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» MEDIA (4) Sins presents the player with a massive and gorgeous galaxy A "small" game spans an entire solar system The sense of scale is incredible

Note: This review is for the 0.90 beta version of the game.

Sins of a Solar Empire is a hard game to categorize. Stardock calls it the first real time, 4X (explore, expand, exploit, exterminate) strategy game. However, there aren't that many 4X games around these days as it is, so you could be forgiven if that definition doesn't help you picture how Solar Empire plays. The best analog I can think of would be the Total War games, if the turn based elements of those games played out in real time and on the same scale as the battles. However you want to define it, Sins of a Solar Empire leaves quite an impression.

The first thing you'll notice about the game is its sheer scale. Objects within the game range from 10 meter long fighters to stars thousands of kilometers in diameter, all sized proportionally to one another. You can zoom the camera to just about any scale you'd like, from that individual fighter to entire solar systems. The graphics engine shows off this scale to great effect, and there are a lot of visual touches, such as bump mapped asteroids, colored sky boxes, and traffic animated on planets' surfaces, that really give the game a nice level of graphical polish.

Sins of a Solar Empire plays out like a lot of turn based strategy games. You expand outwards from a starting point, research a technology tree, engage in diplomacy and warfare, build and upgrade structures, etc... Because of this, the game walks a fine line with the pacing, which is to say it progresses rather slowly for an RTS. But Starcraft this is not, and the slow pacing works in conjunction with the large scale of the game to its advantage. There's a lot to manage and you'll need all the extra time you can get. All of this makes for a rather unique strategy experience. It requires the broader, strategic thinking of a turn based game, but also requires you to react tactically to events taking place in real time.

To me, the combat is where the game bogs down. You can engage in battles between massive fleets. However, with such numbers comes a lot of micro management. And while screen shots of the battles look spectacular, they play out in a somewhat less cinematic fashion. Ships tend to approach each other, then square off like Redcoats and fire at each other until one is defeated.

Sins of a Solar Empire isn't a game for everyone, nor is it even a game for most RTS fans. The game takes a patience that gamers don't often have. However, for those who enjoy both the slow paced planning of turn based strategy and the tactical planning of real time strategy, Sins of a Solar Empire combines the two elements in something unlike any game that has come before it.