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king3vbo
Sins of a Solar Empire Review
BigBadJuan | 11:34 AM on 03.11.2008 11 comments




I devoted 3 hours of my life to this game yesterday – I was home sick; I had already spent 3 hours watching the disappointing ‘There Will Be Blood’ and this game rounded out a worthless day.

To sum this game up in one line – It’s Command & Conquer but with a twist - It’s in space.

The graphics aren’t overly fantastic – everything is 3 dimensional but most of the ships are boxes of some sort and offer very little satisfaction when they blow up.

The controls were fairly easy to grasp, it took less than an hour of wrangling with them before I figured out how to issue commands, form fleets, control the camera and manage resources. The research portion of the game is exactly like a RTS, spend x amount of cash/resources and research this tech which then unlocks this unit/power up.

I got fairly bored quickly with the game though because it never gave me time to build a fleet properly. I kept being assaulted by larger and larger fleets of pirates. Never mind that there were other races to fight – the pirates seem to be the super powers of the galaxy being able to assemble 30 ship fleets faster than I could assemble 5 ship fleets. The lunacy of pirates not allowing me to actually fight the other races because they possessed more powerful and numerous ships; quickly disenchanted me with whatever little joy I got out of the game.

Overall I’m a big fan of RTS’s but I like my games to have some degree of strategy to them and some realism. I won’t be playing this again – don’t buy it unless you liked what you heard.



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10 comments | showing # 1 to 10
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king3vbo's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/11/2008 11:56
king3vbo
It’s Command & Conquer but with a twist

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

SoaSE is nowhere close to C&C. It is in a completely different leauge. The deep gameplay of managing planets and space outposts is what makes it so much fun. It's a hardcore RTS for hardcore RTS players
BigBadJuan's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/11/2008 12:02
BigBadJuan
I disagree, micromanaging planets and outposts in an RTS makes for painful gameplay - especially when playing against PC opponents. What you see as deep gameplay I see as painful, the combat structure is akin to C&C or WC3 with a few powerups but mostly a bludgeon your enemy to death beneath a horde of spaceships. - there's not much strategy there.
king3vbo's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/11/2008 12:33
king3vbo
I disagree, micromanaging planets and outposts in an RTS makes for painful gameplay - especially when playing against PC opponents

Well I would have to disagree. I think thats what makes SoaSE stand out. The intense micromanagement is also the main draw of the game to people like me, who enjoy that aspect of an RTS.

The combat structure is akin to C&C or WC3 with a few powerups but mostly a bludgeon your enemy to death beneath a horde of spaceships

I can't argue with you there. The thing is, this is not a combat-driven RTS. Its driven by the planet micromanagement. Another game I can relate it to is Civilization. It is more about managing your cities, while combat is thrown in there to compliment the main "managment" gameplay.

Games like C&C and WC3 are based on combat, while managing your "cities" is nowhere near as important, except for building adequate defense.

It comes down to a matter of opinion on two different sub-genres. A combat-based RTS vs an empire management-based RTS
BigBadJuan's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/11/2008 12:50
BigBadJuan
therein lies the rub - I'm more a fan of the Total War Series of games - they blend the two genres rather nicely. you have a turn based system of micromanagement, and a RTS section to clash your armies with your foes.

I like to have my cake and eat it too - I find it's a fine line, too much cake the game is bland, too much icy and it's too sweet.
king3vbo's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/11/2008 13:14
king3vbo
And thats why Total War is a good series; it mixes the two genres and comes out on top. I've also seen it done quite badly...

Don't get me wrong I love the Warcraft series (they are what got me into PC RTS), but I have a huge hard-on for games like Sins of A Solar Empire, and in that same vein Galactic Civilizations.
JamnOnTheOne's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/11/2008 13:43
JamnOnTheOne
To sum up your review in one line - You don't understand what you were playing.

This game is not for C&C tank rush tards...It's for Civilization folks that enjoy micromanaging economy/combat and 10+ hour long skirmish games.
FUBAR2713's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/11/2008 14:41
FUBAR2713
I think if you took more time to play the game and got to learn how to play it more than you would realize that the pirates play a huge factor. The reason you seem to keep getting rolled by them is because you are not paying attention to the pirate tab and the other factions are sending the pirates against you. The pirates are a key in winning against the other factions especially with more computer opponents.


I really like this game but I guess if you aren't into micro-managing then it isn't the game for you. This game is for hardcore strategy and sci-fi fans so if you like those types games then it will not disappoint.
BigBadJuan's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/11/2008 15:12
BigBadJuan
I disagree, micromanaging planets and asteroid miners in real time doesn't constitute civilization-like gameplay. I enjoy Civilization as much as the next guy – but in my estimation after 3 hours of playing this game, it felt stale and boring. That was the impression I got from it so that’s what I wrote. Maybe I would have a different opinion if I tried it again without the ridiculous number of space pirates – but I feel that my time is more valuable than that.
maxio098ui's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/11/2008 17:57
maxio098ui
lol disagree fight.
i played the game and for the c&c person it is boring. i am a big c&c person and i didnt like it.
JRisJunior's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/12/2008 15:47
JRisJunior
if nobody mentions SupCom in about 3 seconds, I'm going to snap.

SoaSE is EXACTLY like SupCom - except in space. The scale is way too big to compare it to a smaller RTS like WC3 or C&C.

It has a lot more of the turn based element to it, like the previous Galactic Civ games that Stardock made before, and micromanaging is crucial in the game.

The reason why the pirates kept attacking you is cuz you never payed them off. If you outbid your opponent every 15 or so minutes the pirates will continue to attack them and not you. paying them a few thousand now is much better than having to pay thousands of thousands later.
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