Strategy games are one of the more intellectual pursuits in the gaming world; as the genre is usually dissociated with the aim and shoot gameplay of titles like Quake, Gears of War, and other FPS games, or the more childlike and innocent gameplay afforded to us by things like Super Mario Galaxy and the Sonic the Hedgehog line, which are there to show the gaming world that you can save the world without guns or grenades or even a sexy female sidekick. Yes, for the more highbrow of the gaming community, strategy games are definitely the place to go, and Sins of a Solar Empire is one of the most highbrow of the lot...so brainy it doesn’t need a plot.

Well, that’s not quite accurate...Sins of a Solar Empire does have a plot, but it seems to only exist in the nebulous zone of the intro and forms itself as such. A galactic empire is being attacked by forces far beyond their galaxy and, due to their fleets being so far away battling other aliens, there is no one left to defend the homeworld but...The People! This story, as recorded by the gravelly-voiced narrator, doesn’t seem to match what goes on in the game. Instead of making you proceed along a variety of missions that take you toward the end of the adventure, ala Homeworld, all the missions of the single-player campaign are immediately available for play right from the beginning, which leaves the game somewhat devoid of the sense of urgency created by the intro.

Despite this curious lack of synchronization, Sins of a Solar Empire takes the nature of the space strategy simulation to a whole new level by expanding the infrastructure of the game. It’s not just about blowing your enemies into stardust, although naturally that is a factor, but there also a geopolitical focus to the game. Each map you play contains a certain number of planets, one of which is the origin planet from whence you come, and as you go through the game you can spread your influence by sending out ships to colonize and settle other worlds or asteroidsm which can in turn bring in more population, minerals, and other such niceties. But, once again, your responsibilities do not end there as each planet can be upgraded in a variety of ways both externally and internally.

Internal upgrading of your newly settled world, for instance, would include building emergency services, which has the effect of better protecting your planet from orbital assault. An example of external improvement is to construct a broadcast station which can pipe various kinds of media and information from between planets. These towers will have a positive benefit when built around a planet friendly to you, but will foster aggressive feelings in a planet who is not yet fully allied with you. The fine line between propaganda and information is a very thin one indeed.

In any case, as all strategy gamers know, the thing that can make or break a game is how the units are managed, built, and controlled and luckily Sins of a Solar Empire makes all this much easier on the player. Pretty much everything that be can be built, armed, or researched can be automated. Civillization improvements, structure and warship construction, military and civic research, all can be left up either to the computer or to you. You can even check on the status of your groups of units or individual planets by scrolling back the mouse: friendly units will be blue, hostile will be red and each planet will have two curved brackets surrounding it that represent it’s military, economic, and social status. It’s a fortunate setup indeed, for there is a great deal to manage and the player would be easily overwhelmed without the comforting cocoon of automation that surrounds you.