(Disclaimer: Actual game time is 18 hours more than shown at the current time of the review)
Being a fan of everything Endless, I threw my money at the screen as soon as it came out. This game is quite a flashy gem, its predecessor having filled the void left in the 4x series.
Now, this game is far from finished. Most of the victory conditions aren't in, there's still some bugs with diplomacy, harder difficulties show the game is poorly optimized (Halfway through the game turns start taking 3-5 minutes of waiting time for computers to resolve their encounters, and pressing end turn before that will cause the AI's processes to freeze.) And while I am not fully satisfied with the incomplete tech tree, I believe they will all be made right in the end. (Hence the blue pinky)

On to the actual gameplay, I feel this is what Endless Legend would look like in space. Unit customization, tech trees, resources and improvements are in proportion of 90% Endless Legend. (Analogy to be made with the moving of Casimir Effect in era 3, where boat travel unlocked in Legend). Do I dislike that? No, I always felt as if the first game lacked depth, and Legend did a lot of justice to the things Space 1 did wrong...

Except the tech tree. The one place Legend receeded compared to space was how technology was being handled. While it does allow for an early version of the game to end around halfway into the actual tech tree, Space's technology tree actually felt like progression instead of a bunch of stuff clumped up together in a single era.

The game has potential, but potential has one of two outcomes: a good game worthy of its praise, or just aNother Man's Disappointment. I hope it's the former, and I enjoy seeing the unique mechanics they've come up with for some of the races. Let's see this built into a finished product, shall we?