Endless Space has been one of this years most consistently positive surprises. We first caught sight of this ambitious indie strategy game back in early May, when the game first appeared on Steam and was taking discounted purchases in exchange for early Alpha access. Even in that early state, the game was shockingly impressive and polished. Over the past few months, small French dev-house Amplitude Studios have added the remaining few playable races, and tuned and balanced the game with the aid of player feedback through the Alpha and Beta phases. As of just a few minutes ago, Endless Space Version 1.0 has officially been released via Steam.

We’ll have a full review of this one some time in the coming days, but from my dabblings in it through the course of development, I can safely say that it has consistently improved since the already-impressive Alpha build. While some people might be put off by the comparatively hands-off combat (you issue a few minor orders as the two fleets close in on each other, but not much else), there’s an incredibly solid and smoothly-progressing 4X game to be found here, easily up to Master Of Orion 2 levels of quality and design. Endless Space is available now for $30 or your regional equivalent.

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