Recently I picked up the Sins of a Solar Empire Game. Besides the Title, which I took as a play on BSG’s ” Saga of a Star World“, I thought the gameplay looked interesting, if Generic. Kind of Like “Homeworld” meets “Any Generic 90’s syndicated sci-fi.” I’ve been eyeing it at the local Wal-Mart for a while, and figured Father’s Day was as good a time as any to pick it up and install it.

I wasn’t sure it would run: The “Recommended” requirements were a little over what my computer has. the “needed” a little less.  But it was worth a chance. At Least until the opening Video:

Never Judge Book:

Oh God. How bad is that? 10,000 years ago, 1,000 years ago, 10 years ago… WHat a mish mash of generic cliches, badly animated paintings, and amateurish  writing. The “Advent?” the “Trader Emergency Coalition?” No Seriously, you guys need to hire a writer.

Start the Game up and it doesn’t get much better. There’s not much variety to the different factions abilities: Each ship looks different, but plays the same. The same old Tech trees and resource mining that we’ve seen before.  Diplomacy? Forget about it. The Ambassadors from the other factions just randomly ask for bribes and missions. There’s no real single player campaign, just some scenarios to get your feet wet. Think of it as an open-ended sandbox type game. What to Try it? Here’s the Demo.

But something funny happens when you start playing the game. It’s incedibly fun.

Suddenly, at Three AM…

First, the game runs extremely well even on older computers.Scrolling from a galactic view to an individual ship is fast and easy, and fun. there’s a good selection of planets, stars and background effects. Each game looks unique. And the animations for the battleships and buildings are pretty neat.

The game is complex, without being complicated, and Science fiction writers should appreciate that. There are three basic Resources: Cash, Cheap Metal and Scarce Crystals.Upgrade planets, buildings, tech and ships with these. One interesting wrinkle is with Capital Ships: You have to upgrade you’re command structure to train more crews, making them twice as expensive.

And as you play, certain plot points come together. This isn’t a Sim game where there’s just too many variables to keep track of, where the relationships between them aren’t well known. In Sins of a Solar Empire , the relationships are right out there in the open, but that doesn’t make the choice any easier.

Take planets, for example.There are Four main types of planets: Terran, Ice, Volcanic and Dessert. Each can support so much population( Cash) and have different asteroids (Metal or crystal). But each also has a random gravity well around it. These gravity wells are where you park your fleets buildings. each becomes a battlefield, taking time and antimatter to attack and defend. Each planet also has just a couple “Phase Lanes” that allow jumps to the next planet. Tese have to be defended and become choke points.

So you send a few scouts out. Here’s an undefended Volcanic planet with lots of metal. Here’s a Terran Planet that can support a larger population and has mixed asteroids to mine. Do you develop the vulcan planet, and defend the vast resources for little profit? Or the Teran? What if the Vulcan has 4 phase lanes? Can you still defend it? Where do those phase lanes reach? And do you have enough influence to keep farther planets from revolting and joining the enemy?

Suddenly, It’s three AM, And the game that seemed so iffy just a few short hours ago has begun consuming you.

But Wait there’s More!

Did I mention the lack of a proper Single player Campaign?

No Matter. There’s an active online fan base- and the battles get huge fast.

And Mods. You know you were waiting for the mods. The background, the story that the developers came up with is just too lame to rest. There’s an active Mod Community…Star Wars. Babylon. StarGate. There’s even an Alternate WWII one and of course..

Sins of Alethia- Sins Battlestar Mod

So, Have we covered it all? Plays well, nice graphics, complexity, Online battles and Mods…I Think That’s it. Give it a shot