It’s cruel that Endless Space 2 [official site] doesn’t launch until tomorrow when the review embargo has already lifted and Fraser Brown has gushingly told us Wot He Thinks of the spacey 4X strategy. It’s a great game and we can’t play it yet because we’re not fancy-fancy like him. I guess we’re sitting on our hands for another day an- hold on! It’s out! Endless Space 2 is out! A day ahead of schedule, developers Amplitude Studios have launched the big update which frees the game from the orbit of early access and blasts it off into the great unknown.

“Look who’s home early…” the scamps say. It’s you, it is.

For those who have avoided Endless Space 2 until it was finished, here’s a hunk of Fraser’s WIT:

“Factions aren’t just defined by their unique techs and fancy powers, however. They set the tone and inspire certain types of playstyles, but the politics system has just as big an impact. It’s perhaps the biggest hook that sets Endless Space 2 apart from Endless Legend, and its influence permeates throughout the entire game.”

I want that.

If you have been playing during early access, you’ll find the launch update is a biggun. It brings the new Unfallen faction, modding support, cloud saves, a new tutorial, new quests, new technologies, new events, AI improvements, balance adjustments, and oodles of tweaks and fixes. Check the patch notes for the lot.

Saves from early access will not work with the launch version, mind. “We’ve removed a lot of old files that were only kept in there to keep the saves working between beta versions,” Amplitude say. “We’re now removing all that to start with a clean slate!” They also have a hot technical tip:

We strongly recommend you delete your Registry.xml file. It is normally located in: C:\Users\[yourusername]\Documents\Endless Space 2\Users\

I’ve barely touched 4X strategy games beyond Civ over the years but, emboldened by my first ever victory in Stellaris last night, I’m feeling well up for this.