All I will say about this series is that it has always fell short of being a true classic. It was like MOO2 without soul, and not too mention the buggy and ugly ui, and lack luster AI.
Yes I understand there are tons of user improvements, however you can't fix something without a soul.
I feel the same as you do about Space Empires. I speak for Space Empires IV, the one I played mostly. Yes it was complex (in a good and bad way) and Yes it allowed lots of freedom but .. I think you said it best, it lacks the Soul. Maybe a richer background story or some character to makes us care would improve the game experience. In summary it was a bit emotionless and provided a cold and dry atmosphere.
For instance in Master of Orion you had the Guardian, the Orion Planet and very charismatic races.
But not all is bad of course and Space Empires does have its space of honor in the Space Strategy Game lore.
Imagine on Space Empire, your customized ship on active animation during combat with the active view or your real customizations like on soul calibur or in dynasty Warrior Empire.
Same for X3.
Before the crappy vista XP I was a player PC fan but now I stop wasting my money on this shit always on bad driver or update required or bug integrated.
But Im also a space empire 5 fan.
I love this excellent game.
Nope- can't agree with these statements. sorry. Space Empires IV is a classic and one off the best 4x games to grace the PC. Space Empires V is better. What I hear you all say? True, but not when it was released as has been recorded it was buggy and poor AI and as a result of that has prob killed any hopes of a Space Empire VI. I am talking about the current patched version (1.79 at time of this post). Huge AI improvements. If you want "Soul" as you put it, then download the Star Trek ship builds mods. The Dominion are blockading the Wormhole and attacking my Federation outpost colonies (yes the AI is not so dumb as to start off by attacking my well protected home systems). Its a shame version 1.79 was not version 1.0 as Everyone would now be talking of Space Empire V as the bench mark not MOO2 (it also runs great on Vista).