A fantastic effort by Stardock but i think most seasoned veterans will be disappointed.
Branded as the first "4RTX" game, blending RTS elements and the grander, turn-based expansion, and SoaSE is definitely a fun game to play. Who doesn't like managing massive armadas in real time, conquering the galaxy? I know I certainly do. It brings back memories of master of orion 2, a turn-based game I played to death for ages. You use your fleet to kick ass around the solar system and colonise planets to generate more income so you can afford to kick even more arse.
The interface in sins really really shines, and it reminiscent of pkc's favourite RTS of all time everything is within easy reach and the zoom makes controlling huge fleets a breeze. Zoom in, zoom out, what could be easier? Managing what's going on on each planet is a little more complicated however, and I found finding say, the fleet-building structure every time I wanted to change the rally point to be needlessly time consuming. That said, im playing on a 32" tv that's approximately 5 feet away, so that might be I struggled to identify the structure or icon on the planet tree to the right. The same goes for identifying each unit when zoomed out, for some reason sins went for an icon representing the race, rather than each individual unit which I think was a bad move. You KNOW which troops are yours by the colour, the symbol isnt really adding anything to the gameplay, which it could imo. Otherwise, it was all trouble-free sailing for me. It was nice to have an "auto-place" structure option to save you the time of microing everything, though I did find some of the choices it made were a little dubious.
Sins has a long and slightly complicated research tree, but this mainly revolved around upgraded versions of the previous. Still, it certainly makes you choose your upgrades wisely, as it takes a long time to afford everything if you also want to field a fleet. There are a number of different trees, and a number of different branches within each tree, so it will take you a while to get your head around whats what, and because the upgrades work in a different manner than the hardcore statistics, it can be a little confusing to appreciate exactly how useful some of the technologies are. For instance, frigates have an average damage of 10, but when you upgrade the damage, it says "5% improvement" - it would have been better to say something like "+2 to damage" instead, but that could just be me. Otherwise, its all pretty obvious for anyone that's played any 4X game.
My favourite innovation of the game was the economy, because it included a quasi share market that ive never seen in a game before (outside the space trading shooters). Its much more simplistic that I would like, but there's still a small thrill of trying to ruin competing empire's economies by lowering or increasing the share price for the goods needed to build, research and expand. I've always enjoyed warring by proxy in 4X games so this feature was a welcome addition.
Sins is no doubt a good game, but it isnt too long before any seasoned gamer will come to realise its limitations. Like ive already said, you cant blend strategy genres and do both equal justice. The planet upgrades are a pretty standard fair and nothing particularly "cool" about them, at no stage do I feel as though any of my planets possess any "character" or individuality from any other. With only 8 upgrade types per planet, it's all a bit "meh" for me. That said, if too much were added it would probably bog down the RTS element, so you can certainly appreciate why stardock chose to go in this direction. Its simplicity though might feel a bit generic for those that really love the 4X experience.
Piracy is the other problem, at least when facing the AI. There really isnt a penalty for bidding everything you have so the pirates attack another empire. Because the pirates are so strong in number, you really don't lose anything by spending all you've got in bounties on other empires. Money is fairly easy to come by after 30 minutes so its just too easy to war by proxy, and the gain is just too high imo. That said, the option of sending pirates against the enemy is very cool, its just a little overpowered at the moment.
For me though, it's the RTS element that really lets the game down. Its just, well, a little boring. Maybe ive been spoiled with the frantic stress and constant warfare of forged alliance, but the actual fighting in sins is incredibly simplistic. There doesn't seem to be any better tactic than getting all of your units to gang up on a single enemy unit, and then the next and so on. Since the speeds of most units are relatively comparable, there's little to be gained from moving fleets around, as before too long the enemy will have been able to catch you anyway. The insta-hit mechanic is also back with a vengeance, which can make for laughable pyro technics with weapons fire coming out of units at silly angles. Sure, some units, especially the capital ships have special abilities, but it really just feels like warcraft in space, except worse because the UI (for some ridiculously INSANE reason) doesn't bring up your selected troops when you select more than one vessel. This forces you to click each and every capital ship in order to use their special abilities, if you don't have them on "insta-cast". Shameful ommision here imo. Makes fighting a battle even less fun.
The pyrotechnics of space battle is decent, but considering there's no real map background, I thought more effort and CPU power could've been put into the sounds and effects. Its kinda like watching a babylon 5 episode, just less cool. Every single unit feels too small, and you really have to zoom in to get a feel for whats going on, because the lasers are non-existant when zoomed out. The quasi 3d camera does work very very well, but again, because this game really only works in 2D, it feels a lot less cool than homeworld.
I've definitely been spoiled with forged alliance's animations such as turret-tracking, and units with movable parts, so the bland unit designs and FX was a disappointment. There are NO firing FX whatsoever, beyond a flash and laser etc being shot out from the unit. Given the lack of map background beyond the planet, it's a shame more time wasn't taken with some funky ship animations. I really feel this ruins the immersion of the game. That said, it certainly has much lower spec requirement.
Sound is pretty ordinary, and the voice overs for all races is ABYSMAL. If you like cheesy **** then you might like it, but hearing some adolescent male's constant commentary gets old after 5 seconds. You can turn them off, but then you don't receive the various warnings that are necessary to have if you wanna keep track of everything. Some of the unit sound effects are cool, but generally they fall into the "meh" category. Considering supreme commander came out a year ago, its hard not to be disappointed with a new game that pales into comparison.
Still though, it's a fun game to play! The "build your own map" option, common in 4X but unseen in RTS titles works like a charm, and definitely adds to the longevity of the title. Its pure child's play to make a small or massive map in less than a few minutes, then jump in and play. Of course, after a while it does seem to become "been there done that" but I enjoy a game I can play when im really stoned or drunk and just take my time, whereas online forged alliance is the most hectic game ive ever played.
I wanted to love sins, but I merely like it. Bravo to stardock for creating the first successful game of its type (I thought empire at war was abysmal) and its genuinely fun to play. Unfortunately I cant see it appealing to any of the hardcore 4X or RTS gamers for very long, because ultimately the strategy and tactical nature of the game feels a bit shallow when compared to either genre.