Space Empires IV is like a truly complex, four course meal. The flavors are nuanced, will challenge the faint of heart, and if you trust the chef and stick with it to the end, is truly satisfying.

I spent hundreds of hours on the predecessor to SEIV, and the terrible graphics but amazing gameplay of SEIII will live in my memory forever. Space Empires IV is a worthy successor. Unlike some sequels, SEIV builds on what made SEIII great, preserving the best features and adding lovingly rendered graphics, enhanced ship design features, more technologies, bigger galaxies, better AI (although this is probably the greatest weakness of the series), and more.

If you've never played 4X games before, SEIV is a heavy entry title. It does have a steep learning curve, and only those who truly love micromanagement will ever appreciate the deep complexity at the core of this title. It's possible to play without getting bogged down in the details as a variety of assistants can be turned on to help manage minutia like build queues, research, and the like. I'm not that familiar with them as I never play with them on, but I'd imagine they would help if you're just getting in to the game.

The real brilliance of SEIV is the extensive technology tree and the infinite variations in how it can be applied. Over the many hours I've spent with this game, I've tried countless variations on technology applications, and there is no one true path to victory. Many exist, they are all fun, and contribute greatly to the near-infinite replayability of this title.

When you get tired of the base game, the second greatest feature of SEIV kicks in -- it's very open to modding, and a strong community of modders exists for the game, with simple mods like technology tree augmentations to extensive mods like Star Wars or Star Trek "mode" mods. Whatever you want, it either exists or wouldn't be hard to make.

Needless to say, I'm a big fan of this game. If you're new to 4X games, you might want to come back to this one after getting into the genre a bit more. If you're a 4X pro and want to embrace a true challenge -- this is the game for you.

I really like this game. It's a complex 4X where you can customize just about everything, and even build a Dyson Sphere*. With a ton of races, you have a nice variety to choose from, but you can still custom taylor one to fit your play style. My only issue is that it can be hard to get into and in the beginning, it can be tough to keep up with the AI lategame. But hey, practice makes perfect.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere

Man, I really wanted to like this series. I love the 4X genre of games and had heard a lot of great things about the Space Empires series. I spent hours trying to wrap my head around it but in the end this game had three major flaws that just killed it for me:

* The Learning Curve - Wow, is the learning curve on this game steep. I consider myself an intelligent person, but trying to figure out what I needed to be doing or how to do it at any given point in time was a Sisyphean effort. In other turn-based strategy games buttons are labelled clearly and in a way that new players can easily understand what they will do. Not here. Even the tutorial which attempts to walk you through it in baby steps is nigh-on useless because things are set out so poorly. I don't know what the exact antonym of intuitive to use would be that would describe the controls but needless to say it was an effort to learn what to do.

* Game Speed - Damn is this game slow. Even once I started to get an idea of what I needed to do at the beginning, setting up a new game and starting to play would find I had been at my computer for close to an hour and was only three or so turns in.

* The Manual - The manual could not have been more useless. It was nothing more than a list of button definitions, with no picture of what the button or menu object looked like. Many times I sat there after spending ten minutes figuring out what I should do next only to find it would then take me twenty minutes to figure out how to go about actually DOING it. If your game is going to have a manual that is nothing more than a list of definitions you had better include a good in-game help system or even a suggestion/advisory system - a la the Civ series - to make up for it and help get players hooked in playing your game.

In the end these problems all combined to form a Voltron of frustration with the game. I had such high hopes for this game but unfortunately the poor execution made it completely unenjoyable. Sad to say it but this game just lacks fun.

4x as it was meant to be played... on the galactic scale.

Its old, slow and a bit too complicated.
Its fun, unique and for a 4X type of game, ..decent despite its age.
It has plenty of room to grow as you can easily add your own races with some very simple file placements.

Honestly though, this game is extremely hard to review. You know by now if this is what you want or not based on the genre. Its the standard game but with a sci-fi spin. Its fun, but extremely painfully long and hard. Even if the game is rigged for you to win, you might still lose. I dont play to win though.

Seriously, I dont even know how to explain gameplay or tell you anything about it. It is what it is. I happen to enjoy it.
Would I recommend this game: ..maybe. It is good enough to recommend...but (as previously stated) you probably wont like it unless you like this type of game. Also, its age is a point to bring up, it is old. Very old. If they kept making these games Space Empires XVII would probably be around.

Honestly, you should probably pass this up. Its good, but probably not what you are looking for. I'll recommend it for those who know what they are getting into though. If you think it looks good and you like this sort of thing, its great.