Between Millennia, Ara History Untold, Frostpunk 2, and the slow resurgence of Cities Skylines 2 – not to mention the buzz around Civilization 7 – if you’ve missed Endzone 2 so far this year, that’s understandable. 2024 has some serious strategy game vintage, from well-publicized monoliths like Manor Lords to superlative sleeper hits in the form of Songs of Silence. But don’t sleep on this one any longer. Originally released back in August, over the past four months Endzone 2 has been quietly earning a reputation as one of the best city-building games on PC. The initial reviews were mild, but that’s completely changed. Thanks to another major, free update, this one deserves to be bumped up your play list.
In Fallout, it’s nuclear war. In Frostpunk, it’s snow, wind, and endless winter. But in Endzone 2, the apocalypse is a little more complex. Freak weather events have rendered much of the planet uninhabitable, and strange pockets of radiation have appeared across the landscape. Nevertheless, the final vestiges of humanity have a chance to start over. There are still forests, rivers, and even the ruins of former civilizations with which to build a new society. A combination city-building and strategy game, it’s up to you to guide them.
As well as its gorgeous steampunk visuals, Endzone 2 stands out among its peers thanks to its exploration and quest system. Once you’ve settled in one area, you need to expand to another, and establish trade routes to find other sources of raw materials. In a lot of 4X games, it’s simply a case of zooming out to look at the map and moving units through the fog of war. In Endzone 2, you need to build, fortify, and supply a chunky exploration vehicle and go searching for new pastures yourself. Along the way, you might meet other survivors who need a favor, or maybe bandits looking for a battle.
Over its lifetime, Endzone 2 has picked up ‘mixed’ reviews on Steam. But thanks to a series of game-changing updates, its recent rating is a much more impressive ‘very positive’ – of all the user notices posted in the last 30 days, 88% are favorable. And now, thanks to another big, free overhaul, Endzone 2 is getting better.
Traders and Hunting introduces two staples of the apocalypse game genre. Firstly, wild game and other creatures will now rove the landscape, and you can establish lodges where your citizens can hunt the animals and strip them for food. Secondly, the world is now populated by traders, each with their own unique inventories, who will offer you quests and other opportunities to earn materials.
The electricity system has also been overhauled, so you can now build infrastructure in the ‘intermediate zones’ between your main settlements, making it easier to funnel power from one to the other. Following the big Endzone 2 update that arrived in November, Traders and Hunting feels like another improvement to what is becoming one of Steam’s best strategy hidden gems. If you want to try Endzone 2 for yourself, just head here.
Alternatively, you might want to check out some of the best games like Fallout, or maybe the best RTS games on PC today.
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