Space Empires IV Review

All elements standard for this genre are present and made far more complex then in other games. There are more than two hundred technologies for you to research, and more than two hundred and sixty ships buildings and contraptions to build.

You'll have to create your ships on your own. Depending on your current needs, you'll combine different equipment into various specialized units. The number of possible combination seems infinite, and you can hardly imagine anything that you will not be able to construct. The game features all possibilities from transports and carriers to mobile factories and engineering stations used for modifying space. It would take you at least one human life to try all combinations out and find the optimal combination of units. All combat takes place on a tactical or strategic level. In the first case you take control of your units, and get to play a standard turn-based strategy game, but if you choose not to participate in the battle, the computer calculates the possible outcome (this works a bit weird, so you better fight on your own whenever you can).

Gradual advance can make things very complicated. This is why the programmers introduced ministers who automate the entire process and assume control of certain activities according to your commands. Their AI is good, but still far from perfect. You can let them conduct less important affairs (administration of planets) but you better take care of the crucial matters (research and fleet building) yourself.

The diplomacy aspect will let you give a lot of proposals or impose a lot of conditions to other races. Unfortunately, you will hardly ever get a decent explanation for their actions, just like recently established alliances tend to break with no obvious cause.

Playing against live opponents is a story of its own. Multiplayer mode uses the true potential of this game, and I am surprised that the programmers decided to use only hot seat and e-mail multiplayer modes. The game features no internet or LAN support, and as the game supports up to twenty players per game, your only option is to find a pretty big room and a lot of chairs, or start an e-mail game as soon as possible in order to finish it before you die. The game also features a simultaneous mode, which lets all the players issue commands simultaneously, and at the end of the turn, the computer calculates the results of the battles.

The very feeling that you're a part of a great world, and in position to do whatever you want (create and destroy planets, turn stars into supernovae, create black holes or move wormholes) is at its best in Space Empires IV. The true fans of this genre will be pleased with the game's configurability, and the complexity of the command system. Space Empires IV has a severe lack of eye-candy, or indeed any multimedia content. There are no animations, the graphics are rough and poor, the sound effects mediocre, and there is almost no music. The only reward you get to receive after days of combat will be one pathetic picture and an inscription saying "Victory". I was never in for games whose main qualities lay in high-budget FMV sequences, or in the heroine's humongous hooters (hm, well, OK, sometimes...), but MM team went to the other extreme. This did not affect playability, but it sure as hell massacred the atmosphere. Still if you like games like this, Space Empires IV is a must-buy. If your main criteria for choosing games is if its engine supports hardware T&L, 5.1, surround sound and force feedback steering wheels, wait for the next release of the serial...

Space Empires IV would in reality deserve a higher mark, but the lack of modern technological standards will make it less interesting for most players. So, if you read this review and found things that seemed appealing, just disregard the final marks - they are meant for the guys who are incapable for anything more sensible than fragging the likes of them (Gee, thanks Bunny! Nice to know you have such high opinion of us action gamers - Ed).