Really a great game for all the reasons already mentioned. My only problem is that the computer is kinda dumb. That said you can tweak the game enough that that doesn't always matter.

i like the game very much as it is turn based and offers a high degree of customization (shipdesigns), a very large tech tree (which you will probably never research completely in one game so specialize!) and good tactical options.

what i like most are the hexagonal fields in solar systems and the music.

after some games i was familiar with the technologies and had developed a tank rush like strategy which made me always win. meaans without a good plan this may be difficult and the game can be hard. so you must work for your success what is good.

but this also means you often can neglect most of the technologies offered (drones, fighters)

what i'm a bit annoyed about is that you often cant eliminate every ship as there are fast ones which you dont catch and so the enemy can flee. sometime they disapear maybe due to lack of resources but they bind forces.

so for friends of strategy and or spaceship scenarios this is worth a look. recommendation

Micromanaging and see lot´s of options. SEV is a great game to explore the universe in. You can do most things in the game like shipdesign and stuff. The only problem in this 4X game that I find is the time it takes. In many places thare are no alternative to the micromanaging so everything takes a long time to play. And the long time it takes ain´t always time playing and exploring new studd but repeating old things once more.

As a 4X it´s good at giving a exploringpossibility for the universe but it takes a long time to play, longer than most long games that I like.

Space Empires V is probably the most open-ended and variable 4X game I've ever played. In some ways, that's a revelation, giving players exactly the kinds of imaginative options they've wanted for years, particularly with regard to often neglected areas like ship design and diplomacy.

I really wanted to get into the 4x genre, and I couldn't quiet swallow the 2D of Space Empires IV - this game was a great buy. The complexity was overwhelming for me at first, but now I'm really enjoying it. Every option seems open, and after getting the hang of it you'll be hooked.

You ever think that turn based strategies are too simple for you to take up that much time on a single turn? Think again. While some turns may pass quickly, you'll find with the massive tech tree, ability to place individual structures on each colonized planet, ability to design all your own ships, satellites, mines, space-stations, troops, drones, fighters, and defense platforms piece by piece, multitude of espionage and sabotage options, a large group of commands that can be given to a ship, fleet management, and even real-time combat, you'll find yourself begging for this game not to be in real-time! And if you don't have the patience there are many options to speed the game up, like strategic combat rather than tactical, using pre-made races and ship designs, and even ignoring things like espionage and sabotage.(Well, you'll still want to build up a defense against these kinds of things) This games vast complexity allows a theoretically infinite game possibilities to unfold which is great for veterans, maybe even intermediaries of the Turn-Based-Strategy genre, even though it doesn't have pretty graphics or a compelling soundtrack.

The Space Empires series has considerable nostalgic value for myself. I started out my "space management" games with Masters of Orion II (back in the day). Eventually I game across Stars!, a community, non-graphical space game. Home World, Pax Imperia, Gallactic Empires, Sins of a Solar (not quite the same, that one). Space Empires is the only series that holds to the classic MOO2 and Stars! style of TbT play, and it's one of the most easily modified games you're like to come across.

A lot of people prefer SE4 over SE5. I prefer SE5 myself, though realistically there's not a whole lot of difference to mechanics and style between the two. SE5 has a better graphics engine, but it's still not going to dazzle you. That's not what this series is about.

The game plays from the top-down or pseudo-3rd (my term for 3rd person bird's eye). Solar systems are set out on circular hex grids that delimit movement spaces, planet locations, etc. The objective is the usual: Take over the universe or (snicker) attempt to co-exist with the rest of the universe's aliens. But the primary design and intent is to conquer.

There's a ton of variety and ample room for customization (even without modding things). Smaller universes offer the quickest fix for action and conflict. But the universe can also be set up to be huge for those of us who like to play a more epic game session. Warning however! In this later case, expect your PC to start taking quite some time in between turns as it crunches out the numbers. Even my powerhouse PC was taking a minute or so after the turns started getting past triple digits.

The way you set up the game session will have a huge impact on play, so take the time to figure out the settings. One simple setting (and I forget what it's actually called) changes resources from percentiles to static, depletable values. This is a significant game-changer for longer games, as the asteroids & planets will eventually exhaust their resources, forcing you to expand in the incessant search for more. (Unless, of course, you some modding...there are some values on a few planetary improvements that regenerate resources...)

The A.I. can sometimes be downright stupid, and other times it can appear to be devious. I have trouble sometimes determining what is accidental and what isn't. However, there are a few quirks that make this A.I. predictable as well, especially concerning ship building and pathing through star systems. Ultimately, it makes the same mistake as so many other games in the "management" genre: the A.I. focuses on a war of quantity rather than quality or tactical/strategical considerations.

Amazing multi-player potential if you can set up a game. That's all I'll say about that.

So. Some discontent with the A.I., and a processor hog when things really get going in an epic session are the only cons in my opinion. But massive mod potential and out-of-the-box customization help create a different gaming experience every time. Multi-player is downright fun (but it's an older game, so you'll need to find some 'cultists' out there).

This is not the most complex in the Space Empires series, however it is the most polished.

If you were a fan of any of the previous Space Empires games then this one is definitely a buy for you.

I am a big fan of the 4X genre of games, and if you have any other 4X game and have fun playing it, then you will enjoy Space Empires 5. The sad thing about this game and many other 4X games like it, and the reason why I can only give this game 4 stars is its lack of multiplayer. I know alot of the 4X community dont care about multiplayer, but I have a group of friends that I love playing big strategy games with, and if this game had a multiplayer it would be perfect for it.

Alas I can only play this Singleplayer, which means that I tend to play Sins of Solar Empire a bit more, purely due to the lack of multiplayer.

Simply staggering depth in this game. There's lots of techs and great detailed features, such as ship design and tactical battles. The amount of races, ship sets and classes and all the varied options you have to personalise each game are amazing and there are plenty of mods. The game also features an interesting approach to diplomacy, allowing you to set individual clauses to treaties and time limits.

The only gripe I have is the AI's lack of intelligence and the small imbalances, but these are fixed to a degree with patches and I've heard the AI can be much improved by a popular mod called the balance mod.

This is the most indepth of the 4x style games out there these days. It was just missing something for me I liked SE4 better.

The graphics are better moving to a hex style map from the grid that was in the se4.

The amount of techs you can research is staggering ive never maxxed my tech in a full game yet.

With all the 4x style games out there these days I end up switching between SE5, sword of the stars, armada 2526, moo3, and gal civ depending on what mood im in.

Space Empires 5 is a 4x space game with real time tactical combat. It builds on the wonderful Space Empires 4, adding new features, new UI, and more complexity.

While SE5 is a very good game, I find myself preferring SE4, as the UI is a bit more intuitive, and the real time combat (SE4 is turn based) is a little fiddly and arcadey.

This is a pity, as I very much want to like SE5, as it has many great features, but SE4 remains on top.

Fair warning to everyone out there considering buying this game, but running Win7:

Be aware, that due to direct x issues and win 7 only emulating older versions of direct x, you will get like 1-3 FPS in the game pretty much regardless of your hardware.

I got a Core i5-760, Zotac gtx460 amp and 4GB of DDR3 ram - sure, only a middle class system performance wise, but from what i read on the forums, users with better hardware experience the same. So with Win 7, this game is pretty much not playable.

Turn-based Space simulation strategy, unique in its own way from famous franchises like "Master of Orion" and "Sword of the Stars".

Its aim is to add certain level of realism into the concept, by making it even more open-ended then those mentioned before, and by adding interesting concept of Star system moving, in which you have hexes inside every system in which you have asteroid fields, planets, moons, wormholes...etc, while interplanetary travel is done trough one hex only.

Highly recommended game, especially for this price, to any Space "sim" fanatic first, then to the Space "Strategy" one.

I have played a lot of 4x's. Even some of the very first games in the genre. Star Empire 5 is certainly in the top 3 when it comes to challenge, diversity and durability. It's not perfect by today's standards, I won't repeat the points mentionned above, although I don't agree fully with all of them. I for once do not experience sluggishness on my Win7 system. But if you can get with a good discount, SE5 is well worth giving it a try.

One of the best 4x games out there, Space Empires V is the latest iteration of the classic series, SE5, while not without it's flaws is still a great 4x game

One of the best aspects of this, as well as the other SE games has always been it's customization. Shipsets (Models and graphics for new player created empires) can be downloaded from sites such as http://spaceempires.net in a variety of styles. Want to play as the Empire from star wars -- complete with TIE Fighters and Star Destroyers; you can do that. Want to play as Kirk's Federation, no worries just download the shipset and you're done.

Not only can models/empires be downloaded but almost the entirety of the game's data files can be edited to create an unlimited scope of mods.

There are two main issues that I have found with the game

The first is the way the Tech tree scales in the un-modded game. With 100 levels to research in most field it may seem as though It'd lead to many improvements, however alot of the time it's not worth retrofitting your ships. Also there's alot of disparity in the way some of the techs scale, some of the weapons techs in particular scale FAR better than others. There are numerous mods that correct this issue however (I personally recommend Captain Kwok's Balance Mod from http://www.captainkwok.net/)

The second issue is the... issues the engine has with some video cards and with Windows Vista. A number of video cards will need to run with the video memory in 'Safe' mode to avoid flickering, and a combination of Windows Vista and some video cards can slow the game to a crawl. Although I have not experienced the Vista issue myself as I run XP my newest video card has had me experience the flickering issue, which was corrected with a setting change in the configuration file. If you are running vista I do recommend you download the demo from the manufacturer's website (http://www.malfador.com/se5demo.html) to ensure your card behaves well with your setup.

Overall, I can't help but recommend this game to anyone who enjoys the 4x genre of games. Although I'd give it 4/5 for the stock game, the excellent mods and masses of shipsets bring it to 5/5 in my opinion.

This is a great space empire game, yeah, but it should be noted that it was clearly designed with one thing in mind: allowing a gigantic, endless multiplayer game that lasts for thousands of game-hours. As far as my taste is concerned, it lacks that "fun stand-alone" game feeling because, against the AI, it quickly becomes overwhelmingly drab. The techtree, for instance. Most technologies have this tech item, which you overresearch a hundred times and it simply moves one level up, ad eternum. Then you bring your ships back to the spacedocks for the n-th time, to upgrade "pulsers-level40" to "pulsers-level42" and so on... and you keep repeating this a million times. Over the time, this becomes a bit repeative...

Still, if you are willing to micro-manage this giganticly detailed space empire (although this detail may be a little illusional, as I mentioned), this games sure delivers.

Space Empires 5 is a decent game that will provide you with many hours of entertainment.

The Tech Tree is huge and diversified. The player can choose tactical or strategic combat in both space and ground operations. The AI is weak to good so unless you are a newbe to this type of game you may want to set the difficulty to an above normal setting. As others have said the graphics are a bit dated but they are ok.

I have only had one crash in about 100 hours of game play, and that was due to me multitasking a few too many things and the game said " I don't think I like this" and locked up.

I play pretty aggressive and it is hard not want to jump right in and try to kill off everything in sight, but a bit of diplomacy is good for trade as your empire expands.

A large universe and lots of players can make the game really long so like most games of this type casual gaming is a must. Save often and have fun.

Is well worth buying.

Very good game! Not for begginers. It takes some time before you can learn it and how to play. But, when you learn it can eat a lot of your time.

I have searched my entire life to find a game like this this is not just a Strategy game this is the all time best game i have ever played

This used to be a very enjoyable game to play. And on this sale with it selling at only $2.49 one would think that it's a must to buy. However... If you are up to date with your computer and running Windows Vista or Windows 7, then you'll want to avoid this game. It's not meant for either operating system and you WILL only get between 1 and 15 frames per second regardless how beefy your computers hardware is. You will need to run this with Windows 98 or Windows XP to get better performance out of it. Compatibility mode will NOT help the performance in Space Empires V unfortunately.

If you can deal with a sluggish mouse and the low 1 to 15 frames per second then you'll find a highly enjoyable game if you like a lot of details to tweak, and many options to your gameplay. Specifics below:

*Music: Very repetitive, just turn it off and play your own tunes.

*Graphics: Okay on High, terrible on Low and does NOT affect frame rates by turning graphics settings to Low or High, you WILL still get low fps.

*Tech Tree: Very nice and very extensive

*Interface (GUI): Not bad other than the couple areas where you can NOT use your mouse wheel to scroll through some lists. The tutorial window is like this too, so be prepared to click a lot on the down arrow on the tutorial through 50 pages of tutorial screens.

*Tutorial: As they say, RTFM. While the tutorial is adequate to introduce you to the games different windows and options, that's about it. Read the 300 page manual that ships with the game, after you have read the much lesser paged manual that is listed on your game purchase page here at GamersGate.

Overall: An enjoyable game even by todays standards, but completely ruined by abysmal performance in todays modern day operating systems (i.e. Windows Vista and or Windows 7).

Let me just stress this... It does NOT matter that your computer is capable of playing Crisis or any other high performance slurping games at 150fps, you will NOT get more than 1 to 15 fps with Space Empires V if you try to run it on Win Vista or Win 7. And running it on Compatibility mode will NOT change that. Period, end of story! If however you are still running Windows 98 or XP, you will not find another 4X space game at this price ($2.49 during this sale) that can beat Space Empires V.

At its core, SEV is a traditional Space-based 4x game. It has diplomacy, research, and the ability to design your own ships and units. And, of course, the AI is atrocious.

What makes SEV differ from the crowd is its emphasis on tactical battles. While one can still choose to skip all tactical battles, the option is always there to control the units. This includes battles in space, as well as battles on planets. Furthermore, unlike other games in the genre, there is no turn-limit. Battles continue until they are over, not until an arbitrary number of turns have occurred.

In the end, the thing that will probably help a 4x fan the most is how the map works. Like Galactic Civilizations and Master of Orion, the galaxy is broken up into systems. Unlike GalCiv and MOO, the systems are only connected via wormholes. This provides a much greater opportunity for defense (chokepoints) and leads to much more prolonged battles for systems.

Space Empires V is a great sequel to Space Empires IV, with a new 3D engine and RTS combat it allows for a much greater degree of gameplay. While the AI may not be as great as the previous games in the series, the amount of options available make it so great that its well worth the money.

By far my favourite 4x out there, with fun rts combat, great 4x gameplay with variety and options - it never gets old.

Value-high enjoyment for the price.

Gameplay-addictive once you get the hang of it.

Techtree-one of the most extensive I've seen.

Graphics-primitive by today's standards.

Music-good mood music.

Bugginess-very low and game is very stable.

Battle simulator-primitive compared to other 4x games.

Interface-could use some work like being able to scroll through planets in the build queue manager.

Overall this is a must have game for 4x/space opera fans.