Review: Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment

Posted Mar 11th 2009 4:00PM by Steven Wong
Filed under: Features, RTS, Strategy, Opinion

It's been over a year since Sins of a Solar Empire released and successfully combined the careful planning of a 4x (eXploare, eXpland, eXploit and eXterminate) empire building game with the fast paced real-time strategy action. Its developers, Ironclad and Stardock, have been working on a multitude of game enhancements since then and the product of all that hard work comes forth in Entrenchment, the first mini-expansion for Sins.

Gallery: Sins Of A Solar Empire: Entrenchment

Available exclusively through the Impulse digital download service, Entrenchment adds a whole new layer of gameplay on top of the already impressive game. While there are a few under-the-hood updates like improved graphics and AI, the most overt additions include an all-new defensive technology research tree and the ability to construct giant star bases to both enhance and defend a colony, which plays into the whole "Entrenchment" theme.

Part of the defensive set includes the ability to lay down mines at strategic points to destroy smaller ships and damage capital ships. Defensive technologies also come with a series of counters, like scout ships with the ability to de-cloak mines, so players can hide behind impenetrable walls. We weren't satisfied with the core game's defensive structures, so we were eager to try out the new technologies. Entrenchment more than makes up for the main game's shortcomings. A defensive tech path might not sound like much on paper, but it greatly impacts the game's dynamic and strategy. The ability to protect key points by slowing down an invasion fleet eases some of the pressure off players to build up military might as quickly as possible. Now players can take more time deciding on strengthening offensive technologies or working to protect a carefully planned empire. As a result, winning through culture as opposed to brute force becomes a stronger option.

Another game changing technology comes in the form of massive space stations that can be deployed at any system. These structures are expensive to upgrade, but they can be customized to suit a variety of tasks from enhancing trade to acting as giant defense platforms. Powerful starbase upgrades make up almost all of the Vasari's defensive technology. It takes a lot of firepower to take a starbase down, and they have an immense capacity for damage, but they aren't so powerful that they unbalance the game. The fact that every faction can construct one maintains the balance of power.

Although Entrenchment offers improvements that change how Sins is played, fundamental aspects remain pretty much unchanged. Amid the tweaks and features lies the same Sins of a Solar Empire players have come to know and enjoy. A new intro cinematic comes with the mini-expansion, but there's still no full campaign or ongoing narrative tying the conflicts together. The game is still comprised of skirmish matches and players choose between the same three factions, the TEC (Trade Emergency Coalition), the genetically modified Advent and the alien Vasari. Also, although the game includes a number of features to speed up different aspects such as resource gathering, ship movement and research, even playing on a small galaxy can consume a significant chunk of time in comparison to some more traditional real-time strategy games.

Entrenchment doesn't completely flip Sins around, but it adds a dimension that truly strengthens the game. The mini-expansion adjusts the things just enough to make veteran players rethink their strategies, which should offer enough variety to keep fans Sinning for a long while.

Check out the Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment downloads

Tags: featured, ironclad-games, review, sins-of-a-solar-empire, sins-of-a-solar-empire-entrenchment, stardock

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

I bought this game two weeks ago, and have not yet won a game. Its not that I don't get it, I frequently play RTS games and I'm rather good at them (I got 2nd my first time playing starcraft at a LAN party with a 20 minute tutorial) But it seems like with Sins your playing against god. Your about 30 minutes into a round, you've had a few scuffles with other factions, a few run ins with space pirates then at some point god hits the fail button. Pirates and enemy factions show up at the same time, most of the time with at least 3 capital ships. No matter how much of a bounty you have on the enemy faction, pirates appear more interested in hurting you, which is kind of annoying. Just wondering, is winning a game in this RTS possible, or is it some deep meaning with no real way of winning? saying that "when you try to build an empire, you always lose."Posted at 4:33PM on Mar 11th 2009 by Sam

Since I couldn't be arsed to spell check it the first time, let's try again.

I bought this game two weeks ago, and have not yet won a game. It's not that I don't get it, I frequently play RTS games and I'm rather good at them (I got 2nd my first time playing Starcraft at a LAN party with a 20 minute tutorial) But it seems like with Sins you're playing against God. You're about 30 minutes into a round, you've had a few scuffles with other factions, a few run ins with space pirates then at some point God hits the fail button. Pirates and enemy factions show up at the same time, most of the time with at least 3 capital ships. No matter how much of a bounty you have on the enemy faction, pirates appear more interested in hurting you, which is kind of annoying. Just wondering, is winning a game in this RTS possible, or is it some deep meaning with no real way of winning, saying that "when you try to build an empire, you always lose."Posted at 4:50PM on Mar 11th 2009 by Sam

Sounds like you've got the difficulty jacked up or something. For me, whenever I play a new RTS, I start out with a relatively low difficulty setting and turn it up as I'm more comfortable.

If I don't, I get frustrated by seemingly impossible scenarios (presented by a god-like CPU). Sins would make that doubly-so, as its gameplay time-scale is much larger than other RTS's. In other words, you invest more time than usual to find out you're about to get clobbered by an impossible force.

Lower the difficulty, and have fun. Posted at 4:54PM on Mar 11th 2009 by ummm

You might want to re-examine the bounty. Pirates attack based on a timer, and they go for whoever has the highest bounty which decreases after any ship or planet is destroyed. If the computer is jacking your bounty up at the last minute, it will look like the pirates are only picking on you for no reason.Posted at 6:04PM on Mar 11th 2009 by Ghede

Yes, you have to watch that timer like an Ebay Auction. Wait until the last possible second to increase it. :)
It took me a few tries to get a handle on this game. It is a little different than your typical RTS. Once you get a hang of its nuances, you'll be able to hold your own. Posted at 11:21AM on Mar 12th 2009 by Gomer