Here I am reviewing another 4x turn-based space game and wondering why I like them so much. Is it the space battles? Or maybe micromanaging planets and communities that I like to lord over? Again, it could be I just like to design new ships and pit them against my adversaries. However you look at it, there is something fun in conquering the neighbors.

Space Empires V is in the same genre as Galactic Civilizations, Sword of the Stars or Sins of a Solar Empire among many fine and not so fine 4x (explore, expand, exploit, exterminate) empire-building space games. Developed by Malfador Machinations and published by Strategy First, Space Empires V is a very open-ended game. So much so that you wonder where the action occurs among the AI-controlled forces and yourself. Beginning with creating your character, you’ll find a myriad of options that either benefit or predispose your character’s characteristics.

Creating a game is the same thing. Starting with the standard Space Empires V game, you must pick and choose what options you want before the game. Considering that the different options can be somewhat confusing, you might begin a game that doesn’t meet your desires. Make sure you update the game to the newest version. If you do it when playing a current version, you’ll wipe out any previous saved games with older versions.

Space Empires V is played in quadrants with each quadrant having sectors. All of the sectors are hexagon-shaped and can have planets, asteroid belts, storms or any number of other items represented in each hex. Colonizing a planet is a simple process since acceptable planets have a green symbol over them, and red symbol planets are considered doomed due to undesirable weather conditions. You have three types of planets: ice, rock and gas. And each planet comes in one of four sizes.

Here is where things get interesting if you did the one planet per empire thing at the start. You have to design your ships first before you can produce them. Designing isn’t hard other than you need to follow the simple instructions to completion. Each empire has their own ship designs, so hulls are basic. It’s what you put in them that makes a difference. You design two different things: ships and units. Units are small objects such as satellites, troops, fighters and mines. They are either launched from ships or planets and are involved in defense or offensive battles, such as planet capture or ship capture.

Research plays a big part of the game as there is a wide array of subjects that can be developed. Research centers are needed to generate research points. How many points you get lets determines how long it will take to research any particular item. Each project tells you up front how many points will be needed to attain the next level. Each level increases benefits gained by that item.

Facilities make up the nuts and bolts of what a planet can carry and what happens to your empire as a whole. Build the wrong or too few of a facility and you might end up in trouble. Your currency is made up of minerals, organics and radioactives. The three are what make your empires grow so attention is given to what each planet can generate and how much.

Diplomacy is somewhat an in-between thing in which you propose treaties, form trade agreements and create alliances. The diplomacy box can get a bit confusing as there are a number of responses that you pick out. The most confusing of all is trying to become an ally of an empire and not being able to correctly pick out the proper message to send — since that empire might be at war with another empire that you may already be allied with. Intelligence and diplomacy also go hand in hand. You can sabotage and perform acts of espionage on your enemies depending again on how many points you generate for intelligence gathering.

Combat in Space Empires V is mainly real-time strategy but with the ability to stop the action and give commands to your individual ships or fleet. What generally happens is you click your ship and issue a command then click the enemy vessel. Set the wheels in motion and watch the action unfold. Pause if you need to make changes then continue until the individual ships run out of ordnance or are destroyed. Running out of ammo results in the ships retreating from the field of combat. In this way, ship design is important because you need enough ordnance to keep your ships on the field of battle. The combat arena is mainly a grid system overlaid by a circle where the ships leave the field.

What I discovered about Space Empires V is that it can be a micromanager’s heaven or hell depending on how you like micromanaging things. Between the planets, research, diplomatic, ship designing and movement of your pieces, you can spend hours making decisions. There are no scenarios with Space Empires V that make the starting elements of game creation very important.

Graphics are a bit disappointing as the game layout is good but nothing fantastic. The graphics design for the combat arena is not much to speak of either. Real-time simulation is better as the ships fit the design well. Camera movement is designed well with rotation and forward and backward movements smoothly done. Camera zoom in and out is also fluid. Background music is good but very redundant, so you might want to turn off the game’s music and play your own.

Generally, I like Space Empires V very much as I can play for an hour or so, save and resume where I left off. I’ve gotten hooked on the research area as there are quite a lot of things to research with loads of levels for improvement. I must admit, though, that there are a number of repetitive functions in this game that may turn off players looking for more. But if you are looking to increase that library of 4x games, don’t pass this one by.