Endless Space 2

Endless Space 2 is a simultaneous-turn-based 4X in space that pleasantly surprised me. The “simultaneous” part is a bit weird as it allows things like quickly moving ships, at the beginning of the turn, in/out of situations to your advantage.

Right now there are 10 races in the game and they are pretty distinct, including some interesting differences in game mechanics. And of course you can customize your own. You can customize your ships and each ship type has a role. Before fights you can choose a “strategy” and assign ships to three different lanes. Once the combat begins you can’t control anything but you can watch it. I like that you manage systems as a whole, not by planet (with a few exceptions), and that there are multiple ways to travel between systems. The political system felt very natural, for instance if you do militaristic stuff, your militaristic party will gain influence in your empire. There is even a market place for resources (and more) where empires can just buy/sell resources.

The worst thing about this game is the AI, to the surprise of no one. The AI for strategy games in general is stuck in the distant past unfortunately. With the latest expansion, the documentation for the game is even harder to find, and I believe there are a lot of balance problems.