Endless Space 2 is a turn-based strategy science fiction 4X game developed by Amplitude Studios. The sequel to Endless Space (2012), it was available through Steam Early Access from October 2016 and was released on May 18, 2017, to positive reviews.

Gameplay: Endless Space 2 is set in a universe long ago dominated by a race called the Endless. The Endless made great advances in science, culminating in virtualization—uploading their minds into machines and achieving a form of eternal life. This created a schism in their society, splitting it into two opposing factions: the Virtuals, who embraced electronic immortality, and the Concretes, who viewed it as an abomination. The quarrels grew into an open conflict called the Dust Wars, which effectively destroyed their civilization and left only a few scattered survivors. Tens of thousands of years later, the galaxy is again populated by life capable of interstellar travel, scavenging the remains of the Endless empire. The player controls one of 12 major factions, each with asymmetric gameplay, storylines, homeworlds, spaceships, heroes, and technologies. At the start, the player can choose from the 12 predesigned factions or create a custom faction. Players are given control of a fledgling empire and must expand it by conquering systems. Each system has up to five planets, each with its own environment, climate, stats (such as production and food), and sometimes anomalies. Anomalies can be explored with an explorer ship and grant buffs or debuffs to the entire system. Planet stats determine a planet's effectiveness in specific roles, while environments determine whether it can be colonized; the ability to colonize different environments is unlocked through research. 

Each planet can be assigned a specialization that grants buffs, with additional bonuses based on climate. Players can construct system infrastructure improvements, including several powerful variants that can be built only once per game. Players explore and colonize systems using ships; initially travel is restricted to star lanes, but additional forms of travel can be unlocked via research. 

Research is key to progression, unlocking new constructions, ship hulls, weapons, modules, upgrades, tactics, infrastructure, abilities, and other items. The game currently has 10 factions, including those added by downloadable content. There are four research categories—military; science and technology; business and trade; and empire development—each with five tiers. Higher tiers are unlocked by researching topics in the previous tier. Politics play an important role. The game features a political system with factions—industrialists, scientists, militarists, pacifists, ecologists, and religious—each with affinities that provide laws granting buffs. The dominant party automatically enacts one law, which grows more potent over time as it moves from established to entrenched. Different government types can modify law effectiveness and the number of parties that can hold office simultaneously. Party support increases by researching certain technologies, building appropriate infrastructure, and performing specific actions (for example, declaring war, building bunkers, and researching weapons all boost militarist support). To expand their empire, players must colonize systems across the galaxy while competing with other empires that are also trying to win. Players can interact with other empires by declaring war, sending tributes, or forming alliances. Each empire controls its own territory and maintains a distinct relationship with the player (Cold War, War, Wary, etc.). There are also minor civilizations; players can improve relations to receive resources, declare war on them, or assimilate them into their empire if relations are good enough. Opposing empires can also interact with these civilizations. To fight other empires, players need ships and ground troops. Ship-to-ship battles against enemy fleets play out automatically: fleets are matched based on weapon and defense modules, and engagement range is determined by the strategy card a player selects. Different battle tactics provide bonuses and alter engagement range; players may retreat to save ships at the cost of some damage. Players can invade by sending ground troops to attack defenders in a system. Ground troops can be upgraded and the player sets their composition percentages. Replenishing troops uses manpower, a special resource, and each ship can carry only a limited number of soldiers. Players can weaken a system’s defenders by stationing fleets in orbit and besieging it, which reduces enemy troop numbers. Players can also design ships. Three hull classes—small, medium, and large—are unlocked via the appropriate research tree. Larger hulls have more health, manpower capacity, and module slots, but require more resources and time to build and occupy more fleet space. Each ship has weapon and support modules; players can equip weapons and support modules that grant buffs. Each weapon has different stats and three possible ranges: short, medium, and long. Accuracy varies by range; poor accuracy results in many missed shots and lower damage. Certain weapons have special properties. For example, kinetic weapons are ineffective at long range but can attack incoming missiles, fighters, and bombers. Beam weapons have relatively low damage output but are unaffected by range, making them very consistent.

Development: The game was made available through Steam Early Access on 6 October 2016. The full game was released on 19 May 2017. It received its third major update on 23 March 2018.