GameSpot Review Posted Online

[Atrocities]

They put some time into the review and I agree that it is very fair. I wish they would have waited until next week though. With the new patch coming out on Monday it would have been better to wait. Oh well, we did warn them this would happen. 6.6 is not a bad rating, it could have been a hell of a lot better though.

They were very honest and up front about the support that Aaron puts into his games.

Space Empires IV is a cult favorite among the space strategy crowd. Users have developed tweaks and mods with a fervor that rivals that of blockbuster megahits such as Oblivion, and the developer has a history of releasing numerous patches to address any issues that fans bring to its attention. That's good news for the newest addition to the series, Space Empires V, which has the basis for a great game--but it is ultimately bedeviled by a list of bugs as long as your arm.

[Atrocities]

and racial traits that are opposite of what is intended (naturally happy races are actually naturally depressed and vice versa--a bug that can produce a lot of confusion as you try to figure out why your planet is rebelling!)

I would think that this would be a major bug. I don't believe that it has either been reported yet or fixed.

[Phoenix-D]

Its been reported, but not fixed (he did some changes to happyness, but not THAT part of happyness..)

[AAshbery76]

Why the hell SFI didn't wait another few months before releasing the game is beyond belief.The game would have got 8+/10 reviews and sold a lot more.

[thorfrog]

Since when is a score of 6.6 ever good? A good number would be 7.5 or 8.0. Anything less is real bad. That is like the death sentence. I think gamespot was being polite considering this was developed by one person. When you release a game it needs to play out of the box. You may have a few bugs but the game play should be solid. In it's current relase it just sux.

This game really needed a larger staff to help develope. Not to mention features added that have been requested for a very long time. I honestly feel very let down by this release. I've been looking forward to this for some time and at this point I think GalCiv2 is probably calling now. (I've been holding off for a while) There are so many items wrong with this release I just don't know where to begin. Well my gripes with the game are with bad ground combat concept, problems with weapon design/balance, lack of unique ruin tech, no roaming monsters/pirates, etc. I know the "mods will correct this responce".

By the way Master of Orion 3 beats out SEV by a score of 6.7 Feb 2003 Gamespot. This has to be the worst release of this type of game ever. Even Birth of the Federation beats it by a score of 7.9. I hope Aaron is taking notes on this. I really would like this game to succeed.

[Atrocities]

The bugs were the main reason for the 6.6 fair review that GS gave the game. They were VERY fair to the game in the review.

[Azselendor]

It boils down to money most of the time. Aaron needs to pay his bills and SE4, DO, and Starfury are both at the end of their product lives.

[thorfrog]

Azselendor said:
It boils down to money most of the time. Aaron needs to pay his bills and SE4, DO, and Starfury are both at the end of their product lives.

Sadly you are right. But like always when a product like this is rushed out the door you lose more future sales. Just review the MOO3 saga as a good example of lack of forsite. That game could have made big bucks but they dropped the ball with bugs.

[Suicide Junkie]

I totally think they should have let the fanatics buy it early online, and do the full retail push once it had been patched up.