"While Endless Legend was a breath of fresh air when it released in 2014, over a decade later it is starting to feel a little stale."
ENDLESS Legend is a good game, and undoubtedly one of the best Civilization-like titles of the past 20 years, but it has aged poorly, especially when compared to other titles by Amplitude Studios such as Humankind and ENDLESS Legend 2 which is currently in Early Access.
As someone who plays older games fairly often, I have mixed feelings about ENDLESS Legend. On one hand I can appreciate all it accomplished, and respect its contributions to the 4X genre, on the other hand I cannot deny that it released just before the 4X genre would undergo massive changes with the release of Civilization VI, a title which despite its shaky start would go on to become one of the best games in the history of the franchise.
ENDLESS Legend feels like the last movie released on VHS before the advent of DVD, a time capsule from an era when visuals like this were more readily acceptable.
While the 2D character portraits and event images look amazing, the 3D visuals look dated, especially when examining units up close, with even hero units having far fewer polygons than I have grown accustomed to in an age where many individual units still look amazing even when zoomed in as far as the camera can go.
Both ENDLESS Legend and to a lesser degree Humankind are games that had huge potential to be something greater, but for various reasons failed to live up to that potential.
And yet I cannot help but feel as if they have moved the needle forward, and that perhaps ENDLESS Legend 2 or even Humankind 2 (if the developers decide to make it) could become the game to finally dethrone Civilization as king of the genre.
Do not get me wrong, I hold no grudge against Civilization games, in fact they are my favourite 4X titles, however competition is needed for a healthy market, and for the vast majority of its life the Civilization franchise has thrived in a market with very little meaningful competition.
This has led to titles such as Civilization VII, which was rightfully negatively reviewed by players at launch due to its bastardised gameplay mechanics and the developers’ general lack of awareness of what the Civilization community were looking for in a new game.
My main issue with ENDLESS Legend in 2025 is that many of its best mechanics have been radically improved upon in the years since the game first featured them.
A perfect example of this is ENDLESS Legend’s combat system, which for the time was incredibly unique and offered something few other 4X games offered. And yet over a decade later, not only have many other games offered the same and better, but the developers behind ENDLESS Legend have innovated and iterated on the combat system to create something truly unique and engaging, with titles such as Humankind and ENDLESS Legend 2 both utilising systems that make ENDLESS Legend’s appear visually and mechanically archaic.
Combat aside, ENDLESS Legend borrowed many concepts from ENDLESS Space and brought them firmly into the land based 4X genre, such as the ability to recruit heroes, go on quests and the global marketplace, which allows players to buy and sell commodities, resources, heroes and even units.
This system is fantastic as it allows economic players to use their wealth to secure additional units and heroes, while allowing more aggressive players the ability to buy resources that their military focused settlements may not be able to produce in large enough quantities to support their expansionist efforts.
Ultimately ENDLESS Legend is an important part of the history of the 4X genre.
It proved that there was room for competitors to challenge the Civilization franchise, and while Civilization still reigns supreme (even if it has never been weaker due to Civilization VII’s poor reception), after playing ENDLESS Legend 2 I find returning to ENDLESS Legend difficult, even if it is currently in a much more feature complete state due to ENDLESS Legend 2 having only recently begun its Early Access journey.
ENDLESS Legend is a 4x strategy game developed by Amplitude Studios and published by SEGA, it released on 18 September 2014, and is available exclusively on PC.
ENDLESS Legend supports the following peripherals:
ENDLESS Legend is rated PEGI 12+ and contains no offensive content.
With its unique setting, interesting factions, solid mechanics and decent albeit dated visuals, ENDLESS Legend is well worth playing for someone who has never experienced it before.
But as someone who has played and enjoyed it previously, I am ready to move on and see what the developers can do with ENDLESS Legend 2, which despite being in Early Access is already promising to be the best game in the Endless franchise.
We found ENDLESS Legend to be a good game, meaning it is likely to be enjoyable for most players, despite having a few areas that could be improved upon.
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