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Space Empires IV is a turn-based strategy game, developed by Shrapnel Games. As the name implies, Space Empires IV is set in a science-fiction universe, and your objective is to lead your race into a dominant position in interstellar politics. Space Empires IV focuses on things from a planetary level and up—so its closer to the Master of Orion (MOO) series than it is to, say, Alpha Centauri. However, the game has many innovations that make it distinct from its cousins.

In a Nutshell:

Space Empires IV is about building, developing, and fostering the growth of your race. You, are responsible for guiding research, setting your diplomatic agendas, controlling industrial development, overseeing espionage on other races, and, of course, setting military policy (conducting war). While these factors are common to almost all Civilization-style games, Space Empires IV sets itself apart by providing a myriad of options for the player to choose from. This gives you a great deal of control over the game—you can customize to your heart’s content before the game begins, and during the game, the variety of paths to victory allow you to play the game you want, the way you want.

This last point is important. The game AI and internal game rules are set in such a way that subtle play styles are still effective. Intelligence & espionage, for example, actually can make enough of a difference to win you the game. The same holds true for diplomacy. This leads to a game universe that feels more believable—the most powerful race will not necessarily be the one with the biggest fleet.

Research & The Technology Tree:

Many people agree that the way a game handles research & technology has a pivotal impact on how much fun the game ends up being. The more tech. available, the greater variety of buildings, units, and so on we have to play with. In this regard, Space Empires IV is exemplary. The tech. tree is HUGE. As a result, you’ll be unlocking new and interesting gadgets for a long, long time.

Normally, a large tech. tree usually comes with a major disadvantage—you have to wait a long time, and research several prerequisites, before you can finally research the one technology that you really want. Space Empires IV sidesteps this problem quite neatly, by having a combination of theoretical technology, and practical applications.

When you research a specific, application-based technology, you know pretty much what you are going to receive (If I research “ice colonization” technology, I gain the ability to build colony ships for ice planets). On the other hand, a theoretical technology (such as “chemistry”) opens up new avenues for you to research—basically, they serve only as prerequisite tech. This system allows you to, if you need new options RIGHT NOW, to focus exclusively on applied technology. But if you want truly world-bending capabilities, you have to research theoretical tech. first.