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August 04, 2007
Sins of a solar empire=awesome
Galactic Civilization 2 has managed to keep me up past my bedtime for more than a year. When Stardock works with another company to bring out a new game, I figure that must be worth my time. Sins of a Solar Empire it's still in BETA-- the game has a disclaimer explaining how it may not be fun yet. They're wrong: the game is a blast!
Starting from the beginning: the game is billed as a 4X, with RTS elements. It's actually the other way around. The game is simply too fast-paced to be thought of as a 4X, though it does have much of the depth we associate with the genera...
The game's controls and style took me about an hour to get comfortable with-- at this point the game literally demands the scroll wheel which I don't have. Nonetheless, even with that limitation, I'm having a lot of fun...
Just as an example of the thought that has gone into the game-- the game has the standard 3 RTS resources: "credits", which come from taxes, "crystals", which come from asteroids, and "metal", which comes from, um, other asteroids. I was noticing that I consistently had little to no crystals. I was literally on the verge of hacking the game files to increase the rate of crystal harvesting. That's when I remembered that the game has a "black market"; players can trade all 3 resources for each other. Best of all: price fluctuates with supply and demand. I'm hooked...
The next time the game has an open beta, plunk down your cash and sign up. You may regret the time spent not getting to know your significant other and children, but you'll barely remember who they are...
Posted by Andrew at August 4, 2007 09:50 PM