Review Sins of a Solar Empire

Sins of a Solar Empire is the debut title of Ironclad Games. With this space-bound real time strategy game they have tried to provide the perfect mix between 4X- and RTS games. They promote their game as the new sub-genre RT4X. Ironclad Games was formed in 2003 from former employees of Barking Dog Studios and Rockstar Games.

Uuhm 4X RT what? Back in the old days you had two kinds of strategy games, the Real-Time Strategy games and the 4X strategy games. 4X stands for eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. 4X games where known to have a deep, complex gameplay where building an empire and economics where really the main in-game focus. Sid Meier?s Civilization is a classic example of a 4X game. Later more and more game companies tried to mix the genres together like in Sword of the Stars.

There are 3 playable races in the game: the TEC (Trader Emergency Coalition), the Advent and the Vasari. The TEC are what?s left of the Humans. They have more heavily armored units and prefer ballistic weapons like missiles and Gauss guns above lasers. They are able to produce ships and structures cheaper than other races and they have special sabotage abilities. One example is that they can initiate rebel insurgency strikes on enemy empires. They can build less units than the Advent and less technology than the Vasari. The Advent were born out of a religious desert sect and concentrate on psychological powers. They produce cheaper light armored ships balanced with energy weapons like plasma cannons, lasers and psi-weapons controlled with mental power. They can extract crystals faster than any other race and due to their light armored ships they are more flexible. Also their culture rate goes faster compared to the others. Their special abilities play an important part in their strategy and can be used to enhance or protect the fleet. Unlike the other races the Vasari are not Human but Alien. They build fewer ships but with extreme heavy armor. Also the technology of the Vasari is far more advanced compared with the humans. They can send out missiles which bypasses enemy defenses. Due to more advanced engines they can send out reinforcements faster than the other races. Vasari?s special abilities are more concentrated on captivating or dominating enemy ships than to conflict damage.

Just like in Civilization the game is lacking a single player story campaign. In the single player you can start one of the premade scenarios or create a scenario. Before you start the game you can alter a lot of the options. You can make your enemy as strong as you like, you can even define their strategy: aggressive or more research based, etc. I had the feeling the single player is only made to train yourself for the multiplayer. But the computer AI can be challenging especially when you set it to a higher difficulty.

There three important resources in the game: credits, crystals and metal. You?ll need these resources to successfully build your empire. You can extract them from certain asteroids. Also the planets come in different types such as ice, desert, volcanic, etc. Depending which type you own, the planets give your empire advantages or disadvantages. Basically you can balance your empire with the choice of planets.

Sins of a Solar Empire also features a diplomatic area. Here you can forge or break alliances or put a bounty on someone?s head. Keep in mind though that Sins of Solar Empire is an attacking based game so you won?t be able to win the game without a fight.

You can build a huge fleet but there are certain restrictions when maintaining large numbers. You need a huge amount of resources and thus a large empire. The units are divided into four main categories: Strike craft, frigates, cruisers and capital ships. The strike craft are the smallest ships in the game and can be a fighting squad or a bomber squad. They fly through your fleet like little annoying bees. Frigates are the most used unites in your fleet but the smallest warships you can build. They come in various types. The cruisers are more specialized ships and provide a more supporting role in your fleet. The capital ships are the hero units of the game. You can only build a few of them but they can be extremely powerful. Every level they gain you can use points to unlock special abilities or weapons for your capital ship. A capital ship is also capable of building Strike crafts. It is really awesome to attack a hostile fleet and destroy them completely! It?s really a real-time show to watch with beautiful explosions and great realistic sounds especially when missiles, lasers and other unidentified objects are flying all around. Pretty cool.

One of the two greatest innovative features of Sins is the scale system. Just like in the zoom system of Supreme Commander you can easily zoom in from a distant galaxy to the smallest bomber squad. Even if you zoom further and further the details stay sharp and stunning and can reveal something new. The game features bump mapping on ships and a dynamic fractal generation for stars also the lightening system is incredible. The graphics are great and beautiful and the game stays stable all the time.

The other great innovative feature is the interface! I never played an RTS which I could manage in such an easy way like in Sins of Solar Empire. This mainly due to the structure tree on the left of the screen which is a great tool to manage your empire. There are also a lot of automated controls like when a ship is ready they are automatically added to a fleet, etc. You of course have the option to turn this off and to control all aspects of the game yourself.

There are also some cool features provided ingame like a map generator for single player and multiplayer were you can easily create a mission. There is also an option available where you can record your game to show it to others or to create a movie! Mods are also supported, so maybe we can expect some great mods for this game in the feature. In multiplayer gamers can engage in combat either one on one or with teams. There is also an online save system available! Really important for people who like to play sessions for a week but don?t want to be online for a whole week! Multiplayer is available for both LAN and Internet gamers.

Conclusion

Sins of a Solar Empire is a perfect mix between real-time and 4X strategy games. This game is currently the best in the 4XRT genre. It?s not only hardcore strategy fans or space combat fans who will enjoy this game. With the outstanding gameplay options and the stunning graphics this game is a must play for every gamer. The only thing missing is a deep epic story!

Reviewed by Fenn Segers

ZFXGamer