Although there are dozens of strategy games that focus on re-imagining Earth's history (the most famous among them being Sid Meier's Civilization series), there aren't many turn-based games that allow players to spread their empires across the stars. However, the Space Empires series, now on its fifth release, lets players' research, build, explore and conquer distant worlds.

Designing an empire building strategy game is no easy task, which is probably why there aren't many of them. There are a couple of pitfalls that could ruin gameplay. Like with any turn-based game, an empire can get so large that it becomes almost impossible to manage. Furthermore, there is a danger of having generic and silly looking aliens. Although Space Empires V doesn't suffer from these faults, it does have one big problem that often plagues many computer strategy games: it's very complex. This is not the kind of game that one can casually dive into. Upon loading up the game for the first time, the player is assaulted by a screen full of icons. The user interface isn't the most intuitive around, which makes for a really steep learning curve. One great thing can be said about Space Empires V, it gives players an incredible amount of control to manage their empire. However, that's also its downside. Almost everything needs to be built from scratch, which is evident before the game even starts. Players have to design their race from the ground up, including their look, form of government, and technological bonuses. The race can be saved for later use, thereby skipping what is perhaps one of the most tedious parts of the game. There is no pre-built list of generic races to select from unless the player decides to use the "Quick Start" option, which makes all decisions (seemingly at random) except for the starting race. However, the downside to the quick starting is that it dramatically switches from having too many decisions to make to too few. Players forfeit the ability to decide how large they want their galactic map to be, the number of computer players (it defaults to the full 12) and how difficult they will be. In essence, the Quick Start might be a little TOO quick.

Space Empires V is a game that is designed for patient people. This is a game that makes Civilization IV seem like it's running at light speed. The text-based tutorial is about fifty screens long and features no voiceovers to keep things interesting. This game is so basic that the tutorial doesn't even highlight the buttons it refers to, leaving players to hunt and peck until they find the corresponding icons or menus. There are no pre-built scouts or colony ships available, forcing players to immediately enter the shipbuilding screen. Although the variety of options might seem overwhelming at first, the actual ship design feature is quite mundane. It's a two dimensional screen, with an outline of the ship's hull divided into a grid. Players drag options like sensors, weapons, life support and hull plating into the grid and call it a ship. There are three different levels to build on, but it doesn't seem to matter where things are placed on the ship just as long as they're present. Most players may settle for the generic ship designs and use the "auto-complete" button to fill everything out for them. Overall, it's an awful lot of steps to go through at the beginning of a game.

Each race is allotted a number of research points which may be increased through building research facilities. The player distributes the points across a series of generic categories, making it possible to research multiple technologies at once, unlike most other empire building games that focus on one branch of research at a time. While this is a great design, there's no tech tree to see the "big picture" and set goals. In fact, it's highly questionable as to whether or not there is a big picture at all. Although some technologies may open other branches, everything tends to follow a generic pattern. Most of the categories themselves are painfully dull and their application doesn't seem immediately evident. Categories include mathematics, physics, and computers. Are we suddenly in the Stone Age? How did a race launch a shuttle into space without knowledge of computers and mathematics? Social technologies such as philosophy and athletics are even more puzzling. Both lead to general happiness, but the differences between them aren't apparent.

Space Empires V is a game for players who really want to work towards having their own civilization built. There are a couple of automated systems to help streamline the empire but some aren't very reliable, and few truly impact the game's pacing. Even scouts, when ordered to explore, will only go as far as the other side of a warp tunnel before returning and going in circles. The pacing is extremely slow, and it can sometimes take ages to pass a rival faction to conduct diplomatic relations or wage war against. A couple of key features stand out, and the game's relatively low price of $39.99 makes it easier to buy, but be prepared to slowly plod along as the empire expands.

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