firstWhat an absolute piece of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hot garbage this game has become. The most recent patch took absolutely all fun out of this game. I have nearly 6k hours in it because it was my go-to game for chilling out and relaxing. Instead they made the AI super aggressive and built auto-cheats into the game. - No where near a given civilization? Have no fear, they're automatically aggressive with you and will attack you on site. - About to build that one per game major structure and improve your…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →played this game while enhanced by shrooms, got teletransported 10k years in the future and beyond the stars, they are out there dude looking back at us, waiting for our turn
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Broken game ... If the game is not finished til turn 200-300 i bugs and you cant progres ... I lost 20 hours on 3 different campaign to get crash or infinite turn ending (with empire on turn 289 , second play on turn 254 and with the robot nation on turn 212 ) ... Do not buy this broken waste of time .
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Lower the difficulty if you are suffering from skill issues instead of leaving a negative review. Invest into ground unit upgrades and put OpEx gear on your support ships if you cannot win an invasion. If the game is too stressful even at Sandbox difficulty then go play Tetris.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Broken game. It's practically impossible to play through a game without the game refusing the load the next turn and forcing the player to restart and play a new game - Where the bug usually reappears and ruins the game. 3 games in a row have now been ruined for me with this well documented bug, and yet the developers have prioritised pushing out multiple DLCs while failing or refusing to fix the game breaking bug. Edit: The Patchpreview appears to fix the game, but it's otherwise broken and…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a surprising case for me of a game that is less than the sum of its parts. On paper Endless Space is something I should really love. It's space 4x strategy with interesting races with different mechanics, ship customization, high production values in terms UI and even graphics look nice. Yet.. somehow it doesn't come together for me. I've bounced off it multiple times. I don't know why.. Could be that it just drags on with nothing happening? I tried again last night with the empire…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I write this review clocking in over 500 hours. TL:DR – I like this game. Game is great. Not perfect. But I play this more than Civ 4 and Civ 5 combined which is my benchmark for 4X games. Good points: Excellent game play, gorgeous graphics, good music and sound, interesting storyline and lore. For me, a key point is that each faction play very differently. The Empire is the standard (though not boring) human faction which techs up then goes ROFLing stomping. Horatio are vainglorious clones…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Man this is my favorite 4X game I have ever played. I love this game. However I do not know what the dev did but it is unstable now. The game keeps crashing and it keeps taking steam and discord with it every time it crashes. I have spent many hours trying to fix this but for the sake of my computer I cant play it anymore. Hopefully one day it gets fix but I can recommend anyone touch this game right now.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →When comparing this game to something say Stellaris its "ok" some things I think are actually better and more defined and others far more complicated than needing to be. Then again this could also be influenced by the fact this game is riddled with game breaking bugs. Sooo many times have I gone "huh this is weird" to "this makes absolutely no sense" searching online or through the forums about said issue only to find its's a well known bug reported for years that will brick any save.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Would be a great game, maybe better than the first part, if the company hadn't decided to go into data grabbing business. Now its just a contagious corpse in my hidden games graveyard.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →in playing this game, i realized that starting wars to manipulate the stock market is actually quite fun - i can finally sympathize with the US govt.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Everything about this game points it to be something I should love, but I just don't? All the individual elements are great, but when together just don't mesh. Its very detailed but at the same time shallow, very strategic but at the same time just throw things at the wall. Despite all the options, builds, units, planets - all of that it just feels bleh. Everything sort of ends up playing exactly the same each time, and individual turns in themselves arent particularly exciting. The game…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Chill space 4x. 4 line review: Asynchronous design - great. Many Unique races - great. Performance is Good and pretty bug free for me. Lots of little narrative stories - great. Recommended. One good thing that stood out: Great Audio/visuals with the UI and game itself. One bad thing that stood out: First look at the technology tree descriptions, could do with a better one line summary explainer.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I adore Endless Space 2, it simply doesn't get enough credit for how good it is.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The turn glitch is killing the game. Ships won't move, etc. It can sometimes be fixed by restarting, reloading an older save or verifying game files. But it comes right back at you, sometimes even the next turn. Of course this happened well after the 2 Hour mark ... so no refund, yey. Otherwise nice game, but unplayable like this. Can not recommend.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Totally unplayable. It has a serious bug/broken game mechanic. After 5 hours I was able to destroy a pirate lair. It respawn stronger from nothing one turn later. No way to play this ♥♥♥♥.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Amplitude has effectively censored me on the forums, but they will have to eat my ♥♥♥♥ in this review: This game was incredible when it was young. It was mostly free of bugs and idiotically implemented game mechanics. Amplitude managed to outsource 2 of the last DLCs to another studio. This is why the hacking and Academy changes are so unbalanced and ruin the classic gameplay design. Game now regularly has bug issues and not loading pop-ups at 50+ turns. As someone that has spent a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has been broken by the latest update. AI is able to make fleets that don't follow rules as they did in the past. Now every instance is my fleet split into fotillas that do'nt target correctly and it's like i'm up against this superior tactician every time while my fleet is lead by a moron who won't shoot back.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has way too much tedious garbage going on in the background to be enjoyable. Every turn you just get barraged with a wave of pop-ups and cutscenes that mean absolutely nothing. You switch a turn and suddenly just get swamped with waves of nonsensical garbage that barely feel like they affect anything. POP-UP, do you want to eat blueberries or do you want to kick puppies? +10% to smurf deployment but -20 wheat for 10 turns. POP-UP, surprise event discovered! Do you want to ignore…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →FINAL REVIEW: I CAN NOT RECOMMEND THIS GAME NOW. A 9 YEAR OLD LATE GAME BREAKING BUG LOOP IS UNACCEPTABLE. It's a bait-and-switch tactic to get your money and then, since you've sunk hours up to that point, you can't complete a run or get money back. PLUS the apparent data harvesting on the Corporate end marks this company as another BS scammer. See that 29hrs? That's how long you can maybe stretch gameplay before the game breaks irrevocably. I'm tired of spending hours of my time fixing…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun, but keeps freezing between mid or late game turns. Reloading leads to the same result on the same turns. Haven't been able to finish a single game yet. Can't recommend it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Masterpiece. Great UI, great factions, chill gameplay. Easily my 2nd favourite 4x of all time. (Nothing beats Alpha Centauri!) Please ES3 Amplitude!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have been absolutely captivated by this game for the past 6 months. At this point I played it so much I've experienced every possible piece of content there is to see. And I still crave more. If you are still unconvinced about trying this game or not, I will outline my thoughts about it in the following sections. Positives Let's start with the visuals, absolutely stellar, pun intended. Jokes aside, this game has really good art, and every faction is visually different AND interesting in…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'd like to recommend the game. It's been fun in the past. But now I can't get it to even start. I noticed in the discussions that lots of other people can't get the game to start. I've tried re-installing the software. Nothing. Pretty bad for a game that was released 8 years ago. I found this fix in a discussion and it worked for me: Copy this cmd /c "set OPENSSL_ia32cap=:~0x20000000 && %command%" Go to library and right click the game Choose properties at the bottom of the box that…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →After 9 years, I’m finally writing the review this game should’ve gotten long ago. Endless Space 2 remains one of the standout sci‑fi 4X strategy games out there — a title you really should experience at least once. Without any DLC, it’s a relaxed, easy‑to‑understand game that’s perfect for unwinding while still offering enough depth to stay engaging. The DLCs add fresh ideas and introduce great new factions that expand the universe and enrich the lore. Unfortunately, the most recent DLC…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Since Stellaris has been patched to the point of being completely broken, I'd recommend ES2 over Stellaris. Unfortunately, ES2 has a few bugs of its own. If you want to play a truly fantastic 4X space game, get the board game *Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy*. It seems there's no bug-free 4X space game available on the computer.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It´s a really nice game if you like 4K turn-based games. The music and graphics are very immersive, the stories from each faction are also well crafted. Overall nice experience. Kinda wish they had even higher graphics for today´s hardware, but overall still very playable in 2026.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have NO idea what the people who are complaining are complaining about. This game is absolutely legendary.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is so great. Every aspect of this game is so well crafted, it's just so satisfying to play. I usually take it pretty chill and take really long turns. The style, music, and even UI are perfectly complementary to this playstyle. You won't get as much out of it if you are the kind of fast-paced competitive player though. I think immersion is more the priority here, but on the other hand there are some really unique strategic interactions that I've never seen done anywhere else.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've immensely enjoy this game. BUT I cannot continue, it always lags, desyncs and becomes unplayable with friends. Example, continuous bot "In talks" - disable Penumbra you'd say, BUT WDYM DISABLE DLC THAT I LIKE? That supposed to be playable?! Or, when you cannot continue fight in the multiplayer, because randomly, game decided that it'll freeze in pending... It's utterly unplayable and it's honestly, really sad, as I enjoyed it, despite hardships...
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →the game has some of the most beatiful and distinct spaceships and races ive ever seen in any game. huge creativity from these guys. good game as well. would recommend
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →nearly a decade old and still reveiving updates, absolutely worth the buy
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Normaly not into 4x games but I love this one, there is just something so satisfying of managing your economy and your space fleet, I just love every single piece of this game
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A great game overall that is sadly still marred by bugs, some of which are sadly game breaking. For example the Unfallen need to connect space systems via "vines" (they are a tree race) and if this connection is severed they suffer massively from it. Due to a bug, a system of mine that was 100% connected got severed even though there was no enemy fleet or something similar in that system and when I tried to repair it it instantly killed my now "unconnected" part of the empire. But if I IGNORE…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One of the all time greatest 4X games I've ever played! Slick, cool, elegant, challenging and fun. Come on ES3!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game fits right into the niche category of space-based, turn-based strategy games. It's a little more complicated than traditional RTS or 4X space games, due to the turn-based aspect, but what I appreciate about this game is that it reduces the upkeep that comes along with maintaining a galaxy-sprawling empire. You can colonize planets, which have a population limit, can build improvements on planets (and systems) and eventually build up a fleet to conquer the galaxy. This game…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Truly, the greatest 4X space game ever made. Every faction is super varied and no two factions play the same. Combat is hands off and decided in your fleet composition, ship components and strategy. Plenty of viable strategies and approaches. Random events, minor factions, quests keep games varied. All factions have their own unique questline which gives powerful rewards. The questlines are rich with lore and incredible art if you are in to that, but the game is perfectelly fine with you…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Amazing as you can get the Stellaris experience with all of your limbs and organs remaining.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Endless space 2 is a 4x game that ticks all the boxes for me. Its unique enough where it has its own distinct feeling, but not so unique that the mechanics would feel alien or strange. For me Endless Space 2 is the perfect example of a 4x game, where all the base mechanics feel satisfying. My only issue with the game is that I wish it had kept receiving more and more DLC and content.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I haven't really played any 4x games so this was more or less my introduction to the genre, and I can say for certain that this was an excellent introduction to the genre; it was difficult to grasp at first because the early-game can be a bit slow and confusing, and it's a lot of info to digest pretty quickly, but once you've got past those first few turns and you've gotten the hang of things, it gets pretty easy to understand. Playing this game with friends has been an extremely enjoyable…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →THE best 4X games out there. Engaging lore and gameplay with an incredible soundtrack. A must have
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is a lot of fun until you come up on the beyond ridiculous colony cap and the massive penalties for going over said cap. I like playing on big maps and if you play like every other 4X game and colonize every worthwhile system you hit the cap just when you are contacting other races and the interesting part just starts. Then you find out you can't colonize anything else or your entire economy is wrecked. What's the point of a big map where you can not colonize anything after exploring…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Is it a good game? It's okay. Is it fun? It's okay. Is it a turn clicking simulator? Yes. Did i enjoy the game? Absolutely.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I think this is the game that has convinced me that turn-based 4X Civilization-style strategy games are just not for me. I can't think of anything this game really does wrong. It's got good graphics and animations, they've built an interesting world, there's all sorts of well-done twists on the usual Civ-style mechanics... I really don't know what else I would ask for from a Civ-style game. Nonetheless, I didn't enjoy playing. I reached that point that you seem to get to in all games in…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →save game feature unreliable and frequently lose all your progress
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A tremendous blend of cinematics, customization and the most intuitive UI I have ever used.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game seems like an idea of a strategy game by somebody who hates strategy games. Though that might be the popular idea now. After 5 hours I thought the game lacked polish with it's awful UI. After 10 I thought the game was overly ambitious. After 20 I think the game is diametrically opposed to the idea of a strategy game. It's obtuse on purpose not because of the poor UI. It's mechanics are not overly ambitious but they lack any depth at all. The flashy poorly thought out animations and…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pros: - polished UI that doesn't hide information but also isn't full of spreadsheets - good replayability thanks to very different factions - interesting event-driven stories and galactic lore Cons: - the AI opponents suffer from passivity - managing the planetary economy is somewhat dull and formulaic - low system limit means the mid-game is truncated and the end-game is predictable Endless Space 2 is a space 4X game that follows the well-trodden classics like Master of Orion 1/2 and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Overall, an excellent game! Been playing this for a long while now and I always come back to it. Great art, visuals, lore, musical scores, sound effects and of course, the UI and how intuitive and user friendly the game is!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →When I first bought it many years ago I didn't have the patience to get into it. Now 5 years later I re downloaded it and realized how amazing the game is and the hours it takes to learn everything which I now I enjoy. I had no idea that each race had its own little backstories and victory short clips which really makes the game off the charts compared to most. Even after 180 hours and multiple victories I am still finding ways to get better which just ONE race. I still have not used any mods…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is honestly one of the best 4x games I have ever played. The scope feels epic, but managing your empire is really streamlined and not crunchy at all. There are lots of customization options and the playable races are interesting and offer some varied gameplay styles.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Endless Space 2 has way to many issues. I've given it multiple chances and usually somewhere around the 100-200 turn mark I'll just throw in the towel. One of the main issues this game has is lack of relevant information. It throws quite a bit of information at you and that constantly. The problem is often it lacks context. If I want to make the right decisions I need the right pieces of information at the proper time. For example if I have to many colonies because I expand to quickly (either…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sweeping graphics, strange alien cultures and deadly battles that rage across the galaxy and the faces of many planets in the galaxy-damn fine piece of work all around. Love it, going to go play now....
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Intergalactic racism, war crimes and xenophobia are bread and butter of this game. I love it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've had this game since 2018 but only really got hooked in 2026. Absolute masterpiece. I can only describe it as a perfect game in every aspect. Pure dopamine
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a nice game, the art style and music are great. Each faction is distinct and favors different playstyles, they're not just reskins. As far as spectacle goes, the space battles are ok, but the ground battles aren't. Unfortunately, no Space 4X games does ground combat any better though. Unfortunately, the whole experience turns sour in the lategame because it takes way too much time for the AI empires to take their "turns". It becomes way too tedious to wait for your turn. If you…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Time for my long-overdue review of Endless Space 2. In short - a really good space 4X which has received extensive support after launch. I always arrived to the Endless Space games delayed. I didn't like Endless Space 1 because it had automated combat - but, after a few years, I finally *got* the combat, and fell in love with the game. Endless Space 2 I postponed until... basically, now. Fortunately, after idly playing some more MOO2 (my girlfriend took over the gaming PC to play Horn of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The games combat has variables it does not explain. Ships moves in ways different from the tactics. If you can figure it out then great, have fun but Ive wasted enough time on it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Please fix the multiplayer desync for the love of god I would play this game so much ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ more if youd just fix the multiplayer desync thats all I ask.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I am not good at 4X games, but I love them. This one in particular is a favorite. Each faction actually has a quest line that can usually branch in 2 or more ways, giving a narrative hook as well as the mechanical reason to play each one. I love that. This interface should be the standard for these types of games. After playing this, right click to back out of the current menu is just so natural that every other game feels clunky without it. Most of the factions play pretty differently.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
Posts are quoted from public profiles with links to the original. Want yours removed? Contact us.
