Sins of a Solar Empire Demo

If there is one thing strategy games have in common, beside their core mechanics, of course, it is the way they play out until a certain point, which sort of makes them feel a bit like soulless copies of each other. Thus, despite the underlying story, they all bring a sense of Dune, Warcraft and Command & Conquer, since that's where most of the ideas came out of.

But, then there's Sins of Solar Empire, a game that takes the rule book and doodles new ideas into it, tears apart pages and even replaces them with new ones. This approach results in a very different, yet still familiar experience, one that mixes the classical RTS mechanics with some new-age features that do nothing but improve on what was already there, without damaging anything in the process.

As you have probably guessed from the title, the game takes place in space, which means that most of the action involves large spaceships and epic wars between huge empires scattered around entire galaxies. There are three races available for you to play as, each one of which has its own style, strengths and weaknesses that must be taken into consideration before you head into battle as one of them.

Although the game may be designed to look like it does not have an equal, you can still feel a recognizable vibe throughout the gameplay. Thus, the resource gathering aspect is still there, but instead of workers cutting trees, you have fully-mechanized asteroid mines in place, extracting crystals and metal from their core. Moreover, these are used to colonize and build structures on the planets you stumble upon in your journey, as well as to build more ships and strengthen your defense against possible enemies that lurk into the darkness of space.

If there is another aspect that leaves you in awe from the moment you first run the game, it is the visual presentation. Even if it doesn't use the most high-tech engine to render the environments, the pictured landscapes are incredibly well designed and very detailed, complete with gigantic and powerful stars, colorful nebulae, mesmerizing plasma storms and battle effects that cause intense bursts of adrenaline.

Since war sits at the core of Sins of a Solar Empire, fighting is what you will be finding yourself doing for most of the time. As such, vast armies of powerful ships confront across entire galaxies, which translates into a very enjoyable and addictive gameplay experience, that can keep you playing for hours at end.