Players have to be very conscious of how they spend their hard-earned credits and resources. Research, ships and installations in Sins of a Solar Empire are all costly investments. They still consumed logistic slots and required upkeep, but I didn't have to spend credits to build them. The AI smartly kept placing a bounty of my head, effectively bribing the pirates to attack me, but soon the tables would turn and an enemy would become an ally.įurther research granted me pirate ships – up to a dozen frigates and cruisers – after each raid. Regardless, I quickly set to building up a sizable fleet to defend my growing territory from the intervals of pirate raids. I had to research an alliance with the pirates and the minor AI factions, which took me some time to find as the interface is still somewhat difficult to navigate and manage and information buried or unclear. I soon discovered, however, that several of my faction's traits were not passive bonuses. It's easy to lose yourself zooming the camera inward to admire the sharp cannons of a battleship or the glacial scars of an ice world, forgetting about the management of your greater empire. Planets glow from their atmospheres and the lights of civilization.
Ships are wonderfully detailed and designed. Once the game had finished loading, I zoomed the camera around and out to take in my small corner of the galaxy.ĭespite the original Sins of a Solar Empire being more than four years old, it's still a beautiful game, no small thanks to Rebellion's new textures, shaders and engine optimizations. Furthermore, I could customize general game speeds, enable or disable pirates, set numerous victory conditions – I only enabled the new Capital Victory option, meaning the destruction of my or the enemy's capital planet would end the game – as well as define AI difficulty behaviors, not just their difficulty levels. I could also have chosen to play on a randomly generated map or created my own. There are multiple map sizes, ranging from a single star system with a half-dozen planets to multiple systems with over 140 planets. I decided to play on a small map as the TEC Rebel faction against a single, random AI opponent, but the game offers plenty of other match options. Their masses all but dominate entire gravity wells, easily dwarfing capital ships and cruisers in size and power. But what they can build is impressive, new titan-class ships which are costly to build but extremely difficult to destroy. The races and factions can also recruit new ships, though the list isn't too extensive. Meanwhile, the TEC Rebels can ally with the pirates – a non-playable faction that sends out constant raids if enabled – and gain money when bombarding enemy planets. They can build multiple starbases per system, and their units have greater hull and shield points within their own territory. The TEC Loyalists, for example, focus more on defense than their Rebel counterparts. The three races already had their own unique playstyles, but Rebellion splits each into Loyalists and Rebel factions, adding further nuance and defining characteristics.
The player that conquers a specific, random planet in Occupation Victory will win if he or she can hold it for a certain duration. Flagship Victory gives each player a powerful, durable ship which they must protect at all costs or lose the game if it's destroyed. New victory conditions help move the game at a quicker pace, while creating interesting scenarios. It includes all the content from the original game and its other two expansions while adding even more ways to explore, expand, exploit and exterminate. While it may be classified as an expansion pack, it's by no means a small product. That blend of genres was a success with fans, and four years later the developer is set to release another, now standalone expansion pack titled Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion. All of its action, from empire management to fleet engagements, took place in real-time. But unlike its Total War or Galactic Civilizations brethren, Sins was not turn-based. In 2008, Ironclad Games released Sins of a Solar Empire, an interstellar 4X strategy game where-in players could battle for control of entire star systems on a galactic scale.