"Sins of a Solar Empire" is a new entry into the so-called "4x" genre of strategy games. Standing for "explore, expand, exploit and exterminate," 4x games are famous for being complex and long lasting, and this one is no exception; the abundance of game concepts that the player must keep in mind is simply staggering. This results in a steep learning curve, but in a very rewarding and deep gameplay experience once the curve is conquered.
The premise of the game is fairly straightforward. Players choose one of three factions and then attempt to conquer all the planets on the map they choose. Each map can contain anywhere from five to 200 planets, depending on the size of the map chosen and the number of stars on the map, allowing for anywhere from a 20-minute to 30-plus hour game.
The three factions vary in their strengths and weaknesses but are very well balanced - there is no distinct advantage granted to one in particular. Players must balance their expansion with their research of new technologies and their military production, and all three of these actions are necessary to win. This leads to a certain finesse of gameplay missing from more traditional real time strategy (RTS) games such as "Command and Conquer: Red Alert," in which the winning tactic was to simply produce as many tanks or high-level units as possible and send them at the opponent.
"Sins" breaks a number of industry standards in a phenomenal way, benefiting everyone who plays it. First, when the CD key is registered with the game's online service, it becomes locked to a free account, allowing the player to download the game again from any computer in the world. Second, the game's manual explicitly states that players can use their CD to install the game to friends' computers and play multiplayer over a LAN with them (though separate copies will need to be purchased if anyone wants to play online).
This explicit permission is a move away from the restrictive, punitive digital rights management that the PC game industry has been slowly shifting towards in recent years. On top of that, the game is extremely scalable in terms of what hardware is required to run it - it supports graphics cards as old as the Geforce 6600 and processors as slow as a 1.8 GHz Pentium 4. This last point is most important for college students: It's very likely that if students purchased a laptop to take to college with them, that computer will be capable of playing this game. Also, despite these low minimum requirements, the game still looks very modern with all the graphical features turned on.
The gameplay is rewarding and fun overall, though certainly not without its flaws. The player must balance between production of capital ships and smaller frigates and cruisers, between improvement of existing settlements and acquisition of new ones, and between what kinds of planets and asteroids he or she conquers in order to make sure all of the resource needs are met. This delicate balancing act is both a boon and a bane; when played correctly, the player feels as though he or she has truly achieved something exemplary, but when a small mistake is made in the balancing act, the player can quickly grow irritated with the finesse required.
The game has a diplomacy system as well, but it is not nearly complex enough to be significant in a single-player game. Essentially, every faction in a given game will send messages demanding resources or asking the one person to attack another player in return for improving a relationship with them. However, this ends up being somewhat silly in practice, with enemies the player is actively fighting still asking for help in destroying their own enemies. In online multiplayer, this system is much more effective, but in the single-player experience, "Sins'" diplomacy is wanting.
The game's single biggest flaw, however, is its lack of a single-player campaign mode. While there is a multitude of maps, and a well-established backstory available to those who read the manual, the game never combines story and gameplay into a traditional single-player campaign. This is an immense disappointment, as the emotional attachment of gamers to story-based characters is the strongest trait of many franchises. With the rich backstory present in "Sins," a campaign mode would surely have been stellar.
All things considered, "Sins of a Solar Empire" is a remarkable endeavor into a well established genre by a first-time developer, Ironclad Games. They blend 4x elements, typically only seen in turn-based strategy games, into an extremely well-balanced RTS that can provide hours of entertainment. This is a solid title for all strategy fans out there.
