ArsGeek

A few weeks back ArsGeek featured a first look at Sins of a Solar Empire. Here’s the full review.

Sins of a Solar Empire is one of those rare games that has the ability to really capture my attention, draw me in and keep me in front of the PC for long periods of time. I’m a sucker for galactic expansion games and even though I don’t go bonkers over RTS games in general, this one in particular has just the right blend of strategy and real time to keep me happily clicking away. Sins is really an RT4X Game – Real Time, eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate.

The game flows, it’s engaging and it moves at a pace I can enjoy and that allows me to tweak my empire as I see fit without feeling like I’m listening to the Jeopardy theme song. What exactly have they done right? Here are some bullet points of things I love about this game.

* User set pacing - slow, medium or fast. A boon to those who aren’t into twitch RTS games.

* you can zoom in and out at will. Take a look at the whole star system! See that zit on your commandant’s nose!

* The interface, after about a half hour of use becomes very easy and intuitive. This is incredibly important for games of this type and they’ve gotten it right.

* Tree. I’m getting to really love this easy to use, explorer style menu of systems, ships and structures.

* It’s pretty and it sounds good.

I’ve wended my way through the tutorials (which I’d highly recommend) and then played several different scenarios, including a map I created sans pirates. If I had one complaint, it would be pirates. I don’t think they are necessarily implemented badly and I can see their point but I just don’t like them. Thankfully the map editor (really more of a series of choices you can make) is simple. It took me all of five minutes to create and start playing on a pirate free map. With a new updated issued by Stardock, more pirate free maps are now available as well.

The game starts with the player in control of a single planet, a frigate factory for creating ships and two construction drones. Resources available to you are in the form of asteroids that contain either metals or crystal. From this beginning you create your empire.

Ships that are available to you come in three sizes. Frigates, which include your scout ship and several other basic designs, including bombers, anti-fighter, coloney and standard ‘destroyer’ type ships are at the smaller side of the spectrum. Cruisers generally encompass small command ships, small carriers and all around warships. The last level of ship is the capital ship. These are huge warships, which can all generally do a lot of damage but each have specific roles as well, from carrier to command vessel.

Capitol ships, the largest you’ll get, can be improved by bringing them into combat and having them gain levels. As they increase in levels they can acquire and improve special abilities. Depending on the ship and the race you can develop everything from more powerful weapons to the ability to psychically control the population of the planet you’re invading.

The game encompasses three races, the TEC (humans) the Advent (post-humans) and the Vasari (aliens). All three of these offer unique tech trees you can advance through. Each race has it’s strengths and its weaknesses. Playing them will help you to understand these, as will fighting against them.

The map can be as simple as one star and a few planets, or encompass multiple star systems with up to 100 planets each. The further away a planet is from your capital, the lower it’s loyalty rating and the longer it takes to build this up. Distance is a factor also in travel time – the longer the phase lanes (the method used to travel between worlds) and the further the star systems, the longer it takes to move ships around. This becomes key to developing your strategy as it’s possible for opposing fleets to pass each other without interacting (in a phase lane), thus having two large fleets end up at two relatively undefended planets. It’s all in good fun though, figuring out your fleet placement and bottlenecks is just another part of developing your strategy.

Speaking of tech trees, I like the way they are implemented here. You’ve got military technology, civilian technology, logistical upgrades and artifacts (which can assist an many different areas). Your ability to advance through your military and civilian tech trees is based on both resources (of which there are three types) and the number of research stations you’ve built throughout your empire. Ship crews and fleet sizes can also be upgraded at a cost.

Research allows various types of ships to be constructed, weapons to be upgraded and technologies implemented to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Some tech areas can be researched more than once to bring additional benefits. While the three races share many of the same technologies, there are enough differences to keep game play interesting.

Like all good strategy games, you’ll have to adapt to your current tactical and logistical situation, which means constantly evaluating where to spend your resources – technology, ships, planet improvements or orbital construction. Fortunately the way the game plays, it can be a bit frantic at times but not overwhelming.

Back to the pirates, while I’m not a big fan of them, they do offer a neat function in the game. You can wage a proxy war on your enemies by paying the pirates to attack them. Of course, they can do the same to you. In addition to this rather brutal form of diplomacy, you can also form alliances with other races (or players in multiplayer games).

There’s a lot of depth to this game - of which I’ve just touched the surface. I can easily see where replayability will not be a problem, through the creation of unique maps, the fact that games like these just play differently each time and that user created mods are encouraged. If you get bored playing against the AI, then hop online and find a game through Ironclad Online.

One more tidbit that I find wonderful about this game. There is no DRM involved. When you purchase it you’re given an activation code which allows for updates, patches and upgrades but you’re never treated like a criminal by the folks who are selling you the game. Way to go Ironclad!

Now that I’ve played several complete games as each of the races offered, I’ve a much better feel for the game. And I’m still loving it. With the ability for player mods to be created, a new tool for creating your own maps available for download and continued updates which feature new content as well as bug fixes and game tweaks, this game will be on my to-play list for quite some time to come. Reminiscent (although different) of great games like Masters of Orion 2, Sins easily qualifies as my favorite game this year.

The Good:

Graphically this is a great RTS, with stunning ship detail. Combat looks great.

Fast paced, fun, always interesting and always just a bit different. High replayability.

Pacing is just right.

No DRM. Thank you, Ironclad and Stardock!

The Bad:

Lengthy game times – even a ’small’ game will take hours to complete.

Overall Score: 9.25 out of 10

Gameplay: 9

Experience (Sound/Graphics): 8

Replayability: 10

Fun Factor/Price: 10

Technorati Tags: video game, review, sins of a solar empire, stardock, ironclad, rts, 4x, strategy, space

This game reviewed on an @XI Gaming Rig.

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