Whether interacting with hundreds of species or pursuing the past of divine beings, both of these two games will take you on a journey beyond the stars. Wear your astronaut suit, get into your spaceship, and let’s find out which game will follow you through the entire galaxy.

Both these are space exploration games where you’re in control of an entire empire with one main objective: Explore and colonize other planets. Expand your crew and take over entire galaxies. Build space stations and claim your territory in epic space battles with your rivals to secure your place as the biggest nation in the universe.

The two experiences are based on the 4X genre (Explore, Expand, Exploit and Exterminate), featuring real-time strategy elements and random events that can occur during your gameplay. But with all being said, let’s talk about each title particularly and their main differences.

Developed and published by Paradox, the base game was launched in 2016 and is considered one of the best sci-fi strategy games ever made. The title features a lot of mechanics to please even the more picky players, including the possibility to create your very own civilization, a surface-level micromanagement to play with, and even a tech tree to conduct research and gain bonuses of your personal preference for new technologies.

The game starts with a simple plot: A civilization that just discovered how to travel faster than light. With this in mind, the player now has to explore distant worlds and challenge other empires in this turn-based game. Build your own space station and guarantee its security while other races from hundreds of planets try to take it from you.

In this game, patience is the key to success, especially in the late game, with long runs guaranteed for most players. This space simulator also offers good replayability, mainly because of its great generation of random events and other things like civilizations. The fun is guaranteed for dozens, maybe hundreds of hours.

You’ll also find a lot of bonus content for this game, including DLCs and expansion packs that can make your runs even longer and are a feast for players who like to play the game more than just one time. Some of those DLCs include new diplomacy mechanics which enhance the strategies you may have to use with the varying political system featured, whether a democratic government or a dictatorship. 

Be aware that a single game can last weeks or even more than a month, depending on the player exploring skills and his speed at the game. This turns it into an experience you won’t find in any other strategy game like Sins of the Solar Empire or any other. This is a game for those who want to take their time building spaceships, collecting tons of space Amoeba’s, exploring every inch of this vast galaxy, and developing their own civilizations to play with.

Published in 2017 by SEGA, Endless Space was developed by AMPLITUDE studios to be, among many other games, Stellaris' main rival, adopting similar mechanics and becoming one of the best strategy games with a sci-fi theme. The game shortly became a must-play, especially for those who enjoyed Stellaris but weren’t willing to spend so many hours on the tile because of the complicated learning curve.

Being different from Stellaris in many ways, the turn-based game sets you in a universe once colonized by divine beings called “Endless.” However, all that is left of them are ruins, artifacts, and a magical substance known as “Dust.” 

You can choose one of eight factions to begin your journey with, each with its own characteristics and playstyle, and you can also create your own but with very limited options of customization since that’s not the focus of the game.

Besides having almost the same system as Stellaris, Endless Space 2 has a really smaller learning curve, being a more attractive game to players who are not familiar with the 4X genre gameplay or just don’t want to spend hours learning a single mechanic of the game. In this game, the main focus is developing your own space empire, no matter if it’s through diplomacy or Bellic power. Your main goal in this game is to conquer the universe, expanding more and more.

The game also features a lot of mechanics that are available in Stellaris, such as planetary management, ship design, a galaxy map to plan your next steps, and lots of other things that will keep your fun guaranteed for hours, even with fewer planets available. If the base game is not enough for you, don’t worry. There are plenty of DLCs available to complement your experience and give you some extra hours of gameplay.

To answer this question, we will analyze four topics and their differences in these games:

• Gameplay and Difficulty
• Combat
• Customization
• Extra Content

Gameplay and Difficulty

These two titles have really similar gameplay, both being strategy games that belong to the 4X genre. Normally, these kinds of games take a long time to learn the mechanics and even longer periods to finish a single match. You’ll have to search for resources, expand your crew and build your empire in order to stay alive and conquer new planets, and both games will give you a giant range of tools, like technology research, and many other ways to do that.

In Stellaris, the gameplays are usually way longer than in Endless Space 2, going from hours to even months to finish it. If you’re looking for something more dynamic, without worrying so much about having to build buildings or managing planet bases,  you should probably go for Endless Space 2. It’s a lot faster but doesn’t sacrifice the variety of possibilities, like the many races you can find, the science ships you can build and you also don’t have to worry about the habitable tiles as much as in Stellaris.

The main difference here is that the second title is more focused on dynamic gameplay with premade factions that give you different possibilities of routes to achieve your goal. But if you’re looking for something more like a sandbox with custom civilizations and infinite surface points to provide a more personalized experience, you should definitely play Stellaris.

Combat

There is a major difference in combat between these two games. In Endless Space 2, when engaged in combat, you’ll have plenty of strategy and tactical options to guide your faction’s next steps, giving the player more options on how to handle the situation. As in Stellaris, even with better fleet management features, the combat looks more like a movie than anything else on default speed, giving the player only two options: Attack or Retreat.

It is also important to highlight that the battles in Stellaris are way bigger than in Endless Space 2, reinforcing that movie feeling and putting the player almost in a Homeric battle. With this in mind, it’s up to you to decide which combat system suits you best.

If you like fast and dynamic combats with lots of mechanics to use, the Endless Space 2 combat may be what you’re looking for. On the other hand, if you look for a more cinematic experience between you and the other empire, with fewer mechanics but on a significantly larger scale, Stellaris is your go-to title.

Customization

When discussing customization, Stellaris rules over Endless Space 2, no doubt about that. But this is something expected since Stellaris is much more of a sandbox game than the other title. This causes the game to be a must-play for those who want to give their “personal touch” to everything - Your own civilization, your ship, and many other things you may find in your journey.

That doesn’t mean that Endless Space 2 has no customization. The game is just not focused on that, so you’ll be limited to a really simple faction customization, being it just a “mix” of the standard faction options available at the game. So, if customizing everything is not a big deal for you, both titles should suit you well, but if you consider it vital, grab your Stellaris copy and reunite your ground troops for the next battle.

Extra Content

And the winner in this category is…Endless Space 2!

The turn-based title has 21 DLCs available at the moment, including the digital artbook and free content that complements your gameplay, against the 20 of its rival. This may be a small difference, especially if you are not considering the official artbook, but there is a big concern about Stellaris’ downloadable content.

When the game launched its first DLCs, the players felt like that content should have been launched for free with the game. Most of these paid complements were “missing parts” of the main experience, and this makes the players feel like they have to buy all the content to have a complete experience.

Knowing all of that, you’re the one who has to make a choice. If you don’t mind spending a little more on contents like Synthetic Dawn, Leviathans Story Pack, and others to get the full experience, both games will fit you perfectly. However, if you don’t want to spend extra cash on optional content, Endless Space 2 sounds like a better deal for you since you can feel like playing a full game without having to get more content.

Whether you decide to become the next endless legend or the protagonist of epic battles against other empires, both games are incredible titles that take the concept of a strategy game to a whole new level. You’ll find much more to do than just rush through tasks in order to achieve those traditional end-game goals.

Build your empire and get ready to conquer all the galactic civilizations on your path, whether through bloody combat or a cold war against them. The universe is all yours to claim, so use everything you have and become the ruler of all galaxies.

Both Stellaris and Endless Space 2 base games can be found on Steam for €39,99, but can also be found on RoyalCDKeys for an expressively lower price.

The Stellaris standard edition can be acquired for just €5,63, while the ultimate bundle goes for €84,74.

The Endless Space 2 standard edition is available for €6,23 and the definitive edition can be acquired for €120,00.