Sins of a Solar Empire (PC)

Sins of a Solar Empire is one of the best strategy games of the decade. Don't miss it.
2/26/2008 12:00 AM | 2 Comments | Page 2 of 2

The solid AI combined with the slower pace allows you time to do other important managerial tasks such as decide which technology to research, which ships to build, which planets require upgrades, which faction you need to engage in talks, and so on. The managerial aspect of Sins isn't as deep as in other 4X games -- planet management is very simple, the tech tree isn't as large, and there are only three playable factions: the TEC (humans), the Advent (corrupt humans) and the Vasari, an alien race that enters the playing field as they flee their home planet from some "unknown terror." Each race has its own ship classes as well as its own technology tree. The techs are easy to digest and understand (this is often not the case in sci-fi games) and while it would admittedly be nice if a few more races were added to the mix eventually, you'll get a lot of mileage out of these three. Of course the game has modding tools and freely supports user-made content, so you can expect all sorts of wild additions soon enough.

The game is best played from a partially zoomed-out view, especially once your empire starts to grow. From this perspective, you tend to miss out on how great everything looks, so the occasional "zoom in" to get an up-close view of a large battle or just to look at the brilliant colors from a nearby star is heartily recommended. Everything from the individual ships to the explosions to the dazzling colors of a planet looks spectacular, and you don't even need a beefy system to run it. Of course, the better your PC, the more bells and whistles you can turn on, but the base system requirements aren't too demanding.

Multiplayer is a huge part of the design. It's always fun to play against tough AI, but nothing replaces human competition, and the fact that the game allows you to save multiplayer games in progress is not only an added bonus but a crucial component since large games can take a long time to complete. Games are filled with backstabbing, cash-induced pirate raids and tons of fun banter. Again, the deliberate pace allows for some smack-talking, whereas in other click-heavy real-time games there's little time to breathe let alone let your buddy know that you're none too thrilled with his latest invasion of your home world.

Adding to the player-friendly design is the fact that you only need one copy of the game for LAN play, a policy that more games should adopt. Multiplayer tests ran without a hitch both over LAN and Ironclad's game service. Unlike the latest beta build that was previewed, the final build of Sins runs picture-perfect without as much as a hiccup let alone any crash problems.

While it's not as deep and as involved as the meatier turn-based games in the genre like Stardock's own Galactic Civilizations II, Sins of a Solar Empire has everything a 4X gamer could want: trade, diplomacy, tech research, expansion, budget managing and large-scale fleet combat. When you add in the controlled real-time design, the gorgeous visuals, the unlimited modding capability and the more than competent AI, you have the makings of a classic. Strategy gaming just doesn't get much better than this.

This review was based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.