Another interesting facet of the game that raises the bar on the level of complexity is that it’s not only necessary to have the resources needed to build a warship, but you must also have the crew available to man it. It’s a nice attempt at getting away from the “magic crew” system that is seen in so many space strategy games. Indeed, the whole game itself tries to present as authentic experience as possible by adding such common sci-fi lynchpins as not being able to jump to hyperspace in a gravity well. All planets have a blue ring around them that emanates from the center point and all jump capable ships must clear this barrier before jumping.

The graphics are good and can be zoomed down to quite a high degree of magnification before there simply isn’t anything to see. The detail too is quite impressive: you can watch the individual shells blasting from the barrels of your warship, observe as an increasing level of orbital traffic surrounds your planet as population expands and gaze at the slow rotation of the orb as it goes from the day side to the night side as the game goes on. The player can scroll back the mouse to focus on groups of unit or even worlds that you have colonized for quick access. The careful thought and planning put into the graphical engine is quite remarkable and well-planned.

The other half of this one-two punch, the audio, seems to be a smaller but still crucial part of the game. As you play you will receive vocal alerts telling you of events in the local system, construction of facilities, upgrading of research, and the like which is a good way of indicating what you need to focus on next. The unit responses aren’t bad in terms of their delivery ,but they seem to be rather odd: the voice of the scout ship sounds like Clint Eastwood and the light frigate voice sounds like a California surfer dude. Still it carries its weight in the game well and, however unusual, is much more of a help then a hindrance.

When all is said in done Sins of a Solar Empire is a very fine example of the strategy genre, but it should be said that the game’s emphasis on strategy for strategy’s sake may turn off even fans of these style of games who may prefer more direction. For diehard strategy fans, especially space strategy games, Sins of A Solar Empire will make a fine addition to their collections.