by Naxel
Game type : Real time strategy
Context : Space stimulation
Similar Gameplay : Fuze Homeworld, Starcraft and C&C together
Platform : PC GAME
I picked the game earlier this month as a desperate seek for space sim that are worth any attention, and damn it was a good idea. Stardock made other game of the same genre and now they are taking this to the next step
Gameplay is like a strategy game, you balance your resources from income, crystal and metal coming from the economy for your planets and the upkeep your military presence have in the world. It’s mostly a conquest game, either you break the other armies and take over their planets, or make peace with em and join forces against another one. The scale of the game is giganormous. A 1vs1 game will spawn over 10 12 planets and the biggest games can go with systems containing over 100 planet systems and 12 different players. There are 4 factions that plays relatively differently according to their research pattern. But the fun part s that you can have capital ships that acts as heroes on the battlefield and they are crucial to the balance of your conquest and the strngth of your armies. What’s also interesting is that pirates are a neutral faction you can bribe to attack other factions in the solar system, and the higher the bid is the more ships they send out there, but you have to be careful cuz they may be jumping on you if other players wants your head on a silver platter.
Graphics are really good, and the interesting part is how you zoom in to see and select a ship, and zoom out to see the entire solar system, which makes the scale of the game very big and also where there is a need to carefully move your units to safe spots to insure the defences or attacks. The visuals are more precise when you come close to see every laser shot ripping a hull apart or out when looking at a planet bombardment making mushroom clouds.
Fun factor is the strong point of this game. You guys remember playing starcraft where you have to have your mind everywhere to plan your actions on the battlefield? Well this game has the same feeling, while the pace is quite slower than other strategies games, you just can’t rst your mind off as you play for the quatity of things you need/ want to manage. It makes the game incredibly addictive and hard to complete as well.
Sound is what you expect out of a RTS, units have an annoyed tone when you select them or give them an order and are characterized by their race and purpose. The music is fun because depending on how much you’re zooming on the action, it will change to the epic battle song to the more relaxed spacey context. You almost immediately know when pirates are around with that kind of interaction.
In Summary
The good
- The addictivness
- The graphic scale
- The gameplay is very balanced and provides a challenge to each play
- Finally a good RTS in a space sim, better han homeworld IMO
- Game is totally unprotected which fucks up less your computer, and no need for cd to play makes it easy
The bad
- No single player campaign
- Learning curve quite steep, it’s not too bad, but the tutorials are essentials
- The addictiveness
Final score, 8.8/10
Why that score? : The lack of a campaign and graphics/ battle stimulation that lacks a bit of dynamism in the end as well as the slow pace of the game detract from the higher score, but the game is extremely well balanced and in sum is really better than it sounds even if it’s not exceptional. A single game can span over 10 hours of game, it’s even beyond the scale of risk. If you like space sim games in any iteration, you HAVE to AT LEAST try this one
There is a demo out there and it’s totally worth trying at the very least
Demo at Gamer’s Hell
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Tags: game review, pc gaming, sins of a solar empire
August 12th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
[…] Atticus wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIt’s mostly a conquest game, either you break the other armies and take over their planets, or make peace with em and join forces against another one. The scale of the game is giganormous. A 1vs1 game will spawn over 10 12 planets and … […]