14 DAY TRIAL // Ironclad and Stardock seem to have finally declared the features included in their real-time strategy Sins of a Solar Empire complete. The game, initially released in 2008, has come a long way with Entrenchment and Diplomacy, becoming even more complex with the addition of more options for a sturdy defense and the introduction of somewhat more varied mechanics for dealing with the players you are competing with for valuable space-based estate and resources.
But don't expect to pull off anything like in Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword, where a power who has enough diplomatic skills can unite the others behind it and get to victory. The features that Diplomacy introduces seem most at home when other real players are introduced and when the possibilities of alliance and betrayal are enhanced by the very existence of humans.
It's also an interesting addition in the bigger games, those behemoths that can take days and days to complete. As some players are taken out and two or three move to a sort of stalemate that is not easily solved, the diplomatic options allow for a bit of cooperation, usually at the expense of the player who managed to get the most power amassed up to that point.
Other than the interaction added, Sins of a Solar Empire is the same tough-to-crack combination between space battles and empire management. The addition of the starbases in Entrenchment has made turtling much more feasible and it pays off to select a few high profit systems, ignore more barren areas and just hunker down and build up technologically as much as possible before striking at an overextended enemy.
The capital ships are just as beautiful, the tactical possibilities of the three races featured are more diverse than in the original release and while it might take returning players a few matches to get up to speed, Sins of a Solar Empire is still the best space-based real-time strategy since Homeworld.