Sins of a Solar Empire

[Specop_007]

The game is good but IMO dont get caught up in the hype.

I certainly do think its been vastly overrated. I also believe it is still a fun, solid game. But most places seem to think this game is the second coming of Jesus. In my opinion its a good solid space based RTS and thats about it.

I would liken it to a mix between Homeworld and MOO. It seems to take some of the better concepts of each, tweak it a bit and bam, theres the game.

The combat is very similar to Homeworld. Homeworld however had limited resources whereas Sins doesnt. You can build and build all day long. MOO had lots of development with planets, ships, diplomacy. Sins takes all of that, strips it from "Holy jeebus" deep to fairly shallow and away we go. The research and planet development are critical enough to need some paying attention to however arent half as in depth as MOO so you dont necessarily feel overwhelmed with it all. I feel they did a good job with it.

The serious letdown are, as stated above, the pirates and diplomacy.

The pirates. Ok, what the hell. This amounts to nothing more then mercenaries you can send after someone every 10 minutes. Thats it, nothing more nothing less. Its also a very powerful tool as the return on investment is pretty large. For 500 credits I can buy 1 ship, maybe 2 if there small (Cant remember right off). For the same price with the pirates I get a fleet of probably 15 ships that go after whoever. I just dont care for it at all.

The diplomacy. Everyone hates you. With Homeworld it was expected, and with MOO you geenrally started neutral. This seemed far more realistic then Sins, which is "Hey we found someone, lets kill them!" based diplomacy. So, whether you have 1 or 8 AI running they all starts off hating your bloody guts. And the only way to get better? Either pay their bribes or attack the people they dont like. That just doesnt sit well with me in a solar empire builder. Why the hell does everyone hate me? Locking teams solves that minor problem however.

TO sum up. Yes, its a good game with a solid gameplay. It takes the best aspects of Homeworld, MOO and Star Wars Empire At War (Space aspect) and merges them nicely while still keeping a light feel to the gameplay. You dont get overwhelmed with any 1 aspect (research, planet development etc) so it makes for a good game.

However, I also dont feel it deserves the ratings its getting. A good game, but one of the best? Not in my opinion.