Just a note to anyone that is interested in Endless Space. They are running a free weekend this weekend on Steam. Thought I'd leave a note as it's a game I've been interested in, but not sure if I would like and now is a good time to try it.

I'm curious as to other peoples thoughts on the game who may also be trying it this weekend, or of those who had played it before.

So far, I'm conflicted. Overall, I've found the game enjoyable. It has a nice clean interface, good soundtrack, and the gameplay seems fairly solid. There are elements that could use improvement, such as the combat. I seem to recall the development team mentioning plans to work on that aspect though.

On the other hand, I find myself wondering if it really offers anything I can't already get in other similar games. To be fair, this kind of game is difficult to judge based on only a couple days experience.

So I was wondering if anyone else had thoughts on the game after experiencing it over the weekend?

I felt the same way, did decide to get it since it was 50% off though. I have found it fun and think it will continue to be so but I'm not sure if it will give me the mileage that other TBS strategies have given.

I do think that the game play is solid as well. I find the research tree a bit overwhelming at the moment, but the more I look it seems flexible. It appears certain techs can be ignored if you go one direction and move around the tree. I'm still trying to grasp how it's best to setup systems (does specializing matter?). With research, resources, ship design, heroes, and the system setup it feels like the game does a lot. I'm not sure how deep all the gameplay systems are yet though.

As for combat, I enjoy that early in the game you can fight other races in uncontrolled territories without going to war. The ability for skirmishes without full out war is nice, and one thing that I think the game has above others I've played. The combat itself could use some improvement though. The choices being Auto or Manual, with the drawback of Auto giving you no control over playing the tactic cards. Manual though takes forever to go through the battle due to the sequence nature of it. An Auto with card selection mode would be great and speed things up when you don't want to watch the battles.

So with little time under my belt, I'd say right now it feels slightly different than other 4x games.