Last week Sins of A Solar Empire hit store shelves, and I hailed the release as a possible successor to the great space RTS games of the past. Well, the reviews are in. Let’s see what the reviewers thought about IronClad Games’ ambitious title.

It seems my hope of a new king of space RTS games was well founded. MetaCritic has SoaSE ranked at a solid 88 out of 100. Unfortunately, only four sites have bothered to review the game so far, not because the game lacks merit, more likely its that this sub-genre is almost always on the bottom of reviewers “to do list.” Apparently, they were all busy reviewing the craptacular Turok. (71 on Metacritic and 34 reviews)

Every review applauds the tremendous depth and scope. They literally bury the game in praise for combining 4x strategy (explore, expand, exploit, exterminate) with the immediate, moment to moment decision making of standard RTS titles. Game Almighty, Games Radar and GameSpy all gave the game 90 out of 100.

I think Games Radar said it best:

“With most RTS games shifting towards fast action at the expense of real strategy, it would be an unforgivable sin for a strategy fan to pass by this game on the shelf and not pick it up.”

Of course, the game does have a few negatives, depending on your point of view. GamesDaily gave the lowest score so far, 80 out of 100, and cited the slow pace of your ships as they move from planet to planet and decried the lack of any espionage-esque tactics. The lack of a story driven campaign was another negative among reviewers. Some gamers on the reviewing sites respective forums who are used to minimum strategy, maximum eye candy titles like C&C criticize the lack of cut scenes and other cinematics.

Find out what I thought of SoaSE, after more than a week of nonstop gaming on the next page.

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