Hard learning curve augmented by lack of a single-player campaign or a good tutorial
Upon starting Sins of a Solar Empire, I immediately noticed the lack of a campaign or persistent game. The choice is to play in a random galaxy or with scenarios. Not having a campaign, I diligently ran through the 3 or 4 tutorials and start an easy mode 1 vs 1 game in a random galaxy fully expecting to lose.
And I did lose. So I turned off the pirates since they clobbered me. And I lost again. And then I lost two more times while really trying. I was not making much headway, so I went to the internet for tips and advice.
Armed with two good tips, I came back and won the next 4 out of 5 games. I had to turn the pirates back on because I basically bought them out and they attacked my computer opponent during the early game, slowing his growth and progression.
The other tip was also simple. If you build a capital ship factory, you get a free capital ship. Choosing a colonizing ship hastens the growth of your empire greatly.
For a time, I enjoyed learning the game system and elevated the difficulty for a greater challenge. I got a few more tips and got incrementally better.
Then I started to look at multi-player gaming. One guy suggested that once you are beating the AI at the hardest level, you are finally ready to take on human opponents. The translation: once you have found successful play/build formulas for each race on the hardest difficulty, you have a good enough understanding of the game to have a chance against human opponents.
Thanks, but no thanks. By now Sins of a Solar Empire was simply becoming a formulamatic process which I was tweaking for game to game. It was ceasing to be fun and feeling more like work.
I will also say that as I played, some flaws became more and more evident. Here is a small list of them....
I dislike Pirates. A lot. They are idiotic at all levels. Even the term "Pirates" does not fit them as they act more like mercenaries. I am not sure WHY Iron Forge thinks they need to have this in the game, but I regard it as a major design flaw.
I dislike knowing that I could win a game quickly, but instead taking my time so I can see some of the late game tech.
I dislike not having the luxury to watch the epic space battles because I need to be actively winning the war. Yeah, yeah, it has a recorder but this really annoys me.
I dislike the lack of a campaign. Everything is a trivial skirmish and there is no chance for the game to provide a couple of key tips that would enhance your later enjoyment of the game. And if the starting move for every player is to make a capital ship factory for a free capital ship, why not just give out a free capital ship so the opening turns can be slightly different?
I dislike the lack of an effective, informative tutorial. Of course, having a helpful campaign would negate the need for a tutorial.
I spent close to 30 hours with Sins and tried to like or love it, but I could not. The game got less and less attractive the more time that I spent with it.