Being offered a 4X game for free is definitely one of those cursed-monkey-paw situations. Sure, you’re saving physical currency, but at what price in terms of that most treasured and least tradeable of commodities, time? In the hours it takes to properly clean out a 4X game, you could probably build an empire yourself. OK, not a huge empire. An empire the size of the Vatican or the Principality of Sealand, perhaps. Maybe an empire that only covers the distance between your desk and your fridge. But an empire nonetheless. Go on, pronounce yourself God-Tyrant of your bedroom while you download Amplitude’s Endless Legend, which is 100% off on Steam till 10am PDT, 1pm EDT and 6pm BST on May 23rd.
Now that you’ve become God-Tyrant of your bedroom, permit me to offer my services as your trusty NPC advisor and share some wisdom about Endless Legend. My liege! It is an honour. But I will be brief, for your realm already faces insurrection in the shape of flatmates who hate it when you call them “minion”, and a dire assault on the borders from the neighbour’s cat, which has been a thorn in your side since you left that tuna salad on the windowsill six months ago.
Endless Legend came out in 2014 and is renowned even today for the diversity and inventiveness of its factions, as Ollie describes at greater length in his 2023 retrospective. This isn’t just the usual Science vs Economy vs Military spectrum. You’ve got factions who build their cities on the backs of huge insects, factions who eat their own dead to offset their deficient agriculture, factions who have a phobia of research… It’s a regular vaudeville extravaganza of competing alien species, each with their own major questline. The game also plays merry hell with the 4X traditions laid down by elder Civilisations – only one city per region, and techs divided into pools rather than forming trees with branching progression paths.
If you take a shine to it, publishers SEGA are also bundling nine expansions for 81% off.