I don't usually review, but I felt like this game was worth it. To put it short, you will either HATE or LOVE this game.
Sins of a Solar Empire may not be the best game out there, but it's certainly an improvement over the already successful game of Galactic Civilization by Stardock. You will either enjoy, or greatly dislike this game, there is little room for in-between.
The game has a high learning curve, as the tutorials do not provide the more in-depth strategies needed to win against anything but some normal level computers and new players. The best way to learn is to go 1v1 on a small map against a hard computer, and learn by mistake!
Some people want to say this game has bugs, but it really doesn't. There is an error with dual-core processors that can happen, which will result in them running at 100%, even after you quit the game. However, Stardock already has a work-around posted on the forums, which is quite easy.
The graphics are amazingly scalable, even a low-end computer can run this and it look pretty good. The graphics are about up to Homeworld 2 standards. It's not 100% "eye-candy", but it's not hard to look at either.
The AI is quite impressive -- Stardock did an amazing job with limiting the micro-management of the game to almost non-existent; allowing you to use the newfound time to think about strategy and your plan. When playing against computers, they also do not "cheat" like in other games, they are effected by every economy change, fog of war, etc that players are, and are quite "human like".
There are "achievements" in the game, a lot of them actually. You unlock these just like you would on your 360. As of now, these are just for show and have no effect on your game play.
If your mind is asking its self "to buy or not", that really depends on your game likes. If you like Risk and strategy heavy games, you'll probably like this. And with the starting price of only $39.99, it's worth the buy. However, there are some people out there this game won't appeal to -- if your a fan of 10 minute RTS games, then this is not for you, as most games take anywhere from 2 to 7 or more hours to complete!..
..The game addresses this by allowing you to save multi-player and single player games in progress! Yes, you can save a multi-player game, take a break, get all those players togethor again, and pick up where you left off!
***************************************************************************
Reason this isn't a 10:
- There are space pirates in the game that can cause some aggravation, and there is no way to "turn them off" before starting a game. You CAN however, make your own custom map, and just not put any pirates on it.
- When zoomed in all the way to watch a ship fight, you will notice gun turrets and the like do not "track" their targets, which is kinda lame, but understandable (..but really...if homeworld one could do that...)
- There are three "races" in the game, and they really play about the same. Other than looks and ever-so-slight differences between them, you'll be safe picking "random" for your race.
- Games can take an extremely long time to complete; usually there is no inter-human-player fighting for hours.
- Pirates take skill away from the game, as you can simply bribe them to rush-attack an opponent at the start (If they survive though, pirates do not match to an end-game fleet of ships)
- Tutorials suck, and will occasionally not work (just restart the game to fix it)