Sins of a Solar Empire is a Real Time 4X. You start the game with a single world and a small stipend of credits, metal and crystal. It's up to you to lead your empire into the future. Will you make friends with your neighbors? Bribe pirates to attack them? That's the game of space thrones. The controls are well laid out and the learning curve is smooth. You will quickly understand the basics of the game. It has three factions: Tec, Advent and Vasari. Each has it's own tech trees, ships and lore. The AI is great for playing solo and there is an active online multi-player if you're interested in playing against humans. The game was/is developed by Ironclad Games and published by Stardock Entertainment. These are solid companies that have showed great love to this title over the years releasing updates and new dlc. After you've played the base game for a while you can turn to the talented modding scene showcased on ModDB.com. There you will find a long list of mods that extend and reinterpret the base game. Some of my favorite mods are Sacrifice of Angels (Star Trek), E4X (extends and re-imagines the base game), Interregnum (Star Wars), Crazy (extends and re-imagines the base game) and Stars (extends and re-imagines the base game). (There are many more to be sure, this is a short list.) When I say the mods extend and re-imagine the base game I'm not really doing them justice. The mods above are so extensive it's like playing completely different games. The work of these fans/modders is nothing short of amazing. It took years to produce these mods and the love instilled shines. The modding community surrounding Sins of a Solar Empire is top shelf. What a blessing. I've been playing Sins of a Solar Empire since it's release in 2008. There is nothing else like it. :)
