Sins of a Solar Empire (PC Games, 2008)

First of all, let me just say that the night I received this game I stayed up until 5 a.m. playing it. It took me 7 hours straight to finish ONE medium size random map game. I enjoyed it the whole time, though. Some people might think that this game moves too slowly, even with game speed turned all the way up, so this game isn't for everyone. But if you're a fan of virtually ANY real-time strategy game, you'll most likely love this game. The graphics aren't stellar (no pun intended),so it doesn't really take full advantage of a powerful computer. That can be a good thing, though, if you have a less powerful computer, as this game has relatively low system requirements and scales well to the lower-end of the gaming PC spectrum. One bad thing gameplay wise is the space pirates that are perpetually annoying you. Every 12 minutes or so in the game, pirates will attack the player with the highest bounty on their head. You have about 30 seconds after the initial warning of a pirate attack to place money on other players' heads. It gets annoying when a computer player places the highest amount on your head with a second left before the pirates launch. You would think that there would be an option to play a game without these pestering marauders, but surprisingly, there is no such option in version 1.0 of the game. You can create a custom map and choose to not put pirates on it, but that takes time and patience. I discovered a couple days after buying it that there is a version 1.02 patch for the game that adds the ability to play a random with no pirates. After installing the patch, however, I realized that my saved games from the version 1.0 application were no longer compatible. I had already put about 5 hours into one of the games, so I had to uninstall and reinstall the game to get it back to version 1.0. Hopefully someone will save some of their time by reading this if they're thinking about downloading the patch. The future of modding this game also looks promising, as it has built in support for mods, and the developer, Ironclad Games, has modding tools for download on their website. I haven't tried multiplayer yet, so I can't give a review on that portion of the game.
Overall, this is a deep and fantastic game that has a few minor problems which are being addressed by the developer, so they shouldn't pose much of a problem in the near future.

Once upon a time there were "4X" turn-based strategy games and real-time strategy games and the two philosophies behind them couldn't have been more different. A "4X" game is all about the big-picture: building an empire, sacking enemy cities (or planets) and controlling the movements of millions of soldiers to conquer the known universe. An RTS, on the other hand, is all about moment-to-moment decision making -- move your forces, attack targets, bring up reinforcements and make decisions quickly as the tactical situation changes in a heartbeat. Then along comes the team at Vancouver-based Ironclad Games who see in these two styles not incompatibility, but opportunity. The result is Sins of a Solar Empire, a simply brilliant hybrid of 4X and RTS gameplay that draws from both sides to make a wildly innovative and enjoyable game that's much more than the sum of its parts.

The story of Sins of a Solar Empire is interesting, though hardly original. The Trader's Emergency Coalition, a rigid capitalist oligarchy that comprises most of the human race, is locked in a death struggle with the alien Vasari. The Vasari -- a remnant of a much greater empire that once ruled the galaxy -- are on the run from a self-created enemy stalking them from the Galactic core. Into this mix come the Advent, descendents of an "aberrant" human culture exiled by the TEC a millennium ago and now looking for revenge. Each brings a specific strategic bias to warfare (the Vasari are tough-but expensive, the TEC cheaper and weaker and the Advent reliant on special psionic abilities) that make for three fun and well-balanced militaries for players to use.

Sins of a Solar Empire's basic gameplay won't be unfamiliar to anyone who's spent time in Sid Meier's Civilization series, Master of Orion, Galactic Civilizations of any of the genre's "4X" brethren. Players begin with one little planet, a few construction ships and a burning ambition to bring the rest of the universe under their steel-toed boot. From such humble beginnings players expand out into a universe consisting of as many planets as the player wishes to set using the highly customizable map creator. These planets generate tax revenue and act as bases and resource and production facilities. Each world also has a "gravity well" surrounding it where building and eventually space combat takes place. The only way to travel from world to world is via a series of pre-defined "jump paths" that offer a variety of strategic challenges by creating a sort of "space terrain" that players need to consider when moving fleets of starships around.


The difference between SoaSE and other "4X" titles is that all of a player's decisions are carried out in the manner of a real-time strategy title. Click on the capital ship factory and it takes approximately 30 seconds for the ship to be produced. Put together a fleet of a dozen or so ships and send them on a three-jump trip to an enemy world and it'll take them eight or so minutes to get there. Once in combat, battle is decided by spaceship strengths and weaknesses, proper positioning and the use of player-controlled special abilities in the manner of a classic RTS -- all of it rendered in stunning graphical splendor.

The final result of this unlikely blending of styles is an elegant and stately ballet in which players use the mouse wheel to zoom from an overarching view of their empire down to the local level where they can tweak the placement of ship factories, defensive empla

Sins of a Solar Empire is a great 4X (four primary goals: eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate) game that was just released in the spring of 2008. The game is made by Ironclad games out of Vancouver, BC.

The game is a great seller according to Ironclad. "Sins of a Solar Empire has now passed 100,000 copies sold in just under 23 days since its release."

The gameplay follows three main races and each have a great back story. The Advent, The TEC (Trade Emergency Coalition), and the Vasari.

Each race, as in all 4x games, have advantages and disadvantages to them. However so far I have not found any really overpowered race to play.

The graphics are really nice. The experience on the map and with controlling your empire are great. The experience of "Being in Space" is excellent. The details are really nice also. You can customize your ship/race colours and even name the starships that you produce. These little details are what make a 4x game for me. To build up a fleet that you have personally named and send them into combat is awesome!

Game specs:
* Windows XP, Windows Vista

* 1.8 GHz Single-Core Processor
* 512 MiB RAM / 1 GiB for Vista
* 128 MiB DirectX 9 3D Video Card (Radeon 9600 / GeForce FX 6600 and above)
* DirectX 9.0c Compatible Sound Card
* DVD-ROM Drive
* 3 GB Hard Drive Space
* Keyboard and Mouse
* DirectX 9.0c

Recommended Requirements:

* 2.2 GHz Dual- or Quad-Core Processor
* 1 GiB RAM / 2 GiB for Vista
* 256 MiB DirectX 9 3D Video Card (Radeon X1600 / GeForce 7600 and above)

A perfect game. If you love the 4X genera you should really grab this game!

5/5

Latsyrhc
Tamarack Collectibles

The seller took great care of the product and thought of shipping out. Would reconmend to anyone. Wonderful doing business with this person!!

The one great thing about this game is the mods. Be sure to visit the main game site and its forums to get info on the best mods and expansions. I got the game for cheap and the expansions are cheap. This game has tons of gameplay time and its a great buy. Impulse is also a wonderful service. Get it!

an overall great strategy game, but you need to do the tutorial beofre or you will be lost, but this was still an amazing game

I'm going to be short and sweet about this game.

Those of you who like RTS games, this is a must. Its in a space inviroment setting. But it has 3 races to choose and you can play online as well. Even thought this game has been out a while. I have to admit that if you looking for something cheaper than before and want at least a month or two of game play this is then a must to buy. In fact I still play it myself as of June of 2009.

There you have it.... Sweet and to the point.
Oh and come play me online and lets have some fun.

I bought this game for my husband. He plays it and he seems to really like it a lot :) I tried it, but I prefer different games.

Good game. Kinda like Master of Orion 2 but real time. The X4 aspect isn't as in depth but it's a very fun game.

Played it for awhile and it was a pretty nice game but then I got bored. How do people keep playing these RTS games that are all pretty much the same?

My son wanted this for Christmas, he plays it all the time and loves it. He is trying to get his friends to buy one.

This game isn't for everyone. Could've put in a story line, it would've made the game more interesting. The game is very complicated and hard to understand so it demands quite a bit of your time, but if you get it down it turns out to be a ok game.

Huge disappointment

I barely escaped wasting fifty bucks on “Spore” because rather than getting caught up in the media frenzy around that electronic version of the Edsel, I waited to see what the reactions of the gaming community were. Glad I waited.

I did the same thing with Sins of a Solar Empire, which just goes to prove the old saw about the bear. (Sometimes he gets you and sometimes you crap in the woods … no, wait. Sometimes you crap in the woods and the bear gets you. Yeah, that’s it).

Do not buy this game. It is the mutant offspring of a tactical turn based simulation and a fast-twitch real time simulation. Galactic Civilization meets StarCraft meets Homeworld. The results are ugly. You cannot pause. You cannot offer the same diplomatic options to your rivals as they can offer to you. Fleet control is horrendous. Resources are unlimited, so that the game always devolves into one great big zerg-pit battle. The tech tree is stunted and painfully familiar to anyone who has played just a few space-based games. The graphics are adequate, but it is hard to enjoy what little you can of the space battles as you must hover at a far enough distance to make sure your repair ships haven’t decided to play hero and charge the enemy dreadnaught for reasons unknown.

This game is awful. I enjoyed Galactic Civ and its progeny, so had good feelings toward StarDock, but this one has torpedoed the trust I had in them.

This is the only game I ever bought that I was mad enough to write the company and ask for a refund. Naturally, I didn’t hear back from them. Since I downloaded it directly from Stardock, I can’t even sell the thing on E-bay.

This game is very good if you enjoy long (as in an hour or longer) multiplayer real time strategy games. One of the drawbacks is that there is no campaign, but there are plenty of maps, the ability for random maps, and skirmish scenarios with up to 10 players total - both human players and computer ai.

This game is not as Fast paced as other RTS games like the Command & Conquer Series. It represents a more methodical approach, you need a lot of patience and time to play this game effectively. I love the game its just up my ally.

Great game, did they run out of time to develop the single player plot? There is no story! What is a game without any story, even a STUPID one?

Sad there was no story . When you have a galaxy of 100+ stars, you cannot relly play online unles you have days to play and then you might as well have a persistent universe, a MMorg, or EVE. Still a nice game if you like the demo and wanna play for hours killing peeps.

Good, intriguing games that is really time intensive - don't plan on playing if you have to do something in the nxt 2 hours... instructions aren't all intuitive - had to go to the forum to figure out a couple of the finer points. Played the demo and bid on it because I liked the demo. Try the demo - if you like space strategy, You should like this game.

This game is very entertaining. Although there is no campaign mode, it is just scenario style gameplay, but still very fun. The large maps can take a long time to complete but commanding a whole star system is a great concept. The gameplay is made for long games and large space battles. Definitely try it out if you are a fan of space rts games.

entertaining game. runs a bit long in multiplayer... still enjoyable if you have several hours to invest.

The game is very fun. The graphics are great, the scale of the game is very big. Playing a round of the game takes hours, even with friends. Very stable, and can save during multilayer and resume later. Would recommend to any fan of RTS.

If you like space, spaceships, strategy, having fleets of starships at your command, building colonies, and maintaining a galactic empire, then this game is for you.

This is a fun game. It has a good tech tree and solid strategy play. It has the option of zooming in an out to the smallest detail of you ships to the whole galaxy. All and all it is a very good game. One gripe is the lack of story line missions. It just has single level play and multiplay.

This product is Great! fast shipping, and great service! although there was a complication on my end with paypal, the patience was given until things fully went through. Again thanks!