Sins Game Review Thread

One thread to hold them all!

Published on February 3, 2008 By lordkosc In Sins of a Solar Empire

Ok , after the 20 or so preview threads that were all over the darn place, I am making a single location where we can post all the reviews of the game for easy reference.

So once you find a review, post it in the following format:

I hope this will be made sticky by someone from SD.

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PC GAMER

91%

Editor's Choice

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GameSpot

WWW Link

9/10

Editor's Choice

*******************************************************************************************

Games for Windows

A-

Editor's Choice

*******************************************************************************************

G4 X-Play

WWW Link

4/5

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IGN

WWW Link

8.9/10

Editors' Choice

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1up.com

WWW Link

8.5/10 Good

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Gamespy

WWW Link

4.5/5 GREAT!

Multiplayer Factor - Great!

*******************************************************************************************

Game Informer Magazine

WWW Link

9/10

*******************************************************************************************

Gamer 2.0

WWW Link

9/10

*******************************************************************************************

Game Shark

WWW Link

A- Great

*******************************************************************************************

Game Squad

WWW Link

9/10 GREAT!

*******************************************************************************************

Resonance Gaming

WWW Link

9/10 GREAT!

*******************************************************************************************

Game Tap

WWW Link

9/10 Get It!

*******************************************************************************************
Out of Eight

WWW Link

8/8 GREAT!

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Game Daily

WWW Link

8.0 GOOD

*******************************************************************************************

Shack News

WWW Link

Good:
# Patience-demanding strategy
# Endless possibility of scenarios
# Pew-pew lasers

Bad:
# No single-player campaign
# Steep learning curve

*******************************************************************************************

UGO

WWW Link

A

*******************************************************************************************

Game Almighty

WWW Link

9.0

*******************************************************************************************

GamesRadar

WWW Link

9/10

*******************************************************************************************

Gaming Steve

WWW Link

9/10

*******************************************************************************************

ArchGamer

WWW Link

8.5/10 Good

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Sarcastic Gamer

WWW Link

9/10 Great

*******************************************************************************************

Dual Analog

WWW Link

9/10 Great

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PALGN

WWW Link

9/10

*******************************************************************************************

Game Valor

WWW Link

9/10

*******************************************************************************************

SyndicateX Gaming Portal

WWW Link

9.3/10

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Cheat Code Central

WWW Link

4.8/5.0

*******************************************************************************************

ArsGeek

WWW Link

9.25/10

*******************************************************************************************

EuroGamer

WWW Link

9/10

*******************************************************************************************

Sci Fi

WWW Link

A+

*******************************************************************************************

Firing Squad

WWW Link

91%

Editor's Choice

*******************************************************************************************

Gaming Nexus

WWW Link

9.2/10

*******************************************************************************************

Computer Games

WWW Link

85/100

Silver Award

*******************************************************************************************

Gamepyre

WWW Link

95%

Gamers Choice Gold Award

*******************************************************************************************

TGR

WWW Link

8/10

Editor's Choice Award

*******************************************************************************************

StratergyCore

WWW Link

8/10

///// UPDATED LIST as of 7/14/08

Comments (Page 2)

MajorStoffer

on Feb 05, 2008

Hmm, so if its tuesday for the Americans, that means up here in snowy Canada I have at least half a week more to wait...
Well, hopefully some reviews will start popping up, at least I'll know what I'm getting into.

Hollow Man

on Feb 05, 2008

And here's the first:

GameDaily

URL: Linky!

Score: 8

-HM

Dontdrop

on Feb 05, 2008

Ok first review I've seen :

http://www.gamedaily.com/games/sins-of-a-solar-empire/pc/game-reviews/review/5553/1948/

8.0 - Good. Reading through the review now.

Edit: Oops, didn't see previous post.

Yarlen

on Feb 05, 2008

I have to say that the GameDaily review is riddled with inaccuracies.

Daedalus117

on Feb 05, 2008

They probably didn't play it that much before they reviewed it. That sort of thing happens a lot.

MEGADETH9mm

on Feb 05, 2008

everyone check out the user reviews at gamespot. that one guy that calls it boring, changed his intro and made his review longer to try and sound more sincere after he was called a troll in the forum. his original review was a sentence long and it said "simply put, this game is boring".

go back to halo, troll.

this is one of the greatest RTS games ever.

MEGADETH9mm

on Feb 05, 2008

I have to say that the GameDaily review is riddled with inaccuracies.

i put a vote as NO on that review. to call this game "good" is absurd.

Tychandrus

on Feb 06, 2008

Eight? That's all this game is getting? At most an 8.7?

Sins of a Solar Empire is game of the year material! Granted, I say this only two months into the new year, but I still believe that Sins should be granted some sort of award. Ironclad has created a masterpiece which will be enjoyed for many months and hopefully years to come.

I miss the days when the gaming industry was about innovation and not recreation. Thank you, Ironclad, and Stardock, for contributing to the former and not the latter.

heflys

on Feb 06, 2008

I have to say that the GameDaily review is riddled with inaccuracies.

What was wrong (so I can be sure to note it for future reviews)?

MEGADETH9mm

on Feb 06, 2008

agreed. watching "space week tuesday" on HISTHD and SCIHD while playing this game.....PRICELESS.

Ronald Wanders

on Feb 06, 2008

GameSpy
GameSpy "Out of the Box" Preliminary Review

There's a bit of a learning curve but Ironclad's brilliant new "4XRTS" lets players sin as much as they want and still go to strategy game Heaven.

Just noticed this one on GameSpy, certainly a positive start.

Hollow Man

on Feb 06, 2008

A score of 8 is pretty good. As a number of recent articles have said, most game reviews are over-inflated anyway. 8 tends to mean a very good game that's worth one's time, especially if one is a fan of the genre. I think that's appropriate.

Here's my first impressions as a person who a) likes the idea of strategy games but can't play them very well, and

thinks we need more companies who care like Stardock does:

Sins of a Solar Empire is quite daunting. I sort of expected this, owning GalCiv and GalCiv2 (plus all expansions), but it was still crazy-tough. I think a campaign would've helped. The great thing about a campaign in games such as Starcraft and Dawn of War is that they introduce you to the bits and pieces little-by-little. Sins sort of does this with the tutorial, but it isn't as much fun as if I had a full on actual goal to complete. And yes, I understand why Sins doesn't have one (because they wanted to focus on having good, and a lot, of skirmish maps). But I can't help but think this is a mistake. RTS games seem to benefit from campaigns.

I found the interface a bit iffy. It seems that that the scrolling and moving the camera around was very touchy, even if I turned things like zoom sensitivity down. I'll have to muck more with it to see if I can find a sweet spot. Control is key - if I don't feel like I can focus in and control my troops efficiently, then I'm going to be frustrated.

I did have to hack the settings file to get my desired resolution (1280x960). In game it only gave me the option of 1280x1024 (absolutely no other options).

Thank The Maker there's multiplayer and it's co-op. I will say to the end of time how much of a mistake it is that GalCiv2 isn't. I know Brad's reasons why it's not, but I like to play games with friends, so I love co-op multiplayer.

I have to play a lot more, but I expect that I will agree with an 8 score. This looks like it's a game made for hardcore strategy types. If one isn't, then it's going to be tough to get into the game and overlook some of the issues it has (like Stardock's other games, it's just missing that extra bit of polish that a AAA publisher can afford to spend time on). It will be hard to get non-strategy gamers to like this game. All of this won't, and shouldn't, matter to the faithful.

But I applaud Ironclad for a) making a game that seems to successfully blend the sophistication of a TBS game with the faster pace of an RTS game and 2) having the guts to choose a publisher that cares for its customers. I hope both see lots of success from this title.

-HM

MEGADETH9mm

on Feb 06, 2008

I have to say that the GameDaily review is riddled with inaccuracies.

What was wrong (so I can be sure to note it for future reviews)?

Good review, I just disagree with the "score" is all. Also, when you say things like: "A game on a small galaxy with only two players can potentially go on for hours."

It can be misleading for people who havent bought the game. Instead of Galaxy, it's better to just say map. Galaxy makes me think of billions of stars, ala: Galaxy. Thus, people may think that a map is a rotating Galaxy like Mass Effect or Empire At War.

A lot of people have been using the terms Universe and Galaxy when referring to the maps in this game, when the maps are exponentially smaller than those two terms. Story-wise, yes, it follows a power struggle within a Galaxy.

Great review. But I'm one that thinks this game deserves a 9.0 or higher. And I am extremely harsh on games. This is a rare occasion where we have the privilege to own a product with such polish, it makes you appreciate being a gamer once again. It also makes me feel as though the developers actually "care" about thier customers, in a time when that Hack company EA is ruining the business. These are some of the reasons I would have given it a 9.5, but that's just me.

IMO, COD4 and Sins are officially the best products to be released as of late.

Ronald Wanders

on Feb 06, 2008

When you say things like: "A game on a small galaxy with only two players can potentially go on for hours."

It can be misleading for people who havent bought the game. Instead of Galaxy, it's better to just say map. Galaxy makes me think of billions of stars, ala: Galaxy. Thus, people may think that a map is a rotating Galaxy like Mass Effect or Empire At War.

A lot of people have been using the terms Universe and Galaxy when referring to the maps in this game, when the maps are exponentially smaller than those two terms. Story-wise, yes, it follows a power struggle within a Galaxy.

I'm guessing solar system or star cluster is a better term, since you usually only deal with a handful of star systems at most. It can support much larger numbers, but most games played won't use those numbers. Its the number of planets and colonizable asteroids that determine the size really not the number of stars present.

Yarlen

on Feb 06, 2008

What was wrong (so I can be sure to note it for future reviews)?

1) They complain that the game is too slow with ship speeds. If you setup your game with a Fast setting, ship speeds are greatly increased so long as they're not in combat.

2) They complained that Long Range Jump doesn't improve phase jump speed. It's not supposed to. All it allows you to do is jump between stars on multi-star maps.

3) They complained that fleets can avoid planetary defense turrets and jump to planets deeper in your empire. That's intentional because in the beta players were forced to jump right on top of defenses and were slaughtered. It wasn't fun. Phase Jump Inhibitors are designed to slow the advance of enemy fleets.

4) They complained there's no sabotage or espionage. That's not true. Scouts are good tools for espionage, and each race has its own special techs to assist with this. As for sabotage, backstabbing an ally using the pirates is an example. Plus the TEC has a Foreign Sabotage tech as part of their advanced culture effects, plus their later Insurgeance ability.

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