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Lamada's Sins of a Solar Empire (PC)
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| [February 11, 2008 06:23:36 PM]
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Gameplay 2: After a nice break, I returned to galactic domination. By this point in the game, I have been able to nicely upgrade my fleet. I have moved up the very advanced tech-tree, which has me constantly looking at it to best decide how to upgrade my guys. The space battles have been fun, the ones that I have seen, and I have the graphics turned all the way up with little preceptable lag, which makes the experience all the more fun. One thing I have noticed in this game is the AI is not stupid. If it's outnumbered, expect it to leave a few ships to cover its rear while the rest of the fleet warps away. Even more scary, expect a failed offensive into enemy space to bring a counter-offensive with reserve forces. Yes, the computer keeps reserves, which is slightly more organized then I am right now. I had my huge fleet attack one of his home planets, and after a huge, glorious looking battle, most of my fleet was spacedust. I retreated what I could, and turtled up my forces waiting for reinforcements. At this point in the game, I hadn't been exposed to the counter-attack method. It was a great kick t the head when the game told me :"Enemy warp-space laugh detected. Fleet inbound." My jaw dropped when I saw the same fleet I had just been going toe to toe with, some of the ships still heavily damaged with repair ships in tow, now laughing missles waves and laser attacks against me. I knew I was doomed at that point, which left me with a great feeling. I was worried the game was too easy, considering I have had XP with this type of game, but nope. I just started my next game!
Design: This game is a revolutionary game. It is the first of its kind to mix 4x/RTS, and it does it so well. I am constantly drawn into the game deep research system, along with its addicting planet development system. The ships are all modeled nicely, cold be better, but I expect they will, as Stardock is a quality publisher that supports its games. I love how I can just zoom in and out effortlessly, and it makes it super easy to control my empire with this feature. Also, the left side of the screen is taken up by a drop down list containing my entire list of planets, plus any orbiting ships around them. This makes the game fun, and once you summit the steep learning curve, it allows you to have an enjoyably strategic experiences without having to worry about all the hyper clicking and hot-keying of you empire. The game, through its design, makes the player remember to build ships and work on your planets while your off fighting aliens, and makes it a fun expereice that I am throughly addicted too.
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| [February 10, 2008 09:31:02 PM]
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Summary: In Sins of a Solar Empire, the player takes control over the building of a Galactic Empire. Players build ships, colonize planets, and fight enemy fleets while researching a la 4x style/Civilization style, i.e. a tech tree that allows new units to be researched, along with upgrades for the weapons and armor of your existing units. The player can zoom all the way in to look at in depth view of the battles, which are rendered with good detail. You can see individual turrets shooting and fighter aircraft making strafing runs on much larger target. Even scale is done nicely, as when you continue to zoom out (eventually to encompass all of the planets you own) you units will switch to icon form to make viewing and selecting stuff much easier.
Gameplay: I have been waiting a really long time for a game like this. I love commanding fleets of huge battleships down to cruisers and destroyers battling it out in space. The game is a RTS/4X game. 4x means eXpand, eXplore, eXplot and ex terminate. Leading your chosen people through the tech tree, across solar systems, and into battle is a really cool feeling. I like being able to zoom all the way in to look at the cool little battles going on, but even better is the freedom that the UI offers. I can quickly move to different views, and finding ships is easy too with a in game ship search function. The management of the planets is easy too: if you toggle this option, the game will auto place space structures including orbital factories and defense platforms, keeping your job simple. The only reason I stopped playing was when the game crashed, which is annoying, but a testament to how addictive it is. Try it.
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Lamada's Sins of a Solar Empire (PC)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Sunday 10 February, 2008
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