Sins any good?

I've wondered when I'll finally tire of it, but I bought the game in March and it's been my #1 game ever since, even muscling aside Unreal Tournament ('99) and UT 2004.

AI? Based on 4X games that I've played, I think the AI is above average but not amazing. The "Unfair" level AI does cheat. However, you don't need to worry about being restricted to only playing against AI because this game is also great for online multiplayer against real human opponents! Online multiplayer is the only way I play it.

It's a great pile of fun, even in single player--you and nine AIs on a random huge map with either no teams or teams unlocked is a gaming experience quite unlike any other. On the other hand, you're really not very likely to find a ten-player free for all online.

Speaking of which, I need to find time for a few remember-how-to-play games and get a few online matches in sometime.

i purchased in may i think. basically play it every night and i have only scratched the surface of the available maps. i havent ventured into mp yet and dont intend to. i would say after about 2 months i have only played about a third of the single player game.

Started beta testing in September, and I'm still here

1) The coming 1.1 patch sounds like it'll make some interesting changes which'll bring me back for a while but as it stands now, I played for about a month after release and followed with about 3 days after each patch to see what changed.

There are several areas where I personally am disappointed but it was well worth the $40 I spent on it and if you're interested in getting involved with the online multiplayer community, you could probably get a lot more out of it.

2) The AI will probably seem like a cheap bastard when you're very new and still figuring things out. Once you know what you're doing, it's generally a cowardly dolt on any setting and you'll have to stack the deck against yourself (ex: setting 3 AI opponents on a team against you) to get any kind of challenge out of it. Like any RTS, it also tends to be fairly predictable, it doesn't balance its fleet very well at all, and it doesn't change tactics to respond to what you're throwing at it.

Supposedly, some good changes are being made on this front with the next patch though so we shall see.

Why not give online multiplayer a try sometime? If you've been playing every night for two months then you should be pretty competitive with the other people who are coming online for the first time (folks with 0-0 records) and there are a lot of them. It's also a chance to chat with other Sins players and perhaps make some new online friends. Heck, join the ICO multiplayer lobby if only to chat with others about the game and to say hello to fellow Sinners.

I agree; the AI is a cheap bastard, sending out microfleets of a couple siege frigates to bomb your planets, which makes you have to send a couple frigates after them. It's mostly harmless but it can get annoying sometimes. Can't say it's awful strategy though; it does distract me and slow me down a bit. Online folks also make guerrilla attacks with "micro fleets".



Increasing the level of challenge is what the online multiplayer aspect of the game is all about.

well I mainly play with friends outside the normal community directly. For a good coop vs the ai this game is a barrel of fun. Really for me the fun has only just began as my friends finally buy the thing. Now that they have it, its not un-common for myself and 2 or 3 others to VS the AI.
I'm not as interested in MP online atm, more want something to relax for a few hours with while skyping calling with friends that are local to me.

The game has some repeditiveness about it, but then again you can be fairly creative too with your tactics. I for one have only just started playing enough to appreciate the strategies you can pull with a well put together fleet.

The game would have been even better with real Z axis and no phase lanes.
Some things I would like are the ability to get my fleet to target certain ship classes as a priority. ATM their is some micro involved to make sure you are hitting the ships stopping you from hurting anything else in the enemy fleet. I think it would be good if the AI had the ability to decide this with a little random goodness.
Would also like the empire facet to be a lot more complicated, more like a traditional 4x game. However the interface and techs are elegant and practical so I will not complain.

All in all, in my top four games atm with Armed Assault, COH and sturmovik.

Cannot wait for the expansion will def be getting that!

Thank you all for your responses! I played some more of the demo version over the weekend, less than I thought I would, but still. Although I am less fond of it than I thought and hoped I would be, I'll probably buy it. I guess that things will be better with more variety in races and more maps to choose from.

I wondered about one thing though: I'm a little afraid of ending up in clickfests and moving the game screen around constantly. Do you micromanage your battles - or is there enough that you can set up and define before combat? How do you keep your reinforcements up? While fighting far away from home I found myself moving back to my factories to set up the next production items, this was little tedious despite 'zoom to cursor' and rally points - is there a quicker way to do it (shortkeys, autoproduction, whatever)? I didn't really understand how to choose which systems appear in the Empire Tree and which don't.

The empire tree has several settings that you can configure in the interface options. What I do is disable auto-pinning of everything except capitals. Then, when you have important planets (shipyards, superweapons, etc), you can manually pin them to the tree by using '~'. I keep all of these condensed, since I don't need to see everything in their grav well. Then, if I need ships I just click on the planet in the tree and build ships from the planet menu, since you never have to select the actual factory.

This way, I never have to pause/leave combat to start building something. And if you sent the planet's waypoint to the fleet leader, ships will just keep on going there!

the game ownz, i dont get bored... only after 8 hours of constant playing i feel the urge to get a drink.... to bad...

so far i play my games online, with friends in particular.... i rarely plat vs AI's

however i can tell you that
1 alot of new stuff has been added since the demo
2 AI's have been improved
3 unfair AI implemented (the only ai that cheats a little)
4 other then a small amount of players being online, the game = awesome



all this = ofcourse.. MY opinion..

Thanks, sounds like I'll have to use the Empire Tree better then.

Anyway, my last TG tokens are likely to be spend on Sins.

1. I feel good about it. It's open for expansion which could bring in all sorts of possibilities. I'm awaiting the v1.1 patch. I've owned it for 2.5 months, and still going...

2. It *can* be challenging.

Hope this helps...!    

I'd just like to add that of all the games I've played, I've never seen better support from the developers and publishers.

Just to keep you informed, I bought the game in the meantime.

Yay!

It's cute but I won't call it good.
Bored me pretty damn fast.

Problem is, like most galciv, its an animated spreadsheet, not a game.

It lacks the flair of genius that games like starcraft has. or master of orion 2 has.

All races have the same tired old units which serve the same tired-ass functions (sure, one is a bit better than the other, but they're all the same, serving the same function), the huge majority of science upgrades give you commulative +% to this and that rather than really open up new tactical options..