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Breath of Fresh Air

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: February 06, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game is a breath of fresh air. Just as, once upon a time, Starcraft re-wrote the book for what an RTS "should" be, so too will this game. Its far from a stale, overdone copy of a mediocre clone, which most RTS games are these days. This game incorporates new features and ideas, a new approach to the genre, and the brilliance of one of the best companies out there. I've been a part since the early beta -- which means that yes, my opinion is skewed -- and this game is incredible.

The developers have had the active participation of a large beta community for the last year or so, receiving constant input from the end-users, all of whom were not under an NDA. To get into the beta, you just had to pre-order the game before or during certain time windows when it was opened. Hundreds of people helped them polish it until it gleamed, creating a game that was more stable 6 months before release than most released games.

On top of that, this game incorporates many, many things from the 4X -- eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate -- genre, despite its being real time instead of turn based. You can build up a real economy, and tools like an actual diplomacy system and the ability to sic pirates on someone via bounties allow that to be a semi-functional approach. Obviously, however, a strong military is still important, and there is another place this game shines. Its combat system rejects the micro-heavy approach of most games, and while almost all units have abilities, the unit AI can handle using those abilities for you most of the time.

I could go on for hours, but I won't. I'll just conclude with this: this game is going places. Buy it, and get in on the ground floor of the game that is going to use Starcraft II to mop the ground!

Great Graphics and Great Gameplay!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: February 06, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Just got this game yesterday, so I'm no expert. But so far, I can see this game has fantastic graphics. If you are familiar to stragegy games, then the user interface and methods of play should be generally similar to what you are used to. But this game adds so much more. Like Homeworld, you can manage battles if you want to, but you don't really need to, as the AI is smart and can do most of the 'detailed' work for you. But you will need to keep an eye on a battle and maybe build more ships, or send in more defenses from other planets. Maybe even ask for help from an alliance or bribe pirates?

This game is great so far, and I've only completed 1 of the 4 tutorials and just had to jump into a single mission. So, tonight I'm need to do another tutorial to better understand what to do. But last night I was having so much fun, I didn't want to stop playing.

This game also allows for Mods and recording Replays, so the future looks pretty open for new ideas...

A Brave New Paradigm in PC Gaming is Established!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 12
Date: February 06, 2008
Author: Amazon User

NOTE: This is a real quick write up a more detailed review to come later when I have more free time.

With that said....

If you are a true PC gamer and you like strategy games then you should be very interested in Sins. It is afresh new concept in gaming with hybrid genera inventing concept. They have elegantly crossed traditional 4X gaming with RTS and have beyond doubt created a new standard for the industry.

The policies of the publisher [...] and developer for things such as licenses and protection as well as updates and support are top shelf bar none. There simply is not a better publisher in the market place when it comes to supporting consumers and for the freshmen title from the developers given how they have developed the title especially throughout the past year I fully expect them to stand at StarDocks side in the near future.

The development of the title was done in the public arena from nearly day one and has really been a very interesting thing to be a part of and watch over the past year. Moreover they [The developers & publishers] are really active on the forums and have made many, many changes to the games design based on the feedback and at fundamental levels. Granted there are some aspects of the process I don't like so much but there is also other things to consider such as trade secrets, development cycle, marketing, financial resources and promotional strategy -etc... All of which are very reasonable.

With nearly all of the other beta programs I have participated in I have felt ignored, abused, placated and simply taken for granted. Additionally the selection processes leave me wondering "WTF?" most times. I don't see a clearly defined plan of action, articulated communication networks, trackers, coherent stages, organized issues lists and corrections -etc... and most of the forums are populated with mindless dribble and flame wars and to add insult to injury are managed by people not doing the actual development work. I simply fail to see the real point of the "testing" except for pure marketing value and or maybe for server load issues.

'Must own' game of 2008

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: February 06, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This is a must own game! You'll enjoy it for its challenge, and for its amazing graphics and story. If you enjoy playing online, there is even save game abilities, so you can play against your friends when you have time and not worry about disconnects or ending the game early because you have to leave to do something else. Just resume your saved game. The community support for this game is also very extensive as well. You'll be happy you made this purchase. Oh did I mention, the game is fun to play!

EPIC

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: March 03, 2008
Author: Amazon User

When an Indie game outsells Call of Duty 4 and the Orange Box in it's first month, a gamer has to take note. Sins of a Solar Empire (awesome title by the way) is grand in scope, and may be intimidating to gamers unfamiliar with the RT4X genre, but when you get used to ruling several planets, you'll discover an incredibly deep strategic experience. A story spanning thousands of years and several star systems brings all the incredible gameplay aspects together, resulting in a tight, polished experience that could please even a hardcore FPS addict (me)

The only caveat so far, the interface is not as streamlined as it could be.

All in all, one of the best indie titles available on PC, buy it.

Not great, but a good start.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: April 28, 2008
Author: Amazon User

First off, this game is not a "Master of Orion" style game in any way. It's far more comparable to Homeworld -- it's a space based RTS game.

Like most RTS games, the tech trees are fairly shallow with limited options and units are not customizable beyond researching new techs for them. There are three fairly similar races which are also not customizable.

However, it's not all bad news.

Although you'll likely be spending a lot of focus on overseeing large battles between fleets, there's also a lot of room to conduct secondary operations -- sending smaller strike teams out while the enemy is hopefully preoccupied with your main fleet. A lot of RTS games simply don't reward this sort of thing very well but in Sins, it opens up a lot of strategic options.

Multiplayer is integrated and well supported, including a feature that lets you save and resume multiplayer games. This is something that RTS gamers have been asking for for years.

Games can easily last several hours, depending on how many players and how big of a game you wanted. Personally, I enjoy the option of having a "big game" rather than simply the small map 15-minute skirmishes most RTS games offer.

The AI is pretty good and actually pretty amusing to have on your team. AIs will communicate with each other through standard chat and will try to coordinate with you and each other. (Enemy AI, on the other hand, tends to be annoying by making constant demands. This is the "diplomacy" aspect of the game and frankly it would probably be more fun without it.)

Graphics are very nice, should you choose to zoom in far enough to see them all, although the only reason to zoom in that far is to look at the graphics. It's generally more practical to be zoomed out far enough that ships are dots.

I think the bottom line for me is that I see this game as a good start. It's really nothing new. Real time space based empire games have been done before and arguably have been done better. However, I see this game as having a strong potential as a platform that they can build on. I don't regret my purchase but I'm more keenly interested in what they have in mind for Sins of a Solar Empire II. Deeper tech trees? More races? Customizable ships and races? There's a lot of room to expand and I hope they continue to build on it.

A game that satifies many appetites

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: February 06, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Being an avid gamer means you are at the mercy of BBD. Bigger, better deal. I've played RTS games since World of Warcraft 1 and Command & Conquer 1, so I have some years and experience with the genre on my belt. I didn't know anything about this game until about a week ago. I went to their website, [...] and started reading the posts (of which they have a convienet "Newest Posts" column for their forums right on the homepage). Not only is Stardock a tightly knit community of players and modders, but the develepers CONSTANTLY monitor the forums and check for advice and answer questions. The only developer I know of that can claim that awesome qualtiy is Relic, i.e. Company of Heores. SOASE is just as revolutionary in function as COH. It's just on the other side of the genre spectrum, instead of controlling small sized armies and individual units, you are taking over an entire solar system. Random map generator in game. Overall, if you like RTS, this game is a MUST. It will be quite foreign at first, but if more RTS games took a que from SOASE, the entire genre will be much better off.

Poor support

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: April 13, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The game itself is decent: slow but fun. The support is poor, however.

There is a serial # inside the box. This is a bother, but it's perfectly understandable. However, it's the beginning of an adventure, or was for me.

Installed the game and looked for updates. The update process uses a very sophisticated system, it closes the game and opens Internet Explorer. Given that even one-man business (like Baseball Mogul) manage downloads within the game, this is not impressive. At least you don't have to remember to type ",8,1".

Stardock then fails to recognize the serial #. There was only one "1" and two "0"s, so it didn't take long to try the variations. The entry form does not contain separate boxes for each number grouping, and it does not explain whether to manually type in the dashes. I tried both. I Tried to login (I own other games of theirs), and it timed out repeatedly, though my connection was fast and functioning fine. This last could be just bad luck, but it fit the experience. From the forums, it looks as though there was even a problem with the 1.04 update, so maybe its best that I have to wait.

It's not a good system for obtaining updates, it's not a user friendly system for entering the serial number, and it would help if their website was functioning properly. If you get the game, be aware that your first hour with it might consist of more frustration than fun.

Oh, the gameplay is decent, though you might want to have something to read while you wait between important events.

Gave in to the hype. Now scratching my head!!!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: May 29, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I agree with some of the reviewers here that are scratching their heads about this game. I gave the game 2 stars for fun factor and 3 overall as a reward for no copy protection. I played it for a full weekend and just didn't get what the gushing reviews were about. There is no real strategy to Sins except with dealing with a unit cap. It just reminds me of Warcraft 2 in space. I really thought I was missing something when you crank out ships and then they will go and automatically shoot enemy ships on their own until they or the enemy blows up. There is very little else that keeps you interested in this gameplay. I then realized that I was actually looking for tactical space battles that didn't exist in Sins of a Solar Empire. I really didn't feel that involved in the game especially during the space combat. I went on to playing Sword of the Stars and was quite pleased with the gameplay and the tactical space battles.

Vastly overrated - I find it boring

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 13
Date: May 25, 2008
Author: Amazon User

All the professional review sites are ecstatic over this title. I have no idea why.

You have a map with a small number of planets (14 on a small map, 20 on a medium map, 50 on a large map--I don't see how anyone would have time to play this on a large map), and it takes really LONG time for ships to move between these planets.

The thing you need to know about this game is that it's slow. There's nothing to do besides watch your ships fight it out. Battles can take forever. There's little strategy involved. Once you've figured out the best technology to research and best ships to build, there's really not much planning or thinking required.

The technology research is very generic. You research stuff that gives you more powerful shields and armor, more powerful weapons, or unlock new ships. On the civilian side, the key technologies to research are unlocking trading ports (because you need to build them to get more money), and early warning radar so you know when enemy ships are coming. Other than that, there are no key technologies that alter the game. It's not like Civilization where you really feel the pain of falling behind in research.

The AI isn't very bright. It will harass your planets if you put it on "agressor" mode, but it's really bad at going in for the kill and actually taking you over. On "hard" level, the computer players have massively more ships than you do, but are too stupid to use them effectively.

Thinking of playing it online against humans? The SOSE forums are full of complaints about problems playing the game online, and even if they fix those problems in a future service pack, do you really want to play a game online where it takes an entire day to finish one game? Who has time for that?

If you want good strategy, play Civ 4 instead. If you are unemployed and want to spend hours mindlessly in front of a computer game, then play one of those big online games like World of Warcraft ot Final Fantasy XI.

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