Sins of a Solar Empire

by artie

Went to the store the other day and picked up this game: Now $30 dollars IGN named this game their PC game of the year , so I figured I'd try it out. So after five hours , I just finished my first game. Yeah... It's a very niche RTS, I can see why a lot of people would like it, but good god there is a ton of information to take in through the tutorials. There's a lot of detail and specifics wit...

Went to the store the other day and picked up this game:

Now $30 dollars

IGN named this game their PC game of the year, so I figured I'd try it out. So after five hours, I just finished my first game. Yeah...

It's a very niche RTS, I can see why a lot of people would like it, but good god there is a ton of information to take in through the tutorials. There's a lot of detail and specifics with how the economy works, and in terms of defeating your opponents, it's different than other RTS. It's not like Civilization where you can beat the entire game without fighting a single nation, but it's not basic "make a bunch of dudes, and attack." It's similar to Spore's space stage (Sins came out first, but I figured a lot more people have played Spore) where there are multiple planets in the universe, and you control a planet's economy. You can upgrade the planet's economy allowing to mine more metal, crystals, and gain more credits. Than you use these credits, metal, and crystal to make ships through the various depots you may have within your planet's orbital zones.

Ok, you know what: THE GAME IS FUCKING COMPLEX. There's a synopsis of the gameplay. I did horridly the first and only game I've done so far, cause for the first 20 minutes I didn't know how to expand my ability to make more ships, so I fell behind pretty quickly. I have to say, unlike other RTS games, there is no "rush" worrying. So lucky you, you get to find out you suck at the game, 2 and a half hours into it. But at least you don't die in the first 10 minutes every game.

I'm going to give it a few more plays, there's no single player campaign or anything, so it's just basic skirmishes. Seems like it could be a lot of fun if you get into it. However if you've ever felt overwhelmed or perplexed by any RTS, do not play this game, ever. It's one of the more hardcore titles out there. Not so much about remembering hotkeys and quick actions, but there's a ton of management to worry about.

The interesting part about this game, and the reason it's been getting so much support is the fact that it doesn't have any DRM. Not only that, but the game retailed, first day, for $30 dollars. So it's a cheap buy, and it won't screw up with your computer. There are pirated versions of this game out there, but they're rarely seeded. You might say "Well I've never heard of this game, I doubt anyone else has," which may be true, but it seems like a very obvious "honor among thieves" type of deal. Prince of Persia is going to the PC without any DRM, because they believe it'll be pirated more so, and they're just releasing it like that to prove a point. I'll have to see how that turns out. But the piracy argument is dumb anyway. Like developers believe DRM stops anyone.

The most pirated game ever was Spore, with over 2 million illegal downloads. Yet it has more DRM protection than any other game in the world. I think Shawn Elliot said it best "Businesses and companies have to worry about budgets and sales, whereas pirates and hackers have unlimited funds, and time to spend hacking whatever protection service they waste money creating." It's a pointless battle to fight.

Anyway, this turned a little longer than I was expecting. Has anyone picked up Sins? We should play sometime, hopefully you suck, so we can cripple fight each other to death.