Space Empires V is the latest edition in the Space Empires series. This new chapter completely updates the UI and takes the player into a real-time rendered 3D universe. Watch space battles played out in glorious detail and realistic effects. Expand, explore, exploit, and exterminate in a huge living-breathing galaxy. New features abound with political alliances between multiple empires, a top-down ship design system, a hexagonal movement grid, and many more. Due to player demand, the game is completely “moddable” and even adds a scriptable AI system to the mix.

Here are some features in the game.

• 24 bit 3D real-time rendered graphics.

• Detailed Tactical Combat (and a combat simulator to test your designs!).

• New vehicle types and sizes: Ships, Bases, Freighters, Fighters, Mines, Satellites, Troops, Drones, and Weapons Platforms.

• Ability to completely design and customize all of your vehicles.

• Large Galaxy: 100 solar systems with 15 planets each.

• Huge Technology Tree: Thousands of tech levels with hundreds of components and facilities.

• Completely customizable game graphics: Create your own planets, stars, vehicles, etc.

• Completely customizable AI players: Create your own AI players with unique traits, styles, and speech.

• 14 unique races to play or customize (or just create your own!)

• Randomly generated map for every game (or load an existing map).

• Complete game customization allowed by players ("mods").

Though I believe the game is billed as a RTS game, to me it felt more turn-based because other players take turns after you make your choices. I think of a real-time strategy game as a game that you better hurry up and make your choices because your base is being pounded, enemy units are blasting your resources to oblivion; meanwhile you cannot click your mouse quick enough to hold off the offensive. There is a simultaneous MP option, but movement still does not take place until the end of a players turn. Still sounds turn-based to me.

I really loved the idea that just about everything is customizable. This will surely please those who like to mess around and create new and unusual things. As you can see from the above list, anyone with a sense of creativity can unleash his or her talent to make this an even better game.

Audibly the game is quite good with some great music and some very cool ambient galactic sounds. Though the game is really not a graphic intensive-type title, it looks pretty good for the genre. Games like this are usually more content driven rather then look good. Surely it will please the eye of RTS-TBS fans just the same.

The game is quite fun once you get the basic idea of how to really play it. I’m more of a real-time fan but it is interesting enough as a turn-based game to hold my interest. My favorite part is customizing different ships and loading them with weapons to see how they fair in battle. This can be done with trial and error or try them out in a simulator. The AI seems to be pretty good providing some challenging play. On the downside I was not thrilled to be constantly micromanaging different tasks - still feel it could have been a bit more streamlined. That’s just me though. Another gripe is only a month or so after the game release there are already two patches to address various issues. So yes, the game is or was loaded with bugs. I have not experienced as many as some have, but needless to say that if you buy the game plan down loading some patches.

Gameplay: 8.0
The learning curve for this game is a little steep for those new to it; however the manual does provide a good explanation of how the game is played and what to do to be successful. Once you learn the basic keyboard commands and user interface it does get easier. The tutorial is played along with the manual so to be sure to keep it close at hand. Being able to customize or create mods surely is a good thing.

Graphics: 7.5
There is a ton of content in this game yet the graphics are quite nice. Usually games like this suffer in the visual area compared to FPS titles but in my opinion the graphics looked good for this genre.

Sound: 8.0
Good music and sound effects. There are many sounds that really do make you feel you are in another galaxy.

Difficulty: Medium
Sure it will involve a bit of learning all the commands and what you have to accomplish to be successful, but the tutorial does a nice job of laying it all out. You can customize different settings to make it as easy or difficult as you like.

Concept: 7.0
Turn-based strategy games set in space are limited in number. I like that there is a lot of content and with some political options available it should make for some very interesting gaming.

Multiplayer: N/A
I was not able to play at time of review. You can choose turn-style or simultaneous movement. You can even play on the same computer in “hot seat” mode by taking turns one at a time or you can choose to play on different computers. Again I was unable to play at time of review so not sure as to how I would rank it. I did try other games with no problems so this is a SE5 issue. After readings more posts this problem does not seem to be unique to me. Others have played online just fine.

Overall: 7.0
For those science-fiction fans that like to create their own mods should find this to be a rewarding title. The fact that the multiplayer capability issues have yet to be resolved leaves me wondering just how long this title will be enjoyed before ending up on a shelf.