I don’t normally take the time to write up reviews of things that have yet to come out, even if I have experienced them. I beta tested Star Wars: The Old Republic and Diablo 3 among others, and I have still yet to write a review about either of those things.

A new indie game called Endless Space, now in the alpha stage, is providing me with so much enthusiasm that I can’t hold it in anymore.

A 4X strategy game (The 4X standing for: Explore, Expand, Exploit, and Exterminate), it follows one of 8 races in a race to conquer planets and resources for their empire. Victory isn’t necessarily winning every battle, as with all 4X games you can win by economy, diplomacy, or by technological victory.

Think of it as a space Civilization game, or an evolved version of Alpha Centauri.

Millenia ago, the “Endless,” a hyper evolved race of beings, charted the stars long before humanity crawled down from the trees. They left behind very little, except for the cornerstone of their civilization, called Dust. This substance heightened ability and allowed the “Endless” to expand the way they did.

Think of Dust like Spice from Dune, if you are so inclined to do so.

You constantly reach towards bigger ships, better technology, more diplomatic influence, and a bigger economy. You can fine tune the minuteae of this to very fine details, controlling the economic and technological output of each star system under your control.

At a certain point in your expansion, you will meet one of 7 other races, each with their own unique style. You will always start in a state of cold war with each of these races, but through research in the tech tree, you gain better ways to exert influence over your neighbors.

At some point, whether it is against pirates or other players, you will have to fight a battle. This is where Endless Space is a little different than most strategy games. Battles happen in real time, but are completely simulated. The only effect the player has on the battle is how much power they have sent into the battle, as well as, ability cards which can influence statistics of your ships for a brief period of time.

The battles look gorgeous, and the mechanics are interesting, but at a certain point you get tired of watching the same battles, and resort to the auto resolve battle function. You fight too many battles for it to be interesting to watch every single time.

For an alpha version, this game has an enormous amount of polish, and the potential is just off the charts. It is so easy to play and navigate. The menus are intuitive and easily manipulated. Any information you need is no more than a click or two away.

The complexity will obviously scare away non-gamers, however, the strategy gamers out there might get a kick out of this new game. It is an indie game, so I do have some minor quibbles.

For instance, I would like unique tech trees for each race. I want battles to be more involved. Plus, the AI hasn’t quite been dialed into the final shape, and sometimes can raise insane amounts of ships.

It is an alpha, so there will be fixes to a lot of bugs, and I can’t wait to see a finished product. As I said, I’m very enthusiastic about this game.

Amplitude Studios, the makers of the game, want full audience participation. Registered members on their site get voting power on different design aspects of the game through their games2gether initiative.

This is an innovative and exciting way to get people involved in the game. To give more incentive to their market, anyone who pre-orders the game gets a bump in their voting power.

Check out their website, and check out the game, especially if you are into empire building space opera.