Thursday, February 14, 2008

Sins of a Solar Empire review

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you combined RTS, 4x, and Supreme-Commander style scalability into one game?

Yea, neither have I. Not because the idea isn't interesting, but because it is kind of unfathomable. Like the old Battlezone games that combined fast-paced tank combat with RTS gameplay, Sins of a Solar Empire answers a question that isn't often asked; at least not seriously. While RTS games are often about fast-based tactical combat, 4x strategy games tend to be slower, more deliberate, and focused on the big picture. Splicing the two together seems like splicing a rabbit and a turtle. You don't expect much to result but a mildly amusing, and mostly grotesque, freak.

Ah, but have no fear - Sins of a Solar Empire is far from an abomination against nature. Strange? Yes, perhaps. Its doubtful you've ever played anything quite like this before, and so the learning curve can be on the steep side. The extremely basic and short tutorials don't help the matter. And perhaps even more alarming to the new player is the lack of any sort of campaign mode. In strategy games, campaigns tend to serve as a means of easing players into the gameplay. Missions typically start easy and slowly become harder, giving players access to new units and strategies as they become more familiar with the game.

Not in Sins. Sins throws you out there, sink or swim.

But the game is not entirely unforgiving. The interface is wonderfully easy to understand since the friday patch put in 'weak/strong against' and 'Requires Research of X' descriptions on units and structures. Your resources are listed clearly on at the top of the screen, and putting your mouse over them will bring up a tool-tip breaking down where your income is coming from. Queing ins unlimited and easy - just shift-click. There is also a side-bar available that is categorized by planet, and allows you to quickly view, in icon form, all the structures and ships around the world. It can become a little unwieldy once your empire becomes massive, but in most sitautions it adds an extra level of control - selecting unit in battle in the heat of battle, for example, is much easier.

The game's most impressive feature, however, is the highly scalable engine, which allows players to zoom in on a single squad of fights, or zoom out to view several stars and their surrounding planets. This, along with a relatively slow pace, is what allows the game to effectively combine the macro 4x game and the micro RTS game. One second you can be viewing the star system, planning your next colony - the next you can be commanding individual ships in real-time combat. Its hard to fully appreciate this feature until you actually see it in action, but if you've played Supreme Commander, then you have an idea of what you're in for.

The game's 4x elements are fairly in-depth, and focused primarily on the question of how to allocate relatively limited resources - not the credits, metal, and crystal you use to build ships and structures, but the limited space that is available around planets. Each planet you colonize has 'logistics' and 'tatical' slots, that allow for the placement of improvements and defenses respectively. Deciding what to build where is one of the primary social decisions you'll make. Developments of the planets themselves is less involved, as the improvements are fairly basic, and most of them either effect what you can build in or the survivability of your planet. You'll also have to decide where to place your fleets, because the lanes along which your ships can travel from planet to planet are limited, and even frigates can take five minutes to get from one side of a small 6-planet empire to another.

The research tree is the most impressive 4x feature. Ironclad did not slack here, and provides comprehensive research options that are easily superior to what can be found in the fantastic 4x game Galactic Civilizations II. Each of the games three sides has their own tree tech tree which, while sometimes similar, are also sometimes very different - for example, while everyone receives the same basic structures and similar units, different upgrades can be researched, and these differences are often important. The Advent, who have cultural bonuses, can research and acquire cultural structures easily, and have can research cultural bonuses that allow their culture to spread more quickly and give ships within their cultural influence a slight bonus in damage mitigation. The TEC, on the other hand, can quickly and easily acquire trade structures. These differences have a substantial impact on
both short and long-term strategies.

Once in combat, you'll find that the spice of the game's pew-pew is mostly in the mixture of your fleet in Capital ships, massive, expensive vessel that gain exp and effectively operate like the 'hero' units that have been in many RTS games. Although every side in the game has the same fundamental units, the devil is in the details; the Capital ships for each side have different abilities, and the the more common vessels have their own variations in cost, strength, and shielding vs. hull strength. The reviews comparing combat to Homeworld are full of shit. Those expecting tactical combat based off considerations like turret location and weapons layout will be disappointed - all you need to know about the 'tactics' of combat in Sins is that while it has a Z axis, it isn't mapped for use by default.

Which doesn't mean that any idiot can win a fight. Units have different ranges, armors, weapons, and special abilities. The Capital ship abilities are very powerful, and proper use can mean the difference between defeat and victory. But players who were planning to put their bombers into a claw formation and swoop down on enemy capital ships, a 'la the Homeworld series, will be disappointed.

Also disappointed will be players looking for a quick fix. The pace of Sins of a Solar Empire is ponderous at best. This game lumbers towards its conclusion like a giant - colonization, combat, and research all take much, much longer than in a RTS game, though perhaps not as long as a turn-based 4x game. I don't mind this at all, jumping into Sin after playing Dawn of War would be like jumping into a cold pool after bathing in a hot tub. The pace is perhaps to ponderous at time, as there are occasions in the early game when you more or less have to wait for resources to come in before you can proceed.

But for those who find Company of Heroes, Dawn of War, and similar RTS games to quick for their tastes, Sins of a Solar Empire is sure to hit a sweet spot. It is the kind of game that will make you sit down and think long and hard about your next action, because very movement is critical on a strategic scale. Sins is also sure to be a hit for people who have typically played 4x games, but have become feed up with the combat system such games employee, which tend to be extremely simplified.

RATING: 4 1/2 Stars

The Good:
Epic gameplay
Top-notch interface
Combination of 4x and RTS genres
Great 'Starcraft-style' tactical combat

The Bad:
Pace can be to slow
Steep learning curve

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