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Rating: 
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hmmmm....what can i say this game is a blast but their is no campain mode or anything of the sort, all you do is play a map by starting off with on of three different races homeworld and buil out through a solar system making allies and destroying any civilization that doesn't agree with you...but that's a load of fun though and i enjoy it emensly
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I'm sure this has been said a million times, but this game plays like a real-time version of Galactic Civilizations. The best part of this is that you get more interesting combat, but with alot of the empire building and improving of a 4x type game.
Some other notable high points of the game are:
-strategic zoom (similar to Supreme Commander). This lets you zoom out far enough to see all of the planets at once, or close enough to see individual fighters zipping around attacking an enemy ship.
-large scale battles. the supply limit can be set before the match, each side can have 1000's of ships. Unlike the large battles in Supreme Commander, these don't slow your computer to a crawl.
-works on older machines. I ran this on my 4 year old computer just fine. Not many newer games run well and look this good on old computers.
-solid online play. the online play works pretty well. The matches can get pretty long sometimes, so you can save multiplayer games and resume them later.
This game is a must have for any fan of the RTS or 4x genres. Just be warned, matches can take a long time, so this isn't one of those games where you can play a quick match in an hour.
Rating: 
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Sins of a solar empire is for dedicated RTS gamers and RTS gamers only.
The game has no campaign mode, so don't expect a good story, which would have made it so much better. The music goes from okay to okay, its mediocore. The game play is just ugly, I should'nt have to say anything you saw for yourself on the gameplay pics they show you. What killed it the most was the tutorial modes. you will spending a long time just to understand combat, space mining, and planet taxation which is MIND BOGOLLING BORING. Sins was not fun for me and should'nt be, it had the potential to be great; if not wonderful. Hopefully EA will buy this company and give it a much need face lift.
Rating: 
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As great as the reviews are of this game they miss one key element. It is not a FUN game. The ship movement is not just slow on the fastest setting it's depressingly slow. There is little to do while waiting for ships to move from point A to B. It was such a dissapointment after all the good press. I guess when you try to do too much you end up with too little.
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I must say, if Sins of a Solar Empire is typical of the products that Stardock is going to release, they just might be the next Blizzard Entertainment. Though most of the fundamentals in this game aren't exactly revolutionary, they are presented with an attention to detail and level of polish that make the game seem new and exciting. Sins is surprisingly easy to pick up and play, but is definitely a game that would take time to truly master.
The basic resource and base model is something that should be familiar to most RTS veterans- 3 resources (credits- from tax income, ore and crystals from harvesting) and facilities orbiting planets. There is a limit to how many can be built around a planet, and this varies depending on how well developed said planet is. You can also build defensive platforms and production facilities for your fleet. Research is also a pretty standard model, and is based on how many research labs you possess.
Where it starts getting interesting is the way you expand your empire, which you surely must in order to survive. Sins definitely favors aggressive players, as they will have more spaces for buildings and more credit/resource income as a result of higher population and more asteroids to harvest. At the start of a game, you usually have one home world connected to a few other systems. These may be colonizable, and may not- and in general, the better the planet the stronger the defense forces of the indigenous population. This means your pitiful starter fleet will likely not be able to conquer any prime worlds without taking losses, which can be bad if your opponents decide to attack you in the meantime. Additionally, some sorts of planets require research to colonize, and you need to colonize to build. This makes scouting of potential objectives and a general strategic plan essential.
To move between systems, you have to follow 'warp lines' connecting them. That is, you can't just go from your homeworld to any other system directly, but likely have to pass through several (and potentially hostile) worlds on the way. In order to make a jump, your ships have to travel to a fixed distance from a planet, power up their drives, and make the transit at high speed. This is a lengthy process, so you have to keep in mind that your forces might not get back in time if you need to mount a defense against a surprise attack. Thus you will always have a problem with balancing your defensive and offensive capabilities, and in safeguarding chokepoint planets that have warp lines to many systems. This is similar in concept to the map model in some other games, such as Conquest: Frontier Wars. It also allows battles to be taking place in multiple systems simultaneously, which can lead to some seriously frantic action.
There are three factions in the game- the TEC (essentially, humans), Advent (a bunch of weird female human psychics), and Vasari (the 'real' aliens). Though they have radically different looks and somewhat different weapons and technology, the corresponding ships of each empire are about equal in strength. Thus it's more an aesthetic choice and matter of personal preference. Ships are broken down into frigates and cruisers, and capital ships. The latter are your 'hero' units that gain experience and have powerful weapons and special abilities. Your first is free, and it's critical that you keep them alive and kicking. The other vessel types are the grunts of the fleet, and are substantially cheaper and more expendable. The vessel types, in all three classes, have a wide array of roles ranging from colonization to direct battle to fighter/bomber carrying mother ships. You can't afford to specialize in all technologies and upgrades, so it's best you figure out what you like to use and stick to that. There is no really clearcut paper-rock-scissors setup like in most RTS games, so as long as you invest in at least two roles (e.g. carriers and main battle units) you will likely be fine.
Research and expansion are critical if you plan to win against computer or human opponents, who will be your serious adversaries in any campaign. There's also pirates, who can be irritating, and local forces- but these are generally far less aggressive than other players. You can also help your empire along by trading goods on the black market and even by bribing pirates to attack your enemies. There's also a simple diplomacy interface where you can form alliances and break them at will (if you aren't a fan of backstabbing, you can also enforce permanent alliances before a game starts).
Admittedly, combat is a bit simplistic. You pretty much send ships at others, and even if you don't they auto-engage if in the same system. It's all done on a 2-D field even though the game is fully 3-D, so there's no 'depth' to the battlefield a la Homeworld. You can maneuver ships and order individual ones to retreat, and can manually manage special abilities, but it generally works to just leave them on automatic. However, the game graphics and interface are so attractive and slick that you tend to not notice. Effects and detail make it fun to watch even though you're not doing a whole lot, and the sound design is also excellent.
The game supports full online play, but also includes a pretty challenging AI for skirmish mode. I have found the 'easy' setting to be hilariously weak and the normal setting to probably be a bit too much of a step up, however. Additionally, computer opponents seem to do really weird things on occasion, such as building tons of siege frigates or forming a grand alliance to wipe you out (if there's more than one). Nothing that can't be patched, but still weird. Online is probably where you will have the most fun, since real people are generally a lot more inventive than the AI- and Sins gives you a lot of ways to use your cunning to give your opponents a hard time.
Despite its complexity the game is pretty easy to pick up and play as a novice. There is a very brief tutorial that teaches you the control and user interface basics, and then the best way to learn is to just start a game vs. one easy computer. After you beat them down (or not) you will likely know enough to play seriously.
The one big letdown in Sins is the lack of a single player campaign. It is such a glaring omission that it's hard to forgive, even with the superb gameplay and production values. This universe just begs to be explored in terms of a developed storyline, and the opening cinematic leaves you salivating over how much fun that would be... but there isn't one. Maybe in version 2.0? Please? I'd seriously beg for one if it helps.
The bottom line is that Sins of a Solar Empire is a finely polished, extremely fun strategy game. It is fast-paced, has great strategic depth, and looks amazing. If you've ever played and appreciated any RTS- not even necessarily ones set in space- you will most likely love this game.
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