Still, no subscription fee makes this something of a no-brainer if you like MMOs and you can afford the somewhat steep box price.

You were right about Endless Space and you were right about Waking Mars, I’m sure you’re right about this too.
Keep up the good work, I really enjoy this site. Always an interesting read.

Like Hentzau said, there is never really a worry that you need to grind or do something specific to get higher levels. I mean, obviously you can’t just jump into the higher-level areas, but there is so much variety in the lower and mid-level areas that it’s hard to see why you’d want to.

Almost every stage of the personal plot that I’ve done has been set at a lower level than I actually was, so even if you were less obsessed with completing areas I suspect that you’d usually be at the right level. On the other hand, I don’t think you can quite go on completing the story missions alone (but again, the game doesn’t make you feel like you should be because there is just so much else to engage with.)

As long as you embrace the exploration aspect of the game by taking breaks from the story to go and look at new areas, and as long as you do crafting (which is a surprisingly hefty source of XP) levelling is pretty much a non-issue. The only thing I have a problem with is that the dungeons in the game all have relatively high level requirements which means getting four friends together who have levelled that high can be a bit of a challenge. At least at the moment. They’re effectively endgame content, which seems like an odd choice.

VERILY.