Sins of a Solar Empire

Review from Starks - Thursday, 18 September 2008 @ 12:53am

Captains log, 2030

Commander Brett Bear of the Trader Emergency Coalition gazed out across the stars, watching the bright explosions from the fire fight that was ensuing between his forces and The Advent. The slightly bored look in his eyes clearly showed his lack of concern over the fact that he was losing the battle. Instead his mind rolled over whether he would be allowed to play the latest Sega Rally instalment when his inevitable surrender and capture happened. At the very least, he had hoped they’d let him keep his officers pyjama’s. He thought he looked quite smart in them.

“Do you think they’ll let me keep my officers pyjamas in the brig, Simon?” Brett asked, turning to his second in command.

“Hmm?” Simon looked up from his ‘Dogs in Formal Wear Quarterly’, which was showing its ‘The Top 50 Hottest Bitches in Heat’ edition. Brett caught a glimpse of a sultry looking pug in a long red evening gown.

“What have I said to you about that type of filth, Simon?” Brett admonished.

“Always make sure I share it with you when I’m finished?” Simon responded.

“Damn straight, are you done yet?”

Captain Brett Bear surveyed the battle surrounding him.

A hustle and bustle back in the control deck distracted Brett’s attention as he was moving in to view the publication, and he noticed that petty officer Matt had just been teleported in.

“Matthias, what the hell are you doing?” Brett called out, slightly alarmed at his sudden arrival, especially since he had sent Matt to negotiate with The Advent to see if it was possible to have his own life spared should he hand over the rest of his fleet and the keys to his new Toyota Corolla.

“What the..?” Matt’s expression clearly showed he didn’t know where he was, before he slapped his face to his palm and swore a few times. “Is Starks writing another review?”

“Yep, I thought you knew?” Came Yug’s reply as he entered the room in full space-naval uniform. He dusted several of the plastic medals hanging on his chest. “I told you last pod cast.”

“You told me several things that night,” Matt answered dryly, as he began to adjust to his surroundings. “But I forgot to tell you I was ignoring every word. I thought you’d work that one out when I stopped answering your questions. Still, we need new reviewers. This type of crap will keep the site penniless if we don’t do something.”

“Err, Matt, we did get new reviewers,” Yug informed patiently. “One of them is standing over there.” Yug pointed at Simon, who was whistling ‘Who let the dogs out!’ as he stared with interest at what appeared to be a formal dog wear centrefold.

Matt swore again.

“Silence, Matthias. What have you come to speak of?” Brett Bear commanded in a booming tone.

“Oh, right. The Advent wanted to let you know that they’re not interested in negotiating unless you throw in your Lego Death Star and a case of beer.”

“My Lego Death Star? You ask too much, Advent. You ASK TOO MUCH!”

“Err, they’re really not Brett,” Matt disagreed. “A Lego Death Star and a case of beer is clearly a very good deal if it saves the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.”

“Heretic! Take him away! TAKE HIM AWAY!!” Simon screamed. “Cavanagh, take him to the brig!”

Cav, in a black trench coat and with sleek sunglasses on, appeared suddenly from the shadows and pounced on Matt, performing a quick tomb stone before dragging him away out back. Yug winced, but couldn’t help hold back a snicker of amusement.

“George!” Brett called out. “Set a course for The Advent flagship, we’re going to conduct a kamikaze run.”

George stood up and saluted: “Aye aye, Cap’n!” She sat back down, picked up her 360 controller and immediately the ship changed direction as she aimed it directly at The Advent command ship.

“Brett, I’m not sure a kamikaze run is such a good idea,” Yug said in a hesitant voice. Brett didn’t reply, his head deep in thought about how he could shave three seconds off his lap time in Sega Rally if he played with his feet.

The fire fight drew closer, as the ship closed in on The Advent ships position. Brett’s concentration grew, realising that he could in fact shave off four seconds if he used his feet and toes. The end was nigh, and Commander Brett Bear was focussed – ever so focussed – on his Sega Rally lap time.

For that was all that mattered.

---

Sins of a Solar Empire is one of those great titles that comes along every now and again that lets you sink hours upon hours into the game and still want to play more. It’s a bit of a reality killer, in that you’ll pick it up mid morning and the only way you’ll tell its afternoon is because your stomach is grumbling.

I had the privilege to preview this, and such was my interest in the game that I asked Yug if I could follow it up with the real deal. Part of the benefit of this is to see where the spit and polish went from the developers, as well as if they’ve made any major improvements.

Suffice to say that from what I can tell, they’ve actually just made sure the cleaned up all the little bugs and interface issues without changing the formula itself.

Look at all the pretty lights!!

The one thing that I felt could have been improved on was the graphics themselves, although this is a little bit more difficult for me to judge correctly as my laptop isn’t what I would class as a graphical beast. Frankly, it’s pretty crappy when it comes to that. It’s not that they looked bad, but I guess I just expected more considering they looked quite similar to the BETA.

Another aspect I felt they could have had a lot more thought put into it was the various races. The game itself has three different races –The Trader Emergency Coalition, The Advent and The Vesari. The differentiating factors of the three races are linked with the technology tree that you can research, which is great, but that’s it. There are no special units per race and the skins on each race’s ships only differ slightly.

But the point I have is that there’s not enough differentiation for there to justify three races. This isn’t so much a criticism as it is more of an opportunity loss. Had Iron Clad put some more time and emphasis on this element, the I really feel that, like Warcraft III and Starcraft in the past, they could have greatly enhanced the games diversity and appeal as a player not only learns the ins and outs of a race, but they mould their tactics and style of game play to best suit what they as a person lean towards the most. In Iron Clad defence, this may not have actually been required and could have added too much complexity to the game. I guess my point is one of musing rather than criticism but still stands as a point.

Dun dun dun da da dun da da dun *Enter the Empire!*

The technology tree itself reminds me greatly of a cross between Warcraft , and Civilisation, in that you need to research upgrades to ensure you can stay in the game, but as you research more then it allows you entry into different aspects of the knowledge tree only achieved when you reach a certain level.

Some of the improvements to the game itself are actually really well thought out. The first is a map editor, which allows you the ability to custom create your own galaxy. This, in all seriousness, is cool. I absolutely love it. Given I have a penchant for huge maps, long games and extremely involved experiences within this genre. It’s a playpen of ultimate desire for somebody like me and an excellent addition to the game.

The second is a pirate underground, where you can hire the services of the dirty underworld to do your bidding. This too is a clever initiative and puts, in my mind, the player into an almost Star Wars environment where you can set bounties on specific teams to inhibit their development. The trade off is it affects your reputation and diplomacy levels, which gradually decline as you take advantage of their services.

With space stations that size, who needs moons?

Overall the game is a good one. Not too much has changed from the BETA, but it is definitely more refined, better polished title – This means in my opinion that what was going to be a successful game from the preview has turned into a fully fleshed out and well designed title. In of itself, I would recommend this game to a person who like involving games with lots of depth as it has plenty in these departments. The title reminds me of the old Star Wars Rebellion, a game I sank hours upon hours into. It’s clearly better that SWR in my opinion due the better implementation of the 4x style of game play, but the similarities means players who liked that title will definitely enjoy Sins.

Pros

• Great depth. Ability to lose yourself in the game as you manage your fleets, economy and still try to win the game is for me a big selling feature.
• Interface is intuitive and ensures that it does not take away from the gameplay itself. Emphasis seems to have been put on making sure nothing is more than 2 clicks away in game.
• The complexity of the game and variety of maps means that each session you have will be inherently different, which adds to the experience and creates challenges in different areas.

Cons

• Could have diversified the races a little more to give the game more depth.
• The nature of the game itself means multiplayer, whilst possible, is highly unlikely as the amount of time required to play a session, and ensuring two people at the least are involved, makes it a challenge in itself to organise.
• Replayability would probably be sporadic due to the amount of time you sink into one game. Because of its length, most people would probably play one game, take a break, the maybe go back.