Sins of a Solar Empire PC

Sins Of A Solar Empire is a space real-time strategy game for PC. Similarly to Homeworld, it is fully three-dimensional. It is the debut project of Ironclad Games, a studio founded by the industry veterans that come from Barking-Dog (Homeworld: Cataclysm, Treasure Planet: Battle at Procyon) and Rockstar vancouver. The main inspiration of the developers was an old board game called Buck Rogers – Battle for the 25th Century in which we see a dynamic solar system, have space fleets, heroes gifted with special powers, and an ability to conquer planets. Other sources included movies that are popular lately, such as Babylon 5 and Star Wars, as well as ideas and solutions from the abovementioned games.

Plot

The plot tells of the war between the Trader Emergency Coalition and its two aggressive opponents known as the Advent and the Empire of Vasari. The players can side with either nation and then defeat the enemy. The available faction are radically different — they use various technologies, ships, structures, and weapons. Their mythologies and histories as well as warfare strategies are also unalike. Initially, the Coalition possesses slightly outdated weapons since war is not the essence of its existence. The Advent, in turn, are characterized by extensive psionic abilities, while the Empire of Vasari ave super advanced nanotechnologies and are able to manipulate the space. The goals of the above factions are also different: the TEC simply want to defend its territory, the Advent want revenge and access to raw materials, while the Vasari seek a place to rebuild their species.

Mechanics

Regardless of the chosen side, Sins Of A Solar Empire offers an epic epopee in which the players get to explore vast chunks of the space, fight fierce battles, and conquer numerous planets. However, combat is not the only feature of the title. We can also establish diplomatic relations with the inhabitants of various worlds, build colonies of planets’ surfaces and send satellites to their orbits, and extract raw materials. Generally, all known economic and diplomatic strategies can be used — we may form and dissolve alliances (including secret ones), blockade hostile planets, set trade routes, conclude trading agreements, manipulate the market, and so on. The players can also make use of the technological development system and numerous unit enhancements.

Technical aspects

The game is powered by a special in-house technology called Iron Engine which was designed to handle presenting the space voids. It uses the latest visual technologies, including the capabilities of DirectX 9.0c, Bumpmapping, Shader Model 2.0, Multisampling, etc. Moreover, apart from the single player mode, Sins Of A Solar Empire for PC offers the possibility of playing multiplayer matches for up to 10 players simultaneously. The developers also included a map and a scenario editor.

Last updated on 09 July 2008