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Sins of a Solar Empire is a title that was so under-marketed that it was released with no interest or hype. It is a title which will make you feel fuzzy inside knowing that there are still smaller developer studios that are making great games. We’re not talking casual flash games or cheap puzzle games but fully fledged titles with hours of gameplay within them. Sins of a Solar Empire (which we’ll shorten to Sins) is a title that gives any big-budget game an intense run for its money and puts the big studios to shame. Ironclad games have not only released the title but supported it from day one, bringing regular content updates, patches and tweaks as well as keeping the gaming public informed in how their time is being spent. It makes the gamer feel wanted, cared for and valued and it’s definitely a dying breed in the industry. Sins has been out for a month now (and only available via digital download for UK gamers) so most of you will know it’s good and it won’t be a surprise to you that we to believe it’s worthy of a high score, but why exactly is that the case?

Sins of a Solar Empire is Civilization, Total War and Homeworld all rolled into one easy to use, yet deep package. It’s both 2D and 3D at the same time and manages to present a scale which is minute and humongous at the same time. It does all these things without crashing, glitching or stuttering and lavishes a competent graphical engine on the player which is teeming with the expected bells and whistles. You can chose to control the TEC, a futuristic look into the human race, whose strengths include their economic strength and diverse fleet. The Advent are your religious separatist with a wacky idea of who God is, and subsequently what their existence is about. They bring powerful psi-combat abilities to the field, ranging from better shield mitigation to kinetic pushing of fighters. Their focus is culture and they have expensive, specialist ships. Finally there is the Vasari, an alien race whose empire has slowly crumbled. Keen on research and loaded with strong craft they’re a force to be reckoned with. Each race has its pro’s and con’s and outdoes their opponents in the expected paper-scissor-rock affair. Each race has two tech trees, one focused on infrastructure / culture and the other on military might. Within each there are three categories ranging from new ships, better resource extraction or stronger weapon systems. The research trees are easy to use, simple to understand and all-round a pleasant experience.

To research technology, construct ships and develop your planets you’ll need to harvest resources. Sins keeps it simple with three basic forms of currency. Credits are harvested by taxes and trading, Metal is extracted from asteroid fields and Crystal is treated to the same form with refinery helping your rate of income. You can trade on the black market to generate funds but it realistically fluctuates with effect to your actions and your enemies. Prices will crash or shoot through the roof if you sell or buy too much.

Like most games you start with a single planet, your homeland and it’s up for you to traverse the gravity making allies, destroying enemies and bringing your solar system to its knees. You improve your planets with logistic and tactical upgrades (which in turn allow more buildings), planetary defences (which increase the hit-points of a planet) and finally an option to explore the planet to discover a bonus boost in economic form or hopefully a special artefact. Buildings and defences are place manually or automatically within a planet’s gravity well, and you’ll fleet can move anywhere within it. If you wish to visit another planet then you get to the edge of the well, phase jump and arrive at the neighbouring planet’s gravity well. Planets are either volcanic, ice or terran and each yield different resources. As you colonise planets, your empire will expand, your economy improve and your fleet increase in strength.

A strong fleet is a must. The AI is tough, even on normal and it’ll hammer away at your planets if you leave them unguarded. It knows tactics and it employs them to devastating effect. If it’s outnumbered it will retreat, if it’s overpowering you it’ll let you know. There’s a democracy system where doing missions (giving resources or destroying units) will grant favour and possibly a trade / military alliance but it’s probably Sins’s weakest point. Ships are separated into three classes. Frigates are cheap, yet effective in numbers. Cruisers have better abilities and are all round stronger but cost more and Capital ships are the behemoths of space which level up, pack a serious punch with customizable abilities and bomb planets to shreds. They lead fleets into battle and are vital to your victory. There are five units in each category and you’ll need to maximise the abilities of each if you wish to be successful.

The spacecraft look the part as well. You can rotate the camera, zoom right in from an overview of the system to a close up of an individual ship. Mid-zoom, ships are represented by icons but you can enable cinematic mode and watch battles unfold ala Star Wars. Planets teem with craft and when bombed emit explosions accordingly. Little details like the dark side of planets (depending on how their facing the star), contrast with the apparent scale. An average game takes a good 5 hours and that was with just 20 planets. We tried a 2000 system but lack the time to actually attempt it.

From its tactical scope to its tiniest detail, Sins of a Solar Empire does everything right. You can play over LAN, take it online or simply play the single player campaigns. In any form is fantastic and it’s a very good effort. It deserves all the praise that it receives and it’s one of the best titles of 2008. It snuck under the radar but we’re extremely glad we picked it up before it could slip by.

Score: 9/10

Now is the perfect time to buy Sins of a Solar Empire. No longer do you need to trust in the digital delivery method as you can now pick it up in shops via a retail copy. Not only do you get a disk (for a decent price of £29.99), but you also get some exclusive goodies and content. There’s a tech tree poster, a detailed manual and in-game there’s six exclusive maps. They range in size, from the enclosed ‘Face Off’ to the self explanatory ‘Backstab’ & ‘Double Cross.’ We've also got a demo available to try out.

(Sins of a Solar Empire is out on PC)

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