Stardock is back with another edition to the Sins franchise. Their new title, Sins of the Solar Empire: Rebellion is a standalone – glorified expansion to the Sins we all know and love. In brief, this addition reforms some of the minor issues as an improvement while adding sufficient new material to keep fans interested with plenty of new toys to play with.
The general concept of Rebellion is that each of the three factions also have a ‘rebellion’ faction. These rebel scum play quite similarly to their loyal or parent faction but with some major differences. As someone who likes spreading culture in strategy and RTS games, I tend to flock towards the Advent. The original Advent faction still focuses on culture while the rebels focus on more combat related tech. While I still prefer the original Advent, with the rebels I can still play the Advent I’m similar to but am able to be far more aggressive.
The more options and variety added to RTS games, the better. While people may argue that the three new factions in Rebellion aren’t really all that new – they are new enough to make you want draw up some new war strategies, tech order, or even expansion means. With all the tech and different ships you can build in Rebellion, there are near endless options on how you want to play your faction.
While the focus of Sins of the Solar Empire: Rebellion is on multiplayer aspects, you can play against vastly ranging AI opponents. I like pairing against AI to try ‘creative’ strategies against. Sadly there is no campaign setting even though I feel like the lore and story are screaming for it. This isn’t upsetting if you keep your mindset focused on what does matter – which is head to head competitors.
Besides the new factions, the big changes are new classes of ships. The ‘Corvettes’ are small fighters that cost near to nothing as far as resources go. Mix and match combinations of these light ships to give your fleets extra 'oomph' and use in dogfights. On the other side of the spectrum are the ‘Titan’ class ships. These are your big daddies with equally as large resource costs. These ships support your fleets and add some awesome fire power. For example, the Advent’s titan could permanently mind control enemy ships into joining your faction and could convert entire planets to your side with their ultimate ability; not too shabby.
For $40, this is an incredible pick up for any RTS, Sci-Fi, or fan of the previous Sins game. I’d say in every way, Rebellion is an improvement on its predecessor. If you start up a match vs. a human player make sure you have the timetime, as games can become lengthy. Due to all the variations in the game, Sins can be quite overwhelming for new players. My suggestion would be to load up an easy AI opponent and learn the basics before taking someone on. If you are willing to take the time to learn the game, the payoff is extremely worth it.
