Sins of a Solar Empire II

Sins of a Solar Empire 1 was launched back in 2008. It was faithfully supported by Ironclad Games for 16 years, which is more than most developers can claim. This sequel, SoaSE II was released in 2024. This game is essentially the same (but better) as the original. I am not complaining, because it would be stupid to change what is definitely one of the best games of its genre (looking at you, civ vii devs). Ironclad has updated the graphics and the game engine. The engine definitely needed an update, as the aging SoaSE notoriously couldn't utilize more than a few GB or RAM for example. There are a few new interesting mechanics such as exotic materials and planet orbits. I feel these updates are interesting and have a positive effect on the gameplay. I tried disabling the orbits once, but soon went back to the default settings. The game is definitely fun to play. I would say anything Sins of a Solar Empire 1 did, the sequel can do better. The only complaint I have is the lack of polish such as recycling of some assets. Also not a fan of the new UI Icons, although the UI itself has received new and useful additions such as the planet and capital ship overviews. Can't wait for Star Wars / Star Trek mods.

前排提示，该游戏没有战役，所以单位熟悉全是再遭遇战熟悉，游戏分为三个核心派系，每个拥有两个子派系，每个核心派系拥有独立的五艘主力舰，而各个子派系则额外拥有自己专属的无畏舰（限制3艘）和泰坦，以及一部分专属加成和科技树甚至魔法树。 主力舰，无畏舰和泰坦类似于moba或者魔兽里面的英雄，满级10级，可以靠科技给它装装备，被摧毁则永久死亡，但一般来说前期不至于容易被摧毁，如果你的主力舰都能被摧毁了，那要么你已经适应了对应难度，要么建议先降低难度。 如果前期不知道怎么上手推荐再创意工坊找SzepysChokepoint这张图，找个ai跟你一起2v2或者1v1熟悉一下单位，玩腻了防守反击想要正面硬刚最高级AI可以去b站找重水反应堆，这个UP的视频简短精炼，而且答疑也很靠谱可以照抄快速上手。

So much potential wasted. AI is completely useless. Enemy empires essentially fight themselves till they are all dead while sending the odd fleet towards the player. AI barely builds defenses in their own systems including home system, most of their systems dont even have resources being used. Sad. This is playing on random maps. Havent done a scenario, not really interested in those. Allegedly the devs are aware of the AI issues. No idea how this game has been out this long with these issues and has mostly positive reviews?

别惦记你那内置mod了，完全不好用，赶紧开放steam社区mod把

Do not get this game. Devs have no idea how to balance combat due to adding the stupid ability for the enemy to regenerate and disregard ALL damage your fleet does to a building or ship. You can have a huge fleet attacking an enemy building or ship and you'll watch as that thing your fleet shoots at is able to just tank all the hits from your fleet of a hundred ships because the brilliant devs decided to add a god awful overpowered mechanic that allows buildings and ships to regenerate any and all health lost so god dang fast that no matter what you do, your fleet can't kill the enemy ships or buildings, but for some reason they have no problem killing yours and your fleet gets wiped out. It's just god awful game design. Devs, this is so completely and utterly stupid. Regeneration perks need to go. My entire fleet should be able to destroy practically any enemy ship or building with one giant shared salvo of weapons and it dies. I shouldn't have to shoot at one object for twenty minutes, and it dies just for my entire fleet to be wiped a minute later because my fleet doesn't get the same benefits as the enemy and the enemy whittles down my fleet of hundreds while I walk away with only destroying one building or ship. Again, it's bad game design and regeneration needs to go. Look at my playtime. Just over 4 hours. All this is just ONE GAME. I have thrown COUNTLESS attacks at the enemy, but they decimate my fleet every. single. time. I literally cannot do anything. They won't attack. They just sit there guarding a single chokepoint so I have to attack and I lose due to their overpowered healing powers. I AM ON EASY MODE BY THE WAY. This game sucks. Avoid like the plague. I am going back to the first one. Far superior gameplay, and better mods.

I think the game is good and I want to recommend it. In fact I do recommend it for casual players. The gameplay is relatively simple and there isn't much reason or motivation for me to continue to play it. Except for the achievements. And this is where we run into problems, the game is 2 years old and the achievements are broken. I have fulfilled the criteria for the rarest achievement two times without obtaining it. For completionists and achievement-hunters, this is just not acceptable. And that's why I can't recommend it.

I'll have to hesitantly say that I cannot quite recommend this game. While the game itself is OKAY and rather fun, many of the finer details really bog it down. Firstly.. AI art. The description says it uses their art as a base an AI to enhance it so I figured it would be fine. God no. The art is horrendous and it shows in every corner of the game. I wish they would have just done it themselves or gone with none of the AI art. Secondly, the balancing is questionable. TEC can absolutely DECIMATE quite literally anything, I had multiple support ships providing shield to my titan, with an armada of drone carriers and capital ships behind, invading a small mining outpost. A single outpost and TEC dreadnought destroyed it all. Meanwhile, the Vasari start with enough resources to make multiple capital ships. Dubious choices. 50 dollars!? And not to mention the fact there are more DLC you need to get if you want the full experience for some factions. eugh. However, getting it on sale for 24.99 is more reasonable, but still not worth your money.

If you're looking for a blast from the past, I'd honestly recommend just playing the original game. More than 15 years ago, Sins of a Solar Empire was an excellent game, and I spent plenty of time with it. I was pleasantly surprised to see it finally receive a sequel. But after this much time, a sequel should be more than a near-copy of the original with a handful of additions. Most obviously, many of the ship designs look almost unchanged, and even the unit voices are extremely familiar. More importantly, much of the underlying game design feels just as old. The tech trees are unintuitive, and many of the problems I remember from the original are still baked into the sequel. Capital ships tear through masses of smaller ships, while Titans backed by capital fleets can seemingly roll around flattening everything in their path. Weapon distinctions such as lasers versus guns rarely feel meaningful during actual play. If there are important faction-specific advantages, counters, or opportunities for min-maxing around these traits, the game does a poor job of explaining them. I am confused how a simplistic design can still seem so contrived. For $50, this simply isn't enough. There are plenty of space strategy games that have found ways to modernize the genre through better interfaces, clearer mechanics, stronger faction identities, or genuinely new ideas. After more than 15 years, there is little excuse for retaining so many dated UI and design conventions while doing so little to make the underlying systems clearer or more intuitive. And there is still barely any story. After all this time, even a proper campaign or stronger narrative focus could have helped give the sequel an identity beyond simply being Sins of a Solar Empire again.