Space Empires V Demo

4X games are designed in order to provide you with as much freedom as possible when it comes to expanding your civilization, since you are technically free to choose the desired path. Hence, whether you want to go to war with everyone you meet and burn anything new to the ground, there is nothing to stop you from doing so. On the other hand, diplomacy and ethics can also work wonders, if you don’t mind the lack of action.

Space Empires V takes it one step further and allows you to choose much more than the civilization you play as and the winning strategy, since you can practically customize everything about your empire. Starting from the race you play with and the layout of the planets, all the way to ship designs and many other gimmicks that give you full control over how you want your civilizations to look and feel.

Obviously, there is not much of a story behind the scenes, since you must come up with your own imaginary scenarios and create everything from scratch. There are a few pre-built civilizations you can choose from, in case you just want to start a quick game and have no time to adjust every little detail. The true strength of the game lies in customization options, however, which is why you should definitely take advantage of them to experience the gameplay properly.

As previously mentioned, the goal of the game is quite simple: expand and defeat your enemies, in order to become the most powerful race in the galaxy. The road to success is quite long, though, since the research tree is enormous and the wars can take a really long time to yield a winner. Diplomacy can also be considered, in case you want to solve your problems with dialogue and manners instead of lasers and rockets.

Graphically, the game does look pretty well and a lot of work went into the various ship models and planets you can admire. The special effects look marvelous too, especially when it comes to the beautiful scenery from space. On the other hand, there are some pretty massive optimization issues as well, which might make it difficult for you to enjoy the game on a newer computer, due to the game’s age.

Space Empires V is a worthy sequel in the series and it brings a lot of improvements for you to enjoy, especially if you are a fan of the 4X genre. The A.I. may have its flaws, but it can certainly provide you with a challenge and it won’t be easy for you to achieve victory.