Sins Review

I found this review on a site called www.nolaglans.com. It's quite brief, but it kinda hits the game on the nose in some ways.

"The 4X game genre has always been a niche genre. Standing for the four objectives of games found in the genre, eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate has been a mantra that few unfamiliar with turn-based games have ever heard of. While games such as Civilization 4 and Galactic Civilizations 2 have carried the genre into the new millennium, the genre has continued to remain a niche one largely due to it requiring a turn-based system to allow the player to manage the many aspects of their empire. Unfortunately, in an age when twitch-based Real-Time Strategy (RTS) games have flooded the market, it seems that the turn-based game genre, and by extension the 4X sub-genre, has been pushed to the wayside. Iron Clad Games seeks to change all that by attempting to merge the RTS and 4X genres in their new galaxy spanning game, Sins of a Solar Empire.

 In many ways, Iron Clad succeeds with its new 4X hybrid, creating a game that manages to wrap all of the fundamentals of a 4X game into an RTS game, but somehow misses out on the details that made truly memorable 4X games like Master of Orion 2 what they were.

First though, let us not downplay what Iron Clad has accomplished, as what the game does well, it does very well. Given a choice of three races, the mercantile TEC, fleeing Vasari, or vengeful Advent, you are handed a home world and told to go conquer the star system(s). The controls are spot on and allow players to expand their empire, research a tech tree, and manage fleets in combat with only a few clicks of the mouse thanks to some innovative management options.

The graphics are equally polished, illustrating the awe and beauty of the start systems and their accompanying, planets, ship, and orbital structures. Little details day and night cycles on a planet in relation to its rotation around a star and individual guns on a ship firing add to the atmosphere of the game and help to establish the immense scale of the game. Combat is a notable exception to this as despite the ships looking detailed and the guns firing appropriately, the battles themselves lack the edge of other RTS games. Supposedly massive cannons fire surprisingly weak and unmemorable looking projectiles. Dingy and miniscule missiles and lasers plink back and forth between ships while the accompanying ship explosions are easily outclassed even by older games like Homeworld 2. With that said, the combat is the single graphical blemish on the otherwise perfect frame of Sins of a Solar Empire and one that, considering the outstanding support Iron Clad Games and publisher Stardock have provided thus far, may be improved in the future.

            In order to ensure that Sins of a Solar Empire is practical as an RTS, many of the features and details present in 4X games have been removed in the name of faster game times, less micromanagement, and simplified gameplay. While some of these reductions are certainly understandable, such as reducing maintaining morale down to a single structure and  reducing colony development from a build list of forty structures down to five buttons and a handful of orbital structures. Unfortunately, many features that while not fundamental to a 4X game, helped to establish the great ones from the average one are strangely absent as well. Aside from the ability to destroy planets, board enemy ships, and terraform planets (all of which this reviewer has fond memories of doing in Master of Orion 2), the biggest feature missing in this game is the ability to create or customize your race. While the three races present are aesthetically different and require different tactics mainly due to their varied research trees, they all feel just a little too interchangeable. All have equivalent (though subtly different) ships and structures, with each fielding a light frigate, flak frigate, long-range frigate, etc. Additionally, there is little difference in their objectives as all three factions approach colonizing different planet types in the same manner and with the same amount of effort put forth (e.g all races need to research the same technology to colonize a volcanic planet). Of course there is some variation in the race’s Capital Ships, which have a variety of abilities and fill Sins of a Solar Empire’s role as heroes.

Unique Capital ships don’t excuse the game from the features it cut however; as diverse races have has been a defining part of many great 4X games. That’s not to say that the races present don’t have unique play styles as they do, it’s just that they seem to be missing any earth shattering differences that really set them apart and with only three, you will be able to begin spotting the similarities very quickly. I would’ve certainly liked to have been able to create my own races with abilities that would truly set it apart from the others. Why can’t I have organic and psychic weaponry, planet creating or destroying technology, or the ability to play as a religious or hive like race with accompanying technology? Features such as these could potentially slow down setup, but certainly wouldn’t bog down game matches themselves.  With just a few unique technologies and the ability to mix and match racial traits defined before a match starts like most 4X games, Sins of a Solar Empire could have been a hybrid much more appealing to fans of both genres.

This isn’t helped by a lack of a single player campaign mode, which the developers have left out in favor of more fully developing the multiplayer system that luckily, works quite well. Unfortunately, without a campaign it’s hard to become attached to the races, as having only an intro cinematic and the manual to rely on for story doesn’t go far in fleshing out one race from another.

While 4X fans hoping for a harmonious blend of 4X games such as Galactic Civilizations 2 and Master of Orion 2 with RTS games like Homeworld 2 may find the game a bit bare, RTS gamers and even casual players will find a lot to love here. Crisp visuals, excellent music, and come on now…who doesn’t want to rule over a solar empire. Rating: 8.5 out of 10"