Thank You |
I would like to offer my humble thanks for the developers of Space Empires V.
No, Im not some dreamy eyed goon under enchantment spell effect. Im not blind, this game is not perfect and by no means is it fabulous, wonderful and absolutely amazing. I can say, being quite sure, that Galactic Civ 2 is a better game. And I could name probably few other titles that in one area or another make the short work of Space Empires 5.
That is not why Im fascinated byu SEV though. I at least am not looking for some amazing gameplay here. Im sure that because of it's complexity, AI has it's issues, and there are alot of bugs and alot of loopholes and alot of mistakes here that will definetly stop SEV from becoming one of 4X amazing greats.
But SEV is not a mainstream game either. For me it's a universe in a box. Or, well, part of sci-fi universe to be more accurate. SEV quite effectively does everything, albeit it doesn't do any single thing very amazingly well, it fits to what I personally wish from a game like this.
Im a huge fan of sci-fi, devoted to B5, addicted to Battlestar Galactica. SEV is neither of those things. But, it leaves the impression that it can be. I look at what SEV gives me, in exploring, trading, politics, wars and the like, and I see bits of those sci-fi universes in there. The tech tree, you don't just have the options to build planets, but also destroy planets, entire starsystems, black holes. It is as if taking the good extremes from other games, like Moo2, and expanding it. Stepping out of these restrictions, giving more for the player.
Such options are terrible for a balance, which is one of the reasons why SEIV had so many patches. But, SEV is also not a mainstream game as I said. It's not something for everyone, it can be however everything for someone.
All those options hurt balance in great ways, but I don't care. I -have- those options. You did not see Sheridan whining over the fact that Drakh had shadow planetkillers. No sci-fi world out there is balanced in such ways and options, so why should a game be? It is a major micromanagement game to really get the full extent of it. It's really meant to be played long term. Gal Civ 2 I had games I finished in few days. SEIV however was a game I usually enjoyed for weeks, if not months depending on the time I had at hand. And, amazingly I never worried about balance. I did not care if computer was not enough of a challenge, or if I was being beaten up. I always had options to do what I wanted to do, research technology to blow stars up or construct great shields or whatever. I -had- that opportunity, so I could picture the little storyline in sci-fi world of my own, and not care about balance or challenge levels or the like, because SEV is -not- about those things.
SEV for me is more like a platform. Not only does it give you basically everything of most sci-fi in one simple game, it has options for modding that can tweak what does not feel right. But Im not even worried about this right now.
The few days I've spent now with the title, looking past the Steam frustration, looking past the quite awful graphics SEV has (it really has the least-atmospheric graphics in any sci-fi 4X game to date, just look at Moo3. Game sucked, but it made you believe.), looking past those balancing issues I always worry over in many other games, and see this little platform, little simulated world with extensive amount of tools and options and truly embrace it.
And seeing Devs are willing to work on the games improvements post-release like that is amazing just as well. You see that less and less these days, since publishers rarely care after they've milked their clients (I love EA, but their post-release support is the worst out there).
Thank you, thank you -so- much. I probably won't have much time available to play SEV, considering my work, but I can feel safe that the little sci-fi universe to play with, is always there, always ready for no matter what I have a mood for.
Not something for everyone, but potentially everything for someone. Glad to see devs with that approach these days. Thanks again.
Chris
