Space Empires IV

In the most basic description, Space Empires IV (SE4) puts you in the driver's seat of an entire civilization, with control over technology, colonization, space exploration, political maneuvering, R&D, and just about everything else you think of, in an effort to conquer the galaxy. It’s not simple by any stretch of the imagination, nor is it for the faint of heart or those unfamiliar with turn-based strategy games.

Your basic mission, take over the galaxy, can’t be rushed. Playing for more than 15 hours (on one game - random maps are generated for each new game) I wasn’t even close. True, I had explored quite a bit of the galaxy and had encountered many new species, but I was trying to plant seeds that would eventually destroy the others with minimal fuss. And when your civilization spans multiple sectors and you’ve got fleets throughout, planning out each turn can easily take upwards of twenty minutes. To aid in this planning is the interface, which becomes fairly intuitive after the sharp learning curve. With a few clicks you can access everything to do with your space-bound civilization. Most of the necessary information is displayed in a straightforward manner, but be prepared to actually read the information. (Unlike tax time, where I just glance at the stuff and grunt affirmatives.)

interesting space phenomenon and some round planets. The basic ship types can be recognized by looking at them but for their specifics you have to click on them. And so much hinges on the specifics that you should be warned.

All your ships have to be designed from the ground up – colony ships, fighters, transports, etc. This is good news for those that love tweaking, but bad news for those that would just like to bypass it entirely. Building the ships is fairly easy to do and, depending on your technology level, can be quite gratifying (especially when your rivals are flying the sci-fi equivalents of model T’s). Since your ships are the means used to expand your empire it’s important to put some thought into what to build and research next. Or how they should be grouped, what fleet they should belong to, what portion of space to explore next, who to attack – crap, there’s no limit to the things you have to be thinking during your turn. (To offset keeping track of so many details is the ability to turn on various advisers who assume control over the smaller things.)

SE4 biggest strength is the ability to flip a variety of options before the game even starts. You can set such things as number of starting civilizations, technology levels, starting base planets – once again a plethora of choices. Flipping a few options can make it more enjoyable for those that like to avoid starting at ground zero every time. (Personally, I hate ground zero so starting halfway up the tech tree was a much more enjoyable way to play.)

SE4 also has the ability to set up email games, which can be drawn out for a very long, long time. Not only that, I got my butt whipped. It’s easy to set up an email game – once again the menus and interface shine.

Shrapnel Games is known for making some of the best turn-based strategy games out there and Space Empires IV, with it’s great interface, thought-out design, and wide openness, delivers a great game for those seeking a challenge. And as I said before, there’s a lot of depth here and gamers not acclimatized may find themselves drowning in the details.

- Omni