With Sins of a Solar Empire 2, the rating system reaches its limits. Because Early Access is little more than a demo – at a price of 32 euros.
When testing Sins of a Solar Empire 2 I learned three things that I had initially imagined differently:
- Sins of a Solar Empire is more real-time strategy and only marginally 4X à la Stellaris.
- The brand isn’t quite as niche as I thought. According to Steamspy, the standalone DLC prequel Rebellion has sold between two and five million copies after all!
- The span of the definition “Early Access” is stretched badly with Sins 2. Because Sins of a Solar Empire 2 is currently in a “Technical Alpha”, which was not clear to me before. At the very bottom of the shop page () this is mentioned in a graphic (and in the FAQ section). But such a central piece of information really needs to be at the top.
Because currently, when you buy Sins of a Solar Empire 2 from the Epic Games Store, you actually get it in an extremely early stage of development. The space title is currently not much more than a 32 Euro demo, with only one single player map, one faction (TEC, Loyalists) and not even the hint of a tutorial.
Whether I had fun anyway, you can read in the test, for which I even had to do without the preliminary rating box this time.
No tutorial, but still comprehensible
When I started the game for the first time, I got nervous right away. I haven’t played the predecessor and imagined that Sins of a Solar Empire 2 would be quite complex and tricky. This was probably due to the name and the catchword “4X”, i.e. global strategy. In my mind, that implied convoluted menus, endless options and crude systems.
And since there is currently neither a tutorial nor any help, I was all alone in front of this overwhelming mountain of information. Fortunately, the mountain turned out to be more of a gentle hill in my first game. For Sins of a Solar Empire 2 is more of a real-time strategy game with 4X elements.
You start with several AI factions on a galaxy map where you can colonise planets and asteroids to capture gold and mine two different resources. In addition, there are a few special exotic minerals for the construction of the powerful flagships.
The colonisation of the rather small galaxy (about 40-50 stars) goes quite quickly and is only the basis for the real-time war that soon unfolds. So don’t imagine a leisurely spreading out and exploring of space like in Stellaris. Here, everything revolves around building fleets and their tactical deployment in the battle for supremacy. The goal is to eliminate the capitals of the other players (controlled only by the computer in the alpha).
Many ships, many battles
The complexity arises mainly in the fleet composition and its movement, while at the same time you try to further expand the economic base with the colonisation of conquered systems. You research new technologies to polish your empire economically or militarily and are allowed to customise the large, extremely powerful flagships via a module system. However, these titans cost rare, exotic minerals and should therefore be used with care.
An expandable fleet limit restricts the number of ships in your ranks. However, the number of spaceships that can clash in Sins 2 is quite substantial and probably one of the main reasons why fans of the series became mouth watering when the second instalment was announced.
It’s all about a new engine
Because Sins of a Solar Empire 2 doesn’t do much different from its predecessor. The main reason for the new development is apparently just the desire for a better engine, which is also suggested by the reaction of many fans who don’t want the gameplay to change much at all. Sins of a Solar Empire also lives from a strong mod scene. With the new technical framework, a much more powerful tool is to be made available to the mod scene, which in particular enables beautiful graphics with large fleet units.
There are a few new features, though. In the second part, the previously static celestial bodies now move: planets orbit around the sun, moons around the planets and asteroids whirl through. This constantly changes the hyperspace connections, which thus become longer and shorter. New routes can also emerge that did not exist a short time before.
This adds tactical depth, but also a dash of chaos. Whether the fans will approve remains to be seen, it rather annoyed me a bit. But maybe that’s a matter of getting used to it. It’s a cool idea anyway, also because a system secured with defence platforms can suddenly lose its importance or the cannons no longer block the onward flight to the core worlds because of a different angle of entry from the neighbouring system.
The interface still needs a lot of love
All in all, the basic gameplay remains relatively simple: expand your empire, expand the planets and asteroids and then produce fleets or defensive structures. The subtleties are, as in any real-time strategy game, quite intricate. But the basics should not overwhelm anyone.
Only the interface and the controls are still very crude. As an experienced player, I can assume that I speed up time by left-clicking on the clock and slow it down again by right-clicking. But it is not obvious. There is also no hotkey overview, because not even the options menu really exists. So far you can adjust the sound and turn full screen on or off. That’s it.
The gameplay is also limited to the features mentioned. Diplomacy, dealing with neutral factions and trade can only be guessed at so far and possible other content is missing altogether. And according to the developer, not even all ship models are final.
So at the moment, Sins of a Solar Empire 2 is really just a Technical Preview that shows that the engine can handle fluid, large-scale battles with dozens or hundreds of ships (and several ship classes per faction) as well as simulated projectiles. It also provides an impression of the core gameplay of the fast real-time games. This first impression is good, but there is still far too much missing to be able to say much more about it, which is why we are exceptionally dispensing with the preliminary rating box in this Early Access test.
By the way: Developer Ironclad Games has decided against a single-player campaign. However, there will of course be a multiplayer mode. According to the developers’ roadmap, this should come in the first quarter of next year and the entire Early Access phase should be completed in a year. Whether that will really be the case, I leave open to question.
Editorial conclusion
Oh dear, what am I going to do with you, you sinfully unfinished game? I’m not an opponent of Early Access in principle, even if I’d like to see more finished games on the table once in a while. Sins of a Solar Empire 2 overdoes it, though. It’s a demo, not a game that should be sold already.
Still, it already seems to strike a chord with many fans who just wanted the same thing in green, only with a better engine, and will probably get just that in a year or two. The performance and graphics are already convincing. And if that’s exactly what the developers want to deliver, hey, go for it. Why change what is good.
However, this mixture of 4X with a strong real-time strategy focus is not really my thing. I like either pure RTS games like Starcraft or Age of Empires or really extensive global strategy games where one game lasts many hours. But of course that’s a matter of taste.
Regardless of this, I cannot currently recommend Sins of a Solar Empire 2. It’s nice for fans to know what’s coming, but there’s really no reason to play it yourself now. On the contrary, you’ll probably just deprive yourself of the fun of enjoying the game once it’s finished. The only reason to buy it is the discount. The game is supposed to cost almost twice as much on release. So if you are already sure that you want to have this rather original successor and support the developer, you can get it now and then leave it in the library for now – in the Epic Store, mind you, because Sins of a Solar Empire 2 is available exclusively for the time being.
