The sleeper hit Sins of a Solar Empire is a breath of fresh air for the strategy community. It is a revolutionary 4X strategy game that is paced enough for turn-based strategy gamers, and yet fast enough for RTS'ers like myself. It refines the ideas already present in the genre, and introduces several of its own that work quite well. Unfortunately, there seems to be (to me) a couple glaring issues that detract from the over all experience. Understand that, although I may be concentrating on the bad aspects of this game, I think this game is amazing and still play it more than I probably should. But, seeing as there are already two or three positive reviews of this title, I think that a more critical eye is needed. Anyway, my two gripes

Sound

    The music in this game is great, and initially, the voice acting is good as well. However, after hearing the Advent girl chastise me for the thirtieth time for failing her mission with the same saying everytime, I tend to grow weary. This is the same for all three factions. Specific ship responses seem to be only limited to three, and that grows tiring when you have a capital ship as head of a fleet. Each time you click on that fleet, you will invariably be inundated with the same responses throughout a battle. Now, my introductions to the Strategy Genre were Red Alert, Starcraft, and Alpha Centauri. Since then, I have owned and played just about every C&C title that has been published, and have grown spoiled by the variety of unit respones and confirmations. Usually, especially in the more recent titles, each unit has 10 to 15 responses. Starcraft was the same, and even included (as everybody knows) funny responses for incessant clicking. Sins has nothing of the sort.

Story

     From reading the website, and from the opening video, I was expecting a story line that was deep and had plenty of back story. Unfortunately, The website has more literary content on one page than the game does as a whole. Admittedly, the backstory is great. And maybe that's why it stings more. I was expecting to find out what is killing the Vasari, or where the Advent's homeworld was and if they ever found it. Instead, I was greeted with a splash screen (albiet a very nice one) that essentially said "Yay. You won." Again, maybe I've been spoiled by story heavy RTS's like Starcraft, C&C, and maybe even Ground Control. (Yes, I liked that game.) Maybe I'm just inexperienced with 4x games, but I do like some semblence of a story. Even Alpha Centauri (A 4x game) had a semi-present narration (although mostly text) that kept the player informed and involved. I also bring up Alpha Centauri to refer to its backstory and bits of information. For every achievement, diplomatic accomplishment, and technology discovered, the player was rewared either with an informative text box or even a voice clip. In Sins of a Solar Empire, one sentence is given to each technology.

    Perhaps Ironclad intends to conclude (or write) the story in an expansion. I don't know, nor can I begin to speculate. But seeing the game as it is, the lack of a story decreases the playability of the game for me. Without a story, I find that there isn't much compelling me, other than the gameplay. The sound issue is more of an annoyance, especially for my roommates. They tend to get annoyed by hearing the same soundbyte forty five times in a three hour session. As I stated above, I think this is a great game. But it leaves me a little sad, because I'm given a tidbit of the story, and left wanting the meal.