Sins of a soalr empire

[acetoolguy]

anybody here play it and have any thoughts to share? I'm a big Civ fan but I'm not sure this will give me a civ in space fix.

[Arctic Blast]

anybody here play it and have any thoughts to share? I'm a big Civ fan but I'm not sure this will give me a civ in space fix.

Sins is a good game, but if you're looking for a space-based Civ type game you'd probably prefer Galactic Civilizations 2. You can get the Ultimate Edition of it (game with both expansions) retail for about $35-$40.

[Imgran]

Sins has a good, deep, strong interface with plenty of flexibility and a nice graphics system that allows you a lot of freedom with camera angles, etc., but that's the entire selling point of the game IMHO. The premise, units, buildings, etc. are pretty standard-issue and there is no campaign.

If you want a Civ in Space fix, play Master of Orion III. Now there's a game with a complicated, deep and rich economic, strategic and political structure. Not for the faint of heart though.

[AndrewOsborn]

It's a really good game. Got it at Target for $13, it won IGN's PC Game of the Year.

[Arctic Blast]

It's a really good game. Got it at Target for $13, it won IGN's PC Game of the Year.

I love Sins as well as Gal Civ 2...both terrific games.

Haven't snagged the Entrenchment min-expansion for Sins yet, but I've heard it's pretty good.

[Alloutwar]

If you want a Civ in Space fix, play Master of Orion III. Now there's a game with a complicated, deep and rich economic, strategic and political structure. Not for the faint of heart though.

I bought MOO3 eagerly, but couldn't for the life of me figure out how to play it. I think it's the OOTP of space sims.

It looked deep and inviolved, and honestly I just don't think I have the time to devote to that type of gaming anymore. I went back to MOO2 just to get something I could handle again.

[Alloutwar]

Still havent played MOO3. It's widely regarded as super terrible.

I did finally get into Galactic Civilizations. Whereas many pieces I loved from MOO2 are absent (ship commanders, space monsters, easy combat), GalCiv 2 does have its pros. TONS of research available, interesting races, minor events that give you a few ethical choices, custom ship design out the wazoo, and tons of little pieces adding up to a rich experience.

However, thus far I can't say it's as good as MOO2. In addition to the fleet commanders, relative abundance of planets, and easy navigation of MOO2, GalCiv just feels like it's pretending sometimes. You can add stuff onto a ship, but can't change the core hull much. You get three main weapon/armor classes, but instead of being interesting it just ends up being rock/paper/scissors where you can't possibly excel at all three - like a manufactured weakness. And technological victory is WAY, WAY to close to attainable for a high-research civ. I haven't even had a space battle - NO ONE has had a space battle - and I'm only 5 or so tech slots away from it.

[Alloutwar]

Overall, the potential is there for replay and interesting times, and you can customize a whole lot (and mod a ton more!), but the raw game doesn't even approach the golden wonder that was MOO2. I could have a MOO2 ship that could launch fighters, spin your ship around with galactic beams, beam over marines to take over your ship, hold 3 smaller ships in a tractor beam, and them blowup taking out a whole enemy fleet with it. In GalCiv I can't even build a ship with 3 different weapons systems. GalCiv is like a cookie, that looks like an Oreo, and you get all excited, but after chewing it for a while you find out its a Hydrox.

Also, the tech tree leads to all kinds of weapons being available. Instead of MOO2 - where, everytime you moved up in Laser technology, the Laser would simply get smaller/better/cheaper - in GalCiv 2 when you create a custom ship, you have 5 different Laser versions, all doing the same damage, but taking up less space/cost from 1 to 5. Why would I ever need one thru 4 when 5 is available? Just some design questions like that, which MOO2 accounted for brilliantly almost 15 years ago.

I do like that they give updates and have an active community. I just wish MOO3 had stayed where MOO2 was, instead of making it unplayable and forcing me into GalCiv land. 'm probably going to move on to Space Rangers 2 soon.