Altough the empire tree sounds like a powerfull control and building tool, the necessity of zooming shows pretty clear that the interface is flawed. You don't have to zoom with a minimap.
But one minus point is usually not enough to justify the qualitity of the whole game. Sins got a good review at gamespy and almighty, and therefore the game is probably not that bad. It also stands out from the typical RTS games because the gameplay is more directed on longer TBS style games instead of 30 min quick fights.

I didn't check back here and couldn't find out for sure from the SINS forums but yes indeed, you can do meaningful pausing (I bought the game due to reading about it, watching some footage, and the overall positive response). I think some other folks are like me and like meaningful pause functionality in RTS type games. It couldn't hurt for that to be more clear, even if the game is proving to be an initial hit.

The gameplay and interface are pretty slick to the point that I probably wouldn't pause as much once I get more familiar with the game, but it's definitely handy early on when you're learning.

Also nice to pause during those "oh crap" moments like when I thought my warfleet had easily sailing and was about to finish a planet off when a monstrous size enemy response fleet showed up...and at the same time pirates hit my main choke planet. Here I thought I had lots of ships. Doh. Seeing a capital ship explode is pretty spectacular (spectacularly sucky when it's YOUR cap).

I haven't had a chance to play it enough yet, but my initial impression is that it's a great game. Very slick interface, nice mesh of elements, tough strategic decision making, plenty of depth to research and growth, game elements very, very done well.

I take it you've never played EU, I really can't imagine anyone confusing it with a "spreadsheet" game. It IS slow enough to be turn based, but then that's exactly what I was hoping for from Sins: a sort of real-time GC2. No dice, clearly, this is a "thrown a bunch of units at another bunch of units" type RTS instead. Considering it was advertised as "real time 4X" I think it's a good thing to warn people that it owes a lot more to Homeworld and Warcraft than it does to any 4X or turn based game. I didn't know that and I certainly wish someone had told me.



People keep comparing this to Supreme Commander, a game whose demo I played and quickly dismissed as unplayable dreck. If that's actually an apt comparison (and it may be) no wonder I can't get into it. I'm not here to debate if the UI is better than that of another game with a horrible UI, I'm here to say that it's not entirely functional and that it makes playing the game awkward. The empire tree, again, is a lovely idea but does not indicate relative position of gravity wells. This is a problem, as the result is that in order to assess the large scale situation in ones empire one needs to zoom all the way out. On larger maps this is profoundly prohibitive. Since there's no gameplay reason to ever zoom back in more than to the bare minimum necessary to place structures in wells, it also has the effect of making the game graphics completely pointless. You clearly like the game, that's fine, but keep in mind that I own the thing when you try to say overtly untrue things like "the empire tree provides 100% access to everything at all times." You can't tell me you're actually memorizing the names of planets and where they are so you can use the empire tree to full effect. I've seriously started sketching little maps to try to keep a handle on things when I play, but having to work so hard to overcome such an overt deficiency in the interface invariably just turns me off the game and sends me to something better designed.



I agree. I'm not sure, though, that not having a good campaign was a great idea. It sounded good when I thought there was a lot more to the game, but some context might do these skirmishes good as it turns out. Still, it's not a significant flaw in the face of everything else.

Ironically enough, I'd have let the whole thing go and shut up about it by now but for the fact that there's no way for me to sell the game I wasted $50 on due to SD registration (which I've never had issue with before, since I've always enjoyed everything else I've bought through that system). Consequently I feel the need to warn others to at least wait for the demo and make sure they're getting the game they think they're getting. I certainly didn't, and I wish someone had warned me before I blew money on this.

I have played for quite a few hours now, and partly changed my mind. It's a neat game, and I've managed (through playing with options and whatnot) to resolve most of my earlier issues. I finally have a good feel for the rather unique interface, and it works reasonably well (though the lack of a minimap, or some means of determining WHERE things are, is still annoying). The main problems that remain all stem from one simple component of the design: the real time battles take place in the same timeline as the real time strategy. That is, while your ships are fighting, time is ticking by all across your empire. Got 3 battles going on? You can only watch and manage one of them. The AI's supposed to be pretty competent at handling fights for you, but I dislike being reliant on that. For that matter, the graphics are gorgeous and the battles are genuinely exciting, it kind of sucks that at best I can only watch one at a time and frequently I'm pulled away from that to handle managerial issues.

So for what it is, I'd say it's well done. It seems reasonably polished, the AI's not a dullard, the graphics and sounds are well done, and the large scale strategy has respectable depth. The capital ship level up system is neat and the battles are quite cool. The problem, at heart, is that the large scale strategy and the tactical battles conflict with, rather than complement, one another.

My final verdict is "wait for the demo." It's going to be a matter of personal taste whether you love or hate this thing, and you may have to play it for the better part of a couple of days to decide between the two. I did.

A BTW question on Sins

Do the space battles require a lot of frenetic clicking? If so I will probably not care for the game. The RTS part is okay but I prefer a game where you set up the right conditions (numbers, weapons, etc) and let the battle play out without having to compete with computer agility in movement, fire and aiming.