Sins of a Solar Empire

Since my COH patch is taking forever, and if I watch Man U beat Spurs I’ll start punching walls; I’ve decided spamming the forums is a good way to kill time, and I may as well talk about a little known game I almost forgot I had. You may have seen this sitting on the shelves over the summer/autumn, so I’d love to know whether anyone else picked it up because I think it’s worth trying again online. I was starting to get quite addicted to it before I moved back to Scotland in October, but by the time I was setup with a working PC again, the game had slipped to the bottom of a box which I only looked into last week searching for battlefield disks.

Anyway this is what you call a real time 4X game, which means eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate, like in Master of Orion and the Civ series, except that this is in real time rather than turn based. It’s set in space and often described as a cross between Galactic Civilisations and Homeworld, which is true to a certain extent, except that it doesn’t have the tactical depth of a classic RTS like homeworld. Instead, the outcome of a battle has more to do with how well you’re setup and positioned going into it, although there is plenty of scope for error within a fight. That may be a criticism of the tactical side of the game, but it does free you up enough to keep an eye on the strategic situation which is unusually dynamic for a genre that tends towards too much tactical micromanagement. Infact that’s what this game does brilliantly, and it constantly forces you into decisions as to where to allocate your resources, which I think is the mark of a great strategy title. You have to constantly probe your enemy, and pounce when you find a weak spot, while at same time making sure that your own flanks and supply lines are secure. Do you focus in the North or the South of his territory, do you punch through the centre? Do you take his fleet head on, or do you allow him to advance on your forward base while you flank and strike at the heart of his empire? It’s all about manoeurve and positioning, as well as smart allocation of resources and logistical planning; which is a balance you rarely see in a game. It’s by no means perfect, but if you like games like Civilisation, Master of Orion, Imperium Galactica, then you’ll probably like this as well, but I would add you will probably lose (especially online) if your normal approach to these games is turtling.

Below are a couple of reviews which are pretty accurate, so don’t just blame me if you ever pick this up and don’t like it 😉

IGN – http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/852/852735p1.html” onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;

Shacknews – http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=767″ onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;

If you’ve got the game and fancy a match, give me a shout 🙂