Others say...

"Sins of a Solar Empire rocks my block off"
I was originnaly turned on to this genre by the space RTS games Homeworld, Homeworld 2 and Homeworld: Cataclysm. Playing Homeworld over and over again got progressively less challenging, because every time I played the campaign mode, I knew where the enemies were and how many of them to expect.

Sins does not feature a campaign mode, which I only missed at first, but was completely blown away by the gaming experience sans story. Battles and development happen in real time but not too quickly. The battle arena can either be an itsy-bitsy one or two star system or a just massive galaxy of ten or twenty stars. I have been looking, waiting, pining for a this game, having followed development on the games' forums for a year or so before release. I was more than pleased with this evolution of the genre. In my wunderlust for a space rts, I had purchased and played the game Sword of the Stars, but was dissapointed in the turn based method of play.

The end-of-the-day reason why I play these games is for the capitol ships. I enjoy sending a small group of frigates into an enemy base where I am grossly outnumbered, attack, retreat to the jump line with the enemy units in hot pursuit, and then have, oh say, six or so Capitol ships jump in and mop up. It makes me giggle.

"BUY IS NOW DO IT!!"
frigg'n if u loved rebellion , homeworld , any empire building game jebus.. this tops em all.. its awesome.
and time goes by SOOOO FAST. im like sitting playing like ok 5 more min.. and 2 hours go by.. its bad.. real bad if u have a gf or a job u have to go to in the morning haha

"IN SPACE NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU END YOUR TURN..."
This is an EXCELLENT game that takes the galaxy civilization games a clear step further. Written as a science-fiction novel, played as a seat-of-your-pants RTS game, this is a very intelligent hybrid that I greatly enjoyed.

In effect, SINS is a successful blend of the wonderful GALACTIC CIVILIZATIONS and HOMEWORLD series, with a sprinkling of TOTAL WAR for good measure. This is NOT a turn-based civilization game, so expect a much faster pace. What this means is that while it maintains the characteristics of classic turn-based civilization games (exploration, expansion, exploitation and extermination), by relieving from the micromanagement tedium, it allows for an intense RealTime Strategy experience. Now, this probably may not appeal to turn-based purists, but I would advise an open mind: this is a good game.

This concept-blending is new, so expect a slow learning curve - it took me a number of ...false-starts to get the hang of it: after all, it plays like an RTS and (although simplified) it still has enough of turn-based features that need to be taken care of. The interface is simplified and informative at the same time, with info trees sliding out only when needed.

There are three different factions to choose from (financiers, technologists and psitecs) - yet, their differences focus mainly on research tree-branching and ship designs. What I did not like was that the ships of all three factions are effectively the same and their differences are only skin-deep. What I would have liked to find (and was disappointed to the point of withholding the 5th star for fun) was ship design and building! Remember how much fun was to design our own spaceships (from freighters to battleships) in GALACTIC CIVILIZATIONS II? Well, no such luck here. Let's hope they keep it in mind when the patch gets prepared.

Quick and constant exploration is not only encouraged by a necessity if one wants to survive - let alone win. Spaceships built within a solar system cannot travel beyond it, unless using "wormhole"-like singularities. This adds to realism but can stretch your finances to their breaking point - since only locally built ships can be used. Moreover, it makes really hard to locate the strategic points to either built defenses or focus an attack. The AI will constantly be bypassing your planning like the Maginot line - and leave you with such a French feeling...

The graphics (of all of backgrounds, planets and units) are very nicely done. I really liked the multiple afterburners tracing through space as a spaceship squadron was dopplering past my screen...And less-than-cutting-edge PC owners rejoice: even 4-5 years old systems can handle this game like a breeze!
What I truly appreciated was the realistic scale of things. Galaxies are much larger than star systems, which in turn are much larger than planets, which in turn are much larger than space stations...than spaceships and so on. How is this achieved? Excellent zooming!
SUPREME COMMANDER was the first game to introduce strategic zoom; however, SINS implements it much better and shows how it should had been done: from a galaxy to a single planet and to a single spaceship, zooming in or out firmly maintains the effectiveness of battle controls by grouping and simplifying the info-tiles as one zooms out. In SupCom, we had to chose between either discerning the units or moving ...info-tiles around the battlefield - not a bad first attempt, mind you. In SINS, one almost never looses perspective: ongoing battles, critical hotspots, or colony revolts are all easily identifiable in real-time.

On another note, SINS OF A SOLAR EMPIRE is a STARDOCK release which, yes, means their specialized installation utility. Nevertheless, this game hides no DRM or other intrusive security idiocy. Since trust and respect between a game publisher and its customers is a two-way street (and STARDOCK was willing to prove its friendship first), SINS deserves our support.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!