This isn't a bad game for sure, but makes you wonder if it really deserved 9.0.
The first look of this game reminds you of Star Wars: Empire at War. The space map looks similar, and way you travel from one planet to another is very similar too. However, Sins of Solar Empires come with much more than what Star Wars: Empire at War could offer. Sins of Solar Empire has one unique concept of Capital Ships. The Capital Ships are much bigger than any other ships in the game, deals more damages, and has special abilities. You can think of these ships to be the hero units in Warcraft 3 if that makes it easier. The ships also level up as it gains more experience, and you can select additional abilities it can use. These ships are certainly the difference makers, and the game has nice restrictions to balance out its supreme power.
The size of the maps are quite humongous, and the biggest default maps contain 5 solar systems. That means you see 5 stars in the map, and each map is associated with around 10 to 30 planets. It is also possible to create much bigger maps, and it certainly is possible to have a really epic space battles.
Space Pirates do play an interesting role in the game, although I don't really like the idea of that. What they do is simply attacking an empire they wish to attack, and only way to stop them is to bribe them. This forces you to constantly check the status of pirates and it is certainly a distraction (unnecessary distraction in my opinion). I didn't like the pirate runs just because there is a pirate run every few minutes, and the fact that you can bribe them 5 seconds before they launch to change their target is just not interesting. If you're rich in resources, you'll always be able to stop their runs towards your empire.
This game does offer good enough visual effects to make you believe it's a modern game. It is not as stunning as Crysis, but still is above average, and I don't think you'll find the most problems out of the graphics. My favorite part is when your ships line up at the outer orbit of your planet and getting ready for hyper speed jumps. They just look nice, and even just watching them doing it is enjoyable.
Sins of Solar Empire, however, does not deserve the rating it got for the lack of single player campaign. When you have a 3 huge factions with a nice set of tools and game maps at your disposal in a RTS game, it almost amazes me how they decided to release the game without one single player campaign. Because at the end of a huge battle or game, you have nothing to show except for the achievement medals you might have won. You don't have the feeling of accomplishment nor a nice cut scene.
Overall, it is a nice game, and quite immersive as it is, but because of the fact it lacks single player campaigns can keep this game on your shelf rather than your CD driver. Unless you're an extreme fan of epic galactic battles, I don't think you'll enjoy this game for too long.