Saturday, February 4, 2017

Space Empires IV Deluxe - Initial Thoughts

About the Game (From the Steam Store Page)

The award-winning Space Empires IV Deluxe is the latest edition in the Space Empires series. A grand strategy title in the space 4X (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) genre, Space Empires has already found a place in the heart of strategy gamers everywhere.

Research technology, design new ships, wage war on a tactical level, put down rebellions, meet and greet new species, and much more. All the level and campaign design tools are included, allowing anyone to become a part of the expansive Space Empires Mod community.

Previous Playtime

42 minutes

What Was I Thinking When I Bought This

Space Empires V looked pretty interesting to me and I was poised to buy it, but then I saw this bundle that was only like 50 cents more, and I thought, "why not get both?"

Expectations and Prior Experience

After playing the sequel for 30+ hours, I decided to give this one a try, and, I don't know, I think I might have aged out of it, because it was a 2D game with opaque mechanics and a dozen menus, and while that's the sort of game I tend to like, by the time I actually got around to trying it, it just felt too primitive for me to bother with.

Now that I'm being forced by circumstance to play it, I'm fairly optimistic. The tricky part, I think, will be mastering the game's visual language. If I can get past the presentation and engage with the game's systems as pure data, then I know I'll have a good time. The biggest obstacle I anticipate is that Space Empires V took a long time for me to get to that level, thanks to its unfriendly UI and overwhelming level of detail (that it doesn't bother to explain). I can only imagine that its rougher-looking antecedent will have less detail, but also less user-friendliness.

I've got my fingers crossed that the learning curve isn't too painful and I'll just slip into the sort of easy 4X gameplay that comes naturally to me.

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