yeah my buddies and i did a 5 v 5 vs top end computer players.... and me and another friend went drone carrier builds lol just thousands of fighters and massive fights and no one got any performance issues.. it ran smooth like butter.
This is the understatement of the year. This game loads, opens, closes instantly, 10 players with supply maxed out with no slowdown, 5 fleets in one star system with no lag. They did an amazing job on this engine.
I love the fact that the devs didn't try to reinvent the wheel or make massive, unnecessary changes for the sake of "innovation." They understood that they had a near-perfect RTS with Sins Rebellion, and only needed to make some minor improvements to the actual gameplay. As they say, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Putting so much effort into making a buttery smooth engine to rectify the first game's biggest issue is the best thing they could have done. They put in the work where it was actually needed, and it shows.
could not physically disagree more with this conservative mindset. its just nostalgia bait, whats the point of a sequal if all it does is polish stuff? thats called a remake in my books. there's areas to improve the experience, but we'd rather not try cause we need to shovel feed the masses their nostalgia bait. and then gamers cry about fifa 3000 releasing next year
@@georgiarushanov2210i mean they have added improvements. They rebuilt the engine to help more optomized and allow modders an easier time, they added orbit mechanics, a ton Of QoL improvements, its not just a reskin. Plus they plan on adding future content.
The biggest problem with the first game was that it couldn't use multiple cores and it lagged in the later stages. If that is fixed, then we're talking about one of the best space rts games.
That was the biggest gripe, it would literally become unplayable. I'm happy sins (haha since) I'm a sins OG player plus the expansions. I would buy the base game and hopefully they'll give us the option to pick up the premium pack later.
One thing to note is that Sins 1 has a very big mod scene, with loads of extra content and complete overhauls for every major scifi universe you can think of. I expect a lot of those modders to jump over to 2, but for now Sins 1 arguably has quite a bit more content than 2.
This is true, and will be for a year or so, I suspect. The bigger names in modding may wait to join the party until Sins 2 is more complete/has at least some of its dlc released. However, I still recommend playing Sins 2 anyway, simply for the taste of what its mods might manage to materialize as.
Sins 2 already has built in mod support, with promises to release modkits soon. I think they know how beloved some of those mods are in their community and have every intention of making it as easy as possible to rebuild that base. At the very least, what they've already done is a good sign.
The more people I see complaining that the devs didn't change/add enough stuff, the more thankful I am that they stuck to the original so closely. It's what the Sins community wanted and they listened to us.
Wish they added new races and maybe some story aspects to the game. Subs reminds me of the sand box style of total war games which is what I like. I just wish there was a story given to your expansion and empire building.
Those original intro cinematics with the weary old war veteren monologues are forever burned into my mind, and have been since I first launched sins at 11 years old. I’ve been wishing for a campaign and to find out who the Vasari are running from since the beginning and I can’t believe I’m finally getting to see both of those things once those DLCs are released. Never been more hyped for a game in my life, the premium edition was an easy choice for me.
@@tlpineapple1 dont remember asking you for your opinion, carry on pre ordering and dont be surprised games get released in shitter and shitter state because people are dumb af, unlike you i prefer to enjoy the game not long after its release instead of 3 years later once they end up resolving couple major bugs and sort out optimisation
@@charlesolarte7104 For now, the story is the same, and I personally expect it to stay the same. However, if you look on the Sins II website, one of the expansions listed in the store is called "Times Of War Campaign Expansion". So, we may later be getting a campaign or campaign-esque system that goes a bit more in depth with the story.
@@charlesolarte7104story is in the premium bundle, hopefully it’ll be dropped later. Premium is discounted but still pricey, has decent amount of stuff tho.
@@charlesolarte7104 The base game as is has new lore additions. Later on, the game is getting a full single player campaign DLC. Lastly, they are also adding the mysterious enemy as a Rebellion style xpac and 4th playable faction later.
The irony is, I built my first PC gaming computer around Sins rebellion all those years ago but the game's performance was locked behind that limitation lol...and now I can play without any lag on a ten plus year old gaming rig that still performs beautifully. We've come a full circle lol.
@@TheWirelessTech same here, with how open they’ve been about everything they’ve done an are doing I’m willing to tentatively trust their promises with the premium edition
Same. They're good for it. They were still doing mini updates for Rebellion up till a few years ago, and still doing mini patches for it up till a few months ago.
Why would a fan of Sins 1, who's looking for a game to play, be disappointed that Sins 2 isn't completely different? If you don't want to play a game like Sins 1... then are you really a fan of Sins 1?
Newbies that were bored by the first one are saying this looks boring. Shocker 😂 Meanwhile OG Sins fans are about to peace out of every other video game for like 6 months 😅
He doesn't want to critique the game and needed to phone something in to make it seem like he gave some kind of negative to the game, even when it doesn't make sense.
Calling it Sins 2 seems kind of misleading though. It's basically a Sin 1 remake rather than a sequel. And hey that's GREAT. If that's the expectations you go in with you're gonna have a good time. But I can definitely see how some fans are disappointed that there isn't a new faction or something like that.
@@CheekiTiki How many factions were added to sins 1 post-release? Yeah....that excuse doesn't fly. OP is right, if you don't like a better version of what you loved, then maybe you didn't love it to begin with.
I stayed up until 1:30am playing this after I got home from work. Been exhausted all day but it was absolutely worth it. Been waiting a decade and it's just...such a smoother experience. Quality of Life upgrades, great performance, great looking ships, and a roadmap for a campaign and the mysterious fourth faction. But the *smoothness* of it is really what hit me out of all of those. It just...*feels* good to play. It's 100% just Sins of a Solar Empire: Again but Better, and that's exactly what I've wanted.
a long time is spent on trying to relearn the talent trees, sinc all the icons are new, and then those weird trade boxes ( I have to redo that tutoriall completely forgot what is going on there), and then having to train your brain t0 plunk down exotic rifineries if you want to build any ships or SB.
@@ZakhadWOW The great thing about the game that I love is that it has a pause function. You can jump into a game, pause it and read through the whole tech tree. Just finished my Advent run (can't remember what the sub-faction is called now, but the old Loyalists with the Coronata titan) and am part way through a TEC Enclave run. First thing I did in both was hit pause and just start reading stuff. Also, Advent's Unity stuff is *hilariously* powerful if you can get to it. I also very much do not look forward to having it used against me.
Playtester, I bought the game when it was still in development over the course of last year and this year; It's definitely worth the price for the features they worked hard on; members of the development team were even taken from the Sins of the Prophets and Dawn of the Reapers production team, Chokepoint Games. As far as personally, I don't like the Skirantra Carrier redesign as well as the heavy cruiser redesign, but that remains a personal grievance of mine; the game itself is amazing and to new players, I highly recommend it. Seeing the roadmap the developers have planned though, makes me happy to know there's a new campaign coming and a fourth faction down the line! Can't wait to see how they play!
This was my go to game for the longest period of time, and while I've played lots of other space strategy games nothing has really nailed the fleet combat and shear power of capital ships like sins has, a truly beautiful game which I will be sinking a large amount of hours into
Look, as someone who had 1k++ hours on SoaSE 1/rebellion, and 103 hours on SoaSE 2. This game is incredible if you like space ship battles. You can just slow it down and zoom in on a battle and watch almost movie quality battles take place. The ships look amazing, from the big Titans and Battleships down to the individual fighters. The focus is on building the right fleet composition that synergizes with the research you are doing. I know I'll put in 1k+ hours on this game just as I did with the previous, and now that it's finally out of EA, I can try out the Advent. Then the fucking audio in this game, from the music to the comms from your units. It's fucking insane. The game builds lore in the ships and their names. You can feel the desperation from the TEC, the hatred from the Advent and the feeling of superiority (and at times fear) from the Vasari.
spent 4 hours in a daze playing the game and yes you should buy it even my crappy old pc can run the game and it looks amazing. the sound of a auto cannon fireing was amazing and its just a lot of fun. and as a stellaris fan you should buy it to (3883 hours in Stellaris)
I think I'll probably give this one a go. It actually sounds more my speed than stellaris tbh. I love stellaris, but the economy management gets really tedious for me sometimes.
Yeah what kept me away from Stellaris was the combat more than the economy, it is almost like playing Warcraft since capital ships and titans have abilities (even other units but yeah).
@@CheekiTikiNot really? There's tons of stuff Stellaris does that Sins doesn't outside of combat. Anomaly and planet exploration, quest chains, roleplay with making your own species, policies, ethics etc etc.
I'm really happy to see this finally made its way to steam. My only personal qualm is the look of the new Eradica titan. I much preferred its appearance in OG Sins.
I don't mind if it's much like the previous game. I loved the original game however the performance is what killed any endgame stuff for me in the original game. Glad they figured it out.
I feel like SoaSE1 and 2 are more like AoE1 and 2 (other than the time period and civilizations being different from 1 to 2). The first Sins was great, and with the performance improvements along with expansion potential (4th civ coming eventually) this will be excellent. That’s not even thinking of mods being integrated easily through Steam. I played many hours of Star Wars: Interregnum and the other mods on SoaSE1.
Just bought Sins 2 yesterday. I must say, it runs even faster than Sins 1 thanks to the core optimisation. I am looking forward to seeing the 4th faction - Harbingers (I got the premium edition just for it!)
I downloaded it this weekend omg. As a SOSE fan this is by far the best they've made, can't wait for them to release the new race that's has been chasing the vasari!
Finally a pillar of gaming legend has become refined enough for me, a true gamer, to pull from the stone like excalibur and wield agaisnt the darkness of.... uh... my life I guess.
Too many times "sequel games" try to be spiritual successors and totally "reinvent the wheel" as you mentioned and it falls flat. Sometimes, people just want the game they loved upgraded and remade 15 years later and that looks like what they've done here.
Sadly, I don't expect to. Allegedly Kerberos want to, but SotS The Pit 2 is in a very long Early Access, and they apparently have one or two other projects in the pipeline ahead of touching SotS 3.
@@blackhammer5035 I didn't think they were even still active. I pretty much stopped paying attention after Kaiju-a-GoGo and Ground Pounders. I don't think they even finished fixing the issues with the Loa's cubes (lol), fully implemented the admiral traits or added the espionage systems. Was still probably my favorite 4x, though, as busted as it was.
Ok the knowledge that i can tuen mobile orbits off has guaranteed i will buy this game It looks like a cool feature But more of a "once i know what im doing more" kinda feature And with how gorgeous it looks mods like dawn of the reapers/the star wars/halo ones(i forget thwir names) will be amazin
of the maps i have seen people play it seems like a cool but somewhat half-heartedly introduced feature. I think modders will do much more interesting things with it after people have a couple hundred hours of playing with it and learning what is fun orbits vs not fun orbits.
@@xXG0SHAWKXxIt's not half-hearted, just that some maps are more orbit-based than others. Some maps don't really change all that much, while others end up with homeworlds right next to each other.
I didn't know Sins was THAT old. Loved the first one, and picked up Rebellion at some point. Steam says I've not even launched Rebellion once so.....I'm gonna try to put some time into it before jumping into 2. About time I sat down with some form of strategy game anyhow.
One thing i miss from the sins1 rebellion are the planet locked artifacts. Granting a moderate single flat boost to the empire controlling the planet. It gave those planets some actuall strategic merit worth fighting over, in addition to just ressources and location. - Hope such artifacats can be moddet into sins 2 at some point.
You can uncover very powerful artifacts and then LOCK them into a planet or a capital ship(I've found a very OP one, that boosts firing range and DPS of ALL allied ships in the same gravity well for my capital ship), afterwards they cannot be removed by any means. They stay in the module slots, therefore you get the flexibility of choosing where to assign them at the cost of useful modules/planet slots
I am so happy to see that Stardock didnt dumb down the game like so many others have done. this is a shining beacon in the gaming community for other developers to take not. as someone who has over 3000 hours acrossed the original, and rebellion. i give this game 20/10
Un modded sins rebellion always felt kinda meh to me, the mod were really what made that game (for me at least). Sins 2 already feels considerably better and more fun to play vanilla, when the mods start coming out this game could ascend to godhood ✨
I love the dev's for this game. They have supported Sins for so long. I regretably don't like some things that may deter me from playing this, as great as some of the upgrades are. I certainly need to go thorugh the tutorials and watch others play. This does not feel super friendly to slow players or anyone that thinks "Well I'll just upgrade and send out my capital ship to take on the world" . . yeah uh not gonna work. Even on easy if you fail to expand beyond your initial 3 or 4 stars, Easy AI will take over the map, have unlimited resources, and you'll be fighting for hours just to take over the nearest planet they've taken from you. At which point, they don't really ever launch major attacks so a starbase and a small fleet will keep you safe. . so you build up a massive force and just steamroll them. . . which is fun once or twice. I'm guessing based on most the things I see I am probably in a minority group with that complaint. I just like to play slow, enjoy the battles, watch a starbase tear a fleet to shreds. Or have a level 8 captial ship decimate fleets, or also alternatively rush to a titan and enjoy them destroy everything. That at this time is gone unless you keep up with everything, actively explore and cut the AI off early game. I also need to learn the whole upgrade system. I do not like the introduction of exotics. If you don't have the right planet, you're never building a Titan. Stupidest thing in the world. I also dislike you need an obnoxious amount of military slots to even get there. 15 military slots to get to your titan, thats the equivilant to 15 military stations and it tops out at 25, RIDICULOUS. Thats 3x more than the original game. What is excellent is the effects, performance, and visual upgrades. By far the coolest I've ever seen. The QOL improvments like single menu for planet upgrades and ships is nice. . . but it doesnt show everything for them so some things like if you want to change your fighter/bomber quantity, you gotta click through all the ships. Any thank you thank you dev's for making culture so much less of a nightmare. Even with superweapons off in the first sins, you could still get annihilated by enemy culture and it sucked that you cannot get out of any game without being on top of it. Now you have an impact but you wont lose your stars left and right. My wish would have been, get rid of the exotics or let a single refinery produce every exotic you need. Remove the research tier's just to unlock a section of the tree, make the easy AI much easier, and for the love of God, cut the maxmimum required civic/military centers at least in half. Still a good game, others may like it more and less. Some wanted a totally new game, others want the original just prettier (my type). Buy it if you like and enjoy!
I haven’t played the actual release yet but I’ve been playing the game as they were making it. Refineries are able to make all of the exotics. You just need to research the exotics to be able to make them. I’ve only ever built a couple of refineries and generally that built the exotics fast enough for me to build any capital ship or titan that I wanted to build. I also found that with the bigger maps, once I got maybe 8-10ish planets I didn’t really need anymore after that. I would capture planets and then not do anything with them because my economy becomes pretty powerful especially if you are just constantly researching. I find this game surprisingly slower then sins of a solar empire rebellion
@@Drakarue After watching some videos of how to start out the strategy of make your first capitial either the battleship or other heavy hitter, then fill out your supply with frigates. It turns the process into capturing planets much more efficient, and then can work my way faster to the choke point while gaining planets fast. Oddly enough whether it was the map or poor programming on the game side, or something else, the Vasari were far more agressive in expanding with a sizable force than against the Advent. I took over one planet in between our bases and took over the entire map while they were really late to get their 6th planet in their staring area. Its like they haulted all together. So now it has turned to cake on easy and my only major complaint being the confusing research tree just because I have to figure out what each thing is every time until I memorize it. I also was told by another commenter elsewhere that theres an option to research quarnium allow, which is my bad for completely missing it. If the tree wasnt so awful I would have noticed. Much happier now that I did more research than whining lol. I appreciate your feedback as well, I hope you enjoy it!
Still got the old packs of this game, im 41 and a father ho cant say enough how happy i am that it is the same game but better. Hope the modder ho made the star trek mod is still around and kicking 😊.. (Star dock... please remake star trek armada 2.. please?)
I've spent a fair number of hours in the beta and have done a singleplayer and a multiplayer game on the release version. People might find it strange that it's so similar, but I very much consider that a good thing. It's not a remaster, nor a sequel, it's a straight up modernization. Controls match the standards of today (As time went on I fumbled with the outdated controls of the first.), there's a ton of QoL, and there's a lot more choices that add flavor, while still playing into the excellent rock-paper-scissors balance of the the first game.
The first information of any game review should be the content creator's relationship with the publisher. Without that information, interpreting the information becomes impossible.
@@DannyRhym3z they are just announcing that they are making it. They told me the mod tools just came out today. I thought it came out 2 years ago. They are yelling at me that I'm stupid for not knowing that the mod tools didn't come out when the game was accessible to the public.
@@HITMANPegas oh damn i completely missread your post in overexcitement. Yea i thought they started developing it when the game was available on the epic store years ago. Could have sworn i read that somewhere
Between burnout on Stellaris and the disappointment of Homeworld 3, I’ve been hankering for a new space game. I never played the older Sins games, but I’ve heard very good things. Sins 2 just might be my next game purchase.
“What’s the downside? Well, it’s just sins of a solar empire rebellion but improved upon some mechanics and better graphics” Say less king, I’ll buy 4 copies
I don’t get why you consider it a negative it isn’t a whole different game. Like isn’t that the complaint for most people about sequels? The devs changing everything to the point it isn’t even the same series anymore? I think anyone who wanted it to NOT be a sins game but rather more like a Stellaris 2, don’t exist or don’t appreciate that Sins isn’t about Galactic government management. It’s essentially a MOBA in space and that’s all people have ever played it for.
Sins 2 being the same was necessary. Sin 1’s engine was obsolete and stuck in 2007. This hurt not just the game and its DLC potential, but the modding community as well. With this remake-sequel, Sins can move forward with confidence.
Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion especially modded is so much fun... up until about 2/3 hours in when the performance tanks because so much is going on the outdated engine can't handle it. This game runs so damn well even with so much happening in an instance. The days of the late game slowdown might actually be over.
To be honest. If the the original (mastercrafted) gameplay, without any lag or crash is or change the bad side of the game... it is a no brainer to buy. You have the old perfect gameplay without the flaws.
I was hoping this would be more like what StarCraft 2 is to StarCraft. Keep the core of the game the same but improve and expand everything else. This looks more like Rebellion in a better engine and some QoL improvements. I believe even the music is the same.
I agree with this review completely, except: He called it "Fast Paced". It's not. Just the opposite. Which is why I love it so much. Many is the time I have been able to sip my drink or nibble on a snack; even take a quick bio break while the game is playing. It has an amazingly "stately" pace.
Bought it, played it, love it. I have ALWAYS kept sins rebellion installed on my computer because i played it that much but now i have uninstalled it because sins 2 is just that much better. It runs great, looks great and i so far like all the changes. If you love the original sins then it's a no brainer to get this new one. Support the devs on the fantastic job they have done.
I really want a total conversation star citizen mod, imagine javelins and Idris’s, hammerhead and on and on (the space miners could be orions mining the rocks :D) it would be so goooood!!!!
I love sins franchise. Sins 2 has a lot of qol updates that i just love. I just hope the map designer drops in sins 2 like it did in rebellion and they dont lean into mod design more than base game stuff.
Cons: tech tree is unintuitive, definitely needs redoing. Some of the vasari voicework is noticeably worse in my opinion. Music is quite bland. I wonder if the damage mitigation mechanic needs to come back to reduce the effectiveness of focus fire on capital ships. Pros: everything else.
Yeah, I dunno. It looks like a polished Sins 1, which is nice and all... but there's a lot more 4x-ish space games to choose from nowadays than what was available 12 years ago.
Loved Rebellion but Stellaris still has my heart. I really hope we get a Stellaris 2 at some point, with all the performance issues ironed out like this game seems to have done... This game looks great though, I will have to pick it up next pay check. It looks great and it LOOKS great, god damn, the graphics are a huge turn on
Let's be honest, everyone will buy this for the base game engine, and mod the everlovin' shite out of it. Yes. Yes I can hear the star destroyers and gundams being modelled right now.
I never played sins before but i have played stellsris, there are tutorials for every mechanic in the game but they dont tie every mechanic together in a seperate tutorial you have to play the game to tie all the information you gathered into coherent gameplay. It took me 30-40 minutes to do this but ever since it has been smooth sailing
I am a huge Sins fan, this has been my favorite RTS and the only RTS I've played so much since the C&C series. However I agree that it is a bit of a shame that they didn't add a new race, as back in Rebellion, the narrator says, that they are expecting a big threat and are currently teaming up. And it has been speculated that this threat is what forced the Vasari into hiding. Anyway, I'll buy it for sure.
Not going to lie, I'm an old Sins fun and I bought this before watching any reviews based on copium alone. I'm glad Montu's only criticism is that it's the same as first Sins. So many games out there try to reinvent the wheel and shit on the source material in the process. Look what they did to Homeworld 3 and my poor beloved Supreme Commander (Sqeenix you shitheads, release the IP to someone who can use it!) This is such a good base for future expansions I can see Ironclad working on it further and releasing an expac. Maybe we'll find out who Vasari are running from =)
Yeah the late game lag in SoaSE was the only bad point of that fantastic game and this one alleviates that entirely....even with over 100 planets and many huge fleets. The only thing missing right now are the fantastic universe mods like Star Trek and Star Wars....and a system editor.
The moment you said that performance isn't an issue anymore, I immediately knew that I am going to like it
yeah my buddies and i did a 5 v 5 vs top end computer players.... and me and another friend went drone carrier builds lol just thousands of fighters and massive fights and no one got any performance issues.. it ran smooth like butter.
Pretty much exactly the same reaction, I bought it within about 5 minutes of that comment.
Honestly it's amazing news to hear that as Rebellion performance issues are the only thing that put me off it.
This is the understatement of the year. This game loads, opens, closes instantly, 10 players with supply maxed out with no slowdown, 5 fleets in one star system with no lag. They did an amazing job on this engine.
@@Trespasser249 I know! I played 10 v 10 or 5 v 5 on multi star and by end game on max speed it got slower lmao.
I love the fact that the devs didn't try to reinvent the wheel or make massive, unnecessary changes for the sake of "innovation." They understood that they had a near-perfect RTS with Sins Rebellion, and only needed to make some minor improvements to the actual gameplay. As they say, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Putting so much effort into making a buttery smooth engine to rectify the first game's biggest issue is the best thing they could have done. They put in the work where it was actually needed, and it shows.
could not physically disagree more with this conservative mindset. its just nostalgia bait, whats the point of a sequal if all it does is polish stuff? thats called a remake in my books. there's areas to improve the experience, but we'd rather not try cause we need to shovel feed the masses their nostalgia bait. and then gamers cry about fifa 3000 releasing next year
@@georgiarushanov2210dude, what? There's like 30 FIFA games. There are 2.5 Sins games. Chill.
@@georgiarushanov2210i mean they have added improvements. They rebuilt the engine to help more optomized and allow modders an easier time, they added orbit mechanics, a ton Of QoL improvements, its not just a reskin. Plus they plan on adding future content.
Yeah, I much prefer this than what happened to Sword of the Stars 2.
@@SliderFury1 anyway im not any different. i just never played the original. games are hard to make yadda yadda, im sure its fun 👍
Already waiting for the Star Wars, Star Trek, & 40k Mods
And sins of new eden mod
Don’t forget Halo
Stargate, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, the list goes on and on.
This game has unlimited potential for mods...probably something that the Devs understand :)
Personally I'll be waiting for the Starcraft ones.
The biggest problem with the first game was that it couldn't use multiple cores and it lagged in the later stages. If that is fixed, then we're talking about one of the best space rts games.
That was the biggest gripe, it would literally become unplayable. I'm happy sins (haha since) I'm a sins OG player plus the expansions. I would buy the base game and hopefully they'll give us the option to pick up the premium pack later.
it can use multiple core right now, the dev has confirmed it in one of their videos
True.
One thing to note is that Sins 1 has a very big mod scene, with loads of extra content and complete overhauls for every major scifi universe you can think of.
I expect a lot of those modders to jump over to 2, but for now Sins 1 arguably has quite a bit more content than 2.
This is true, and will be for a year or so, I suspect. The bigger names in modding may wait to join the party until Sins 2 is more complete/has at least some of its dlc released. However, I still recommend playing Sins 2 anyway, simply for the taste of what its mods might manage to materialize as.
Sins 2 already has built in mod support, with promises to release modkits soon. I think they know how beloved some of those mods are in their community and have every intention of making it as easy as possible to rebuild that base. At the very least, what they've already done is a good sign.
@@aecides3203It makes sense because some of the modders were hired by Ironclad to work on Sins II
@@Alpha4Sierra As an example, one of the Sins 2 devs is Unikraken, who once worked on the Sins of the Prophets mod.
@@StrikeNoir105Ehe still is. They’re releasing SoTP 2 soon although it’s for Sins 1. Uni said it will be coming to Sins 2 at some point.
The more people I see complaining that the devs didn't change/add enough stuff, the more thankful I am that they stuck to the original so closely. It's what the Sins community wanted and they listened to us.
Exactly. Also why it's an easy day 1 purchase for me. They actually listened to the community and made what we wanted.
Wish they added new races and maybe some story aspects to the game. Subs reminds me of the sand box style of total war games which is what I like. I just wish there was a story given to your expansion and empire building.
@@therealmcgoy4968I have heard this is in the works!
@@therealmcgoy4968 Well, they aren't identical to original races, but yeah similar. There is a fourth race planned in about a year as a DLC
I concur. Makes me wonder how many of these complaining commenters even played the first one.
Those original intro cinematics with the weary old war veteren monologues are forever burned into my mind, and have been since I first launched sins at 11 years old. I’ve been wishing for a campaign and to find out who the Vasari are running from since the beginning and I can’t believe I’m finally getting to see both of those things once those DLCs are released. Never been more hyped for a game in my life, the premium edition was an easy choice for me.
bruh... never, ever pre order anything
@@0nemanartis430 Bruh... quit telling people how to live their lives.
@@tlpineapple1 dont remember asking you for your opinion, carry on pre ordering and dont be surprised games get released in shitter and shitter state because people are dumb af, unlike you i prefer to enjoy the game not long after its release instead of 3 years later once they end up resolving couple major bugs and sort out optimisation
@@tlpineapple1 Bruh... quit telling him to stop telling people how to live their lives. That's just you telling him how to live his life.
This feels like coming full circle. I originally found Stellaris from a thread on the Sins forums back in 2016.
Already bought the game and have played it a bit, and it is really freaking cool. I highly recommend it, and it even runs on my semi-crappy laptop.
Is there updates on the story or its basically just a really good remake?
@@charlesolarte7104 For now, the story is the same, and I personally expect it to stay the same. However, if you look on the Sins II website, one of the expansions listed in the store is called "Times Of War Campaign Expansion". So, we may later be getting a campaign or campaign-esque system that goes a bit more in depth with the story.
@@charlesolarte7104story is in the premium bundle, hopefully it’ll be dropped later. Premium is discounted but still pricey, has decent amount of stuff tho.
@@charlesolarte7104good remake but still lacks some game options.
@@charlesolarte7104 The base game as is has new lore additions. Later on, the game is getting a full single player campaign DLC. Lastly, they are also adding the mysterious enemy as a Rebellion style xpac and 4th playable faction later.
The irony is, I built my first PC gaming computer around Sins rebellion all those years ago but the game's performance was locked behind that limitation lol...and now I can play without any lag on a ten plus year old gaming rig that still performs beautifully. We've come a full circle lol.
You had me at sins 2, bought the premium edition because this dev deserves my money.
@@TheWirelessTech same here, with how open they’ve been about everything they’ve done an are doing I’m willing to tentatively trust their promises with the premium edition
Same. They're good for it. They were still doing mini updates for Rebellion up till a few years ago, and still doing mini patches for it up till a few months ago.
I never buy a game right after release, except when it says SINS. I can’t describe how excited I was to see this on my store.
Why would a fan of Sins 1, who's looking for a game to play, be disappointed that Sins 2 isn't completely different? If you don't want to play a game like Sins 1... then are you really a fan of Sins 1?
Newbies that were bored by the first one are saying this looks boring. Shocker 😂
Meanwhile OG Sins fans are about to peace out of every other video game for like 6 months 😅
He doesn't want to critique the game and needed to phone something in to make it seem like he gave some kind of negative to the game, even when it doesn't make sense.
Calling it Sins 2 seems kind of misleading though. It's basically a Sin 1 remake rather than a sequel.
And hey that's GREAT. If that's the expectations you go in with you're gonna have a good time. But I can definitely see how some fans are disappointed that there isn't a new faction or something like that.
@@CheekiTiki How many factions were added to sins 1 post-release? Yeah....that excuse doesn't fly. OP is right, if you don't like a better version of what you loved, then maybe you didn't love it to begin with.
@@SpenzOT This logic makes no sense.
Now we just need an Empire at War 2.
Yesss
fr
Is this Comparable?
I stayed up until 1:30am playing this after I got home from work. Been exhausted all day but it was absolutely worth it. Been waiting a decade and it's just...such a smoother experience. Quality of Life upgrades, great performance, great looking ships, and a roadmap for a campaign and the mysterious fourth faction.
But the *smoothness* of it is really what hit me out of all of those. It just...*feels* good to play. It's 100% just Sins of a Solar Empire: Again but Better, and that's exactly what I've wanted.
a long time is spent on trying to relearn the talent trees, sinc all the icons are new, and then those weird trade boxes ( I have to redo that tutoriall completely forgot what is going on there), and then having to train your brain t0 plunk down exotic rifineries if you want to build any ships or SB.
@@ZakhadWOW The great thing about the game that I love is that it has a pause function. You can jump into a game, pause it and read through the whole tech tree. Just finished my Advent run (can't remember what the sub-faction is called now, but the old Loyalists with the Coronata titan) and am part way through a TEC Enclave run. First thing I did in both was hit pause and just start reading stuff.
Also, Advent's Unity stuff is *hilariously* powerful if you can get to it. I also very much do not look forward to having it used against me.
Playtester, I bought the game when it was still in development over the course of last year and this year; It's definitely worth the price for the features they worked hard on; members of the development team were even taken from the Sins of the Prophets and Dawn of the Reapers production team, Chokepoint Games. As far as personally, I don't like the Skirantra Carrier redesign as well as the heavy cruiser redesign, but that remains a personal grievance of mine; the game itself is amazing and to new players, I highly recommend it. Seeing the roadmap the developers have planned though, makes me happy to know there's a new campaign coming and a fourth faction down the line! Can't wait to see how they play!
It's quite refreshing seeing a new game launch that isn't plagued by performance issues
There is a 4th faction coming in a later expansion
Where did u hear about? Because that is complete news to me
@Kortul456
It's on the Steam page the last dlc for the premium edition says adding a 4th faction.
@@Kortul456 It is from the store page they teased some expansions in purchase options. You can preorder them by buying premium edition.
@@drude247 ^ Very exciting :)
@@drude247 Holy Shit!! Lets´fcking GO
As an og rebellion enjoyer, I am about to vanish till space marine 2 releases, then I shall vanish again
This was my go to game for the longest period of time, and while I've played lots of other space strategy games nothing has really nailed the fleet combat and shear power of capital ships like sins has, a truly beautiful game which I will be sinking a large amount of hours into
Look, as someone who had 1k++ hours on SoaSE 1/rebellion, and 103 hours on SoaSE 2. This game is incredible if you like space ship battles. You can just slow it down and zoom in on a battle and watch almost movie quality battles take place. The ships look amazing, from the big Titans and Battleships down to the individual fighters. The focus is on building the right fleet composition that synergizes with the research you are doing. I know I'll put in 1k+ hours on this game just as I did with the previous, and now that it's finally out of EA, I can try out the Advent.
Then the fucking audio in this game, from the music to the comms from your units. It's fucking insane. The game builds lore in the ships and their names. You can feel the desperation from the TEC, the hatred from the Advent and the feeling of superiority (and at times fear) from the Vasari.
spent 4 hours in a daze playing the game and yes you should buy it even my crappy old pc can run the game and it looks amazing. the sound of a auto cannon fireing was amazing and its just a lot of fun. and as a stellaris fan you should buy it to (3883 hours in Stellaris)
After the disappointment of HW3 this is a breath of fresh air.
For the first time I like Sins of solar Empire 2 more than SJW Homeworld 3
I think I'll probably give this one a go. It actually sounds more my speed than stellaris tbh. I love stellaris, but the economy management gets really tedious for me sometimes.
Sins economy is just right for an RTS. Not overly simplistic, but simple enough to manage on the fly. I think you'll like it 🙂
if only stellaris had the depth of ship combat that Sins has, and less empire micromanagement
@@MSeraph So basically if only Stellaris was Sins lol? Sounds like we dont have a problem here.
Yeah what kept me away from Stellaris was the combat more than the economy, it is almost like playing Warcraft since capital ships and titans have abilities (even other units but yeah).
@@CheekiTikiNot really? There's tons of stuff Stellaris does that Sins doesn't outside of combat. Anomaly and planet exploration, quest chains, roleplay with making your own species, policies, ethics etc etc.
We don't reinvented wheels, we want just good wheels made better so going to buy this.
I'm really happy to see this finally made its way to steam. My only personal qualm is the look of the new Eradica titan. I much preferred its appearance in OG Sins.
The looks change based on the upgrades you put on them.
I also prefer the old Vorastra to the new one. At least the Kultorask is still absolutely cool.
@@svyatoslavrurikovich8831 the Ankylon appears pretty unchanged... cleared named after the armored appearance of an Ankylosaur...
I don't mind if it's much like the previous game. I loved the original game however the performance is what killed any endgame stuff for me in the original game. Glad they figured it out.
This game really gives off DSP and stellaris vibes and i got to say, I'm digging it. Can't wait to pick this up and try it out.
dsp?
@@revolversnake126 dyson sphere program
A 4th faction I think was announced which I hope is who ever the Vasari is running from.
Thank you for this informative and succinct review. Polar opposite to a certain mainstream 'game journalism' network.
I feel like SoaSE1 and 2 are more like AoE1 and 2 (other than the time period and civilizations being different from 1 to 2). The first Sins was great, and with the performance improvements along with expansion potential (4th civ coming eventually) this will be excellent. That’s not even thinking of mods being integrated easily through Steam. I played many hours of Star Wars: Interregnum and the other mods on SoaSE1.
Yes - its amazing!. visuals are amazing - and just imagine all the mods!:
Just bought Sins 2 yesterday. I must say, it runs even faster than Sins 1 thanks to the core optimisation. I am looking forward to seeing the 4th faction - Harbingers (I got the premium edition just for it!)
I downloaded it this weekend omg. As a SOSE fan this is by far the best they've made, can't wait for them to release the new race that's has been chasing the vasari!
Finally a pillar of gaming legend has become refined enough for me, a true gamer, to pull from the stone like excalibur and wield agaisnt the darkness of.... uh... my life I guess.
Should you buy it? From someone who played Sins 1 all those years ago from release? YES.
Too many times "sequel games" try to be spiritual successors and totally "reinvent the wheel" as you mentioned and it falls flat. Sometimes, people just want the game they loved upgraded and remade 15 years later and that looks like what they've done here.
Point defense is a new one to me, and I like it; it might mean torpedo cruisers aren't just a total no-sell for defenses.
I love sins of a solar empire, I would love for someone to make a remaster of Haegemonia legions of iron
Best thing I did this year was discover Stellaris and subscribe to you. Thanks for the review. This one seems interesting as well.
This is how a 2 should be, same kind of game without massive changes, bigger, smoother, better :D
Interesting, maybe I'll pick that later. My budget doesn't cut today.
Should you buy it? Yes. It's great
Now we just need Sword of the Stars 3. 😃
We'll never get Sword of the Stars 3...☹
Sadly, I don't expect to. Allegedly Kerberos want to, but SotS The Pit 2 is in a very long Early Access, and they apparently have one or two other projects in the pipeline ahead of touching SotS 3.
@@blackhammer5035 I didn't think they were even still active. I pretty much stopped paying attention after Kaiju-a-GoGo and Ground Pounders. I don't think they even finished fixing the issues with the Loa's cubes (lol), fully implemented the admiral traits or added the espionage systems. Was still probably my favorite 4x, though, as busted as it was.
Yeah, the publisher screwed them on SotS 2 quite a bit.
Ok the knowledge that i can tuen mobile orbits off has guaranteed i will buy this game
It looks like a cool feature
But more of a "once i know what im doing more" kinda feature
And with how gorgeous it looks mods like dawn of the reapers/the star wars/halo ones(i forget thwir names) will be amazin
of the maps i have seen people play it seems like a cool but somewhat half-heartedly introduced feature. I think modders will do much more interesting things with it after people have a couple hundred hours of playing with it and learning what is fun orbits vs not fun orbits.
@@xXG0SHAWKXxIt's not half-hearted, just that some maps are more orbit-based than others. Some maps don't really change all that much, while others end up with homeworlds right next to each other.
I like the approach of building the second. It's polishing the great and improve performance.
I didn't know Sins was THAT old. Loved the first one, and picked up Rebellion at some point. Steam says I've not even launched Rebellion once so.....I'm gonna try to put some time into it before jumping into 2. About time I sat down with some form of strategy game anyhow.
The orbiting planets….very cool feature. This and Falling Frontier has me excited.
One thing i miss from the sins1 rebellion are the planet locked artifacts. Granting a moderate single flat boost to the empire controlling the planet. It gave those planets some actuall strategic merit worth fighting over, in addition to just ressources and location. - Hope such artifacats can be moddet into sins 2 at some point.
You can uncover very powerful artifacts and then LOCK them into a planet or a capital ship(I've found a very OP one, that boosts firing range and DPS of ALL allied ships in the same gravity well for my capital ship), afterwards they cannot be removed by any means. They stay in the module slots, therefore you get the flexibility of choosing where to assign them at the cost of useful modules/planet slots
Basically the perfect sequel
Buyed on release day, loving every second of it since.😍 Now excuse me, I have worlds to burn in the flames of the unity! 😈
I am so happy to see that Stardock didnt dumb down the game like so many others have done. this is a shining beacon in the gaming community for other developers to take not.
as someone who has over 3000 hours acrossed the original, and rebellion. i give this game 20/10
Seeing as Sins 1 was such an unique and extremely fun macro-RTS, never surpassed by another game... I'm absolutely fine with this.
Un modded sins rebellion always felt kinda meh to me, the mod were really what made that game (for me at least). Sins 2 already feels considerably better and more fun to play vanilla, when the mods start coming out this game could ascend to godhood ✨
Hat off to Montu for playing the og Sins 1 music in the background - Love it from the day I heard it
Just waiting to get off from work in a few hours to sink my teeth into this one!
8:15 Best SOSE Release ......uhhh I mean....we only had 1 and an expansion that's TECHNICALLY not saying much.
I love the dev's for this game. They have supported Sins for so long. I regretably don't like some things that may deter me from playing this, as great as some of the upgrades are.
I certainly need to go thorugh the tutorials and watch others play.
This does not feel super friendly to slow players or anyone that thinks "Well I'll just upgrade and send out my capital ship to take on the world" . . yeah uh not gonna work. Even on easy if you fail to expand beyond your initial 3 or 4 stars, Easy AI will take over the map, have unlimited resources, and you'll be fighting for hours just to take over the nearest planet they've taken from you. At which point, they don't really ever launch major attacks so a starbase and a small fleet will keep you safe. . so you build up a massive force and just steamroll them. . . which is fun once or twice.
I'm guessing based on most the things I see I am probably in a minority group with that complaint. I just like to play slow, enjoy the battles, watch a starbase tear a fleet to shreds. Or have a level 8 captial ship decimate fleets, or also alternatively rush to a titan and enjoy them destroy everything. That at this time is gone unless you keep up with everything, actively explore and cut the AI off early game.
I also need to learn the whole upgrade system. I do not like the introduction of exotics. If you don't have the right planet, you're never building a Titan. Stupidest thing in the world. I also dislike you need an obnoxious amount of military slots to even get there. 15 military slots to get to your titan, thats the equivilant to 15 military stations and it tops out at 25, RIDICULOUS. Thats 3x more than the original game.
What is excellent is the effects, performance, and visual upgrades. By far the coolest I've ever seen. The QOL improvments like single menu for planet upgrades and ships is nice. . . but it doesnt show everything for them so some things like if you want to change your fighter/bomber quantity, you gotta click through all the ships. Any thank you thank you dev's for making culture so much less of a nightmare. Even with superweapons off in the first sins, you could still get annihilated by enemy culture and it sucked that you cannot get out of any game without being on top of it. Now you have an impact but you wont lose your stars left and right.
My wish would have been, get rid of the exotics or let a single refinery produce every exotic you need. Remove the research tier's just to unlock a section of the tree, make the easy AI much easier, and for the love of God, cut the maxmimum required civic/military centers at least in half. Still a good game, others may like it more and less. Some wanted a totally new game, others want the original just prettier (my type). Buy it if you like and enjoy!
I haven’t played the actual release yet but I’ve been playing the game as they were making it. Refineries are able to make all of the exotics. You just need to research the exotics to be able to make them. I’ve only ever built a couple of refineries and generally that built the exotics fast enough for me to build any capital ship or titan that I wanted to build.
I also found that with the bigger maps, once I got maybe 8-10ish planets I didn’t really need anymore after that. I would capture planets and then not do anything with them because my economy becomes pretty powerful especially if you are just constantly researching. I find this game surprisingly slower then sins of a solar empire rebellion
@@Drakarue After watching some videos of how to start out the strategy of make your first capitial either the battleship or other heavy hitter, then fill out your supply with frigates. It turns the process into capturing planets much more efficient, and then can work my way faster to the choke point while gaining planets fast.
Oddly enough whether it was the map or poor programming on the game side, or something else, the Vasari were far more agressive in expanding with a sizable force than against the Advent. I took over one planet in between our bases and took over the entire map while they were really late to get their 6th planet in their staring area. Its like they haulted all together. So now it has turned to cake on easy and my only major complaint being the confusing research tree just because I have to figure out what each thing is every time until I memorize it.
I also was told by another commenter elsewhere that theres an option to research quarnium allow, which is my bad for completely missing it. If the tree wasnt so awful I would have noticed. Much happier now that I did more research than whining lol.
I appreciate your feedback as well, I hope you enjoy it!
played it with 3 friends last night, was a blast
Sins 2 is listed at 39.95 on steam currently.
I loved Rebellion, it's honestly my favorite space RTS game, keen to try this out
I howered over the old games for years, but never bought one. I guess now is the time to get in.
The mods will be INSANE. I downloaded their map editor and its very fun.
Still got the old packs of this game, im 41 and a father ho cant say enough how happy i am that it is the same game but better.
Hope the modder ho made the star trek mod is still around and kicking 😊.. (Star dock... please remake star trek armada 2.. please?)
Supposedly the race the Vasari have been fleeing from are going to be a faction dlc.
I've spent a fair number of hours in the beta and have done a singleplayer and a multiplayer game on the release version. People might find it strange that it's so similar, but I very much consider that a good thing. It's not a remaster, nor a sequel, it's a straight up modernization. Controls match the standards of today (As time went on I fumbled with the outdated controls of the first.), there's a ton of QoL, and there's a lot more choices that add flavor, while still playing into the excellent rock-paper-scissors balance of the the first game.
The first information of any game review should be the content creator's relationship with the publisher. Without that information, interpreting the information becomes impossible.
Since the Star Trek mod announcement is coming out on August 22, 2024, and it's on sale I'll likely buy it. I loved Star Trek Armada 3 mod.
No way! do you have a link to this? i cant believe its that fast
@@DannyRhym3z they are just announcing that they are making it. They told me the mod tools just came out today. I thought it came out 2 years ago. They are yelling at me that I'm stupid for not knowing that the mod tools didn't come out when the game was accessible to the public.
@@HITMANPegas oh damn i completely missread your post in overexcitement. Yea i thought they started developing it when the game was available on the epic store years ago. Could have sworn i read that somewhere
@@DannyRhym3z Me and you both.
Between burnout on Stellaris and the disappointment of Homeworld 3, I’ve been hankering for a new space game. I never played the older Sins games, but I’ve heard very good things. Sins 2 just might be my next game purchase.
“What’s the downside? Well, it’s just sins of a solar empire rebellion but improved upon some mechanics and better graphics”
Say less king, I’ll buy 4 copies
I don’t get why you consider it a negative it isn’t a whole different game. Like isn’t that the complaint for most people about sequels? The devs changing everything to the point it isn’t even the same series anymore?
I think anyone who wanted it to NOT be a sins game but rather more like a Stellaris 2, don’t exist or don’t appreciate that Sins isn’t about Galactic government management. It’s essentially a MOBA in space and that’s all people have ever played it for.
Seems like a real bottom of the barrel criticism just to have one in the video
Sins 2 being the same was necessary. Sin 1’s engine was obsolete and stuck in 2007. This hurt not just the game and its DLC potential, but the modding community as well. With this remake-sequel, Sins can move forward with confidence.
Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion especially modded is so much fun... up until about 2/3 hours in when the performance tanks because so much is going on the outdated engine can't handle it. This game runs so damn well even with so much happening in an instance. The days of the late game slowdown might actually be over.
To be honest.
If the the original (mastercrafted) gameplay, without any lag or crash is or change the bad side of the game... it is a no brainer to buy.
You have the old perfect gameplay without the flaws.
Been waiting a long time, hopefully I'll play it as much as the original and rebellion. Or at least half as much considering how busy life is nowadays
I was hoping this would be more like what StarCraft 2 is to StarCraft. Keep the core of the game the same but improve and expand everything else. This looks more like Rebellion in a better engine and some QoL improvements. I believe even the music is the same.
I agree with this review completely, except: He called it "Fast Paced". It's not. Just the opposite. Which is why I love it so much. Many is the time I have been able to sip my drink or nibble on a snack; even take a quick bio break while the game is playing. It has an amazingly "stately" pace.
Man I’m kinda sad that they TEC enclave can’t bomb other systems anymore with space cannons. But I guess it’s better for balance sake
Bought it, played it, love it. I have ALWAYS kept sins rebellion installed on my computer because i played it that much but now i have uninstalled it because sins 2 is just that much better. It runs great, looks great and i so far like all the changes. If you love the original sins then it's a no brainer to get this new one. Support the devs on the fantastic job they have done.
Combat rework is certainly a nice change.
I really want a total conversation star citizen mod, imagine javelins and Idris’s, hammerhead and on and on (the space miners could be orions mining the rocks :D) it would be so goooood!!!!
When u said 16 years since the original my knee started to ache.
Have you taken an arrow there?
@MontuPlays arrow of time my friend :)
Why is this video the first I'm hearing of this? My jaw literally dropped when I saw the thumbnail.
I just recently got it and it's freaking awesome!
I can't wait to see the mods people will make !
Thanks Montu!
Great job on the Sins preview videos. I was always gonna buy the game, but they helped me understand the new changes very well
I love sins franchise. Sins 2 has a lot of qol updates that i just love. I just hope the map designer drops in sins 2 like it did in rebellion and they dont lean into mod design more than base game stuff.
I personally think complexity is important for long fun, so i would count the complex UI as a plus.
Cons: tech tree is unintuitive, definitely needs redoing. Some of the vasari voicework is noticeably worse in my opinion. Music is quite bland. I wonder if the damage mitigation mechanic needs to come back to reduce the effectiveness of focus fire on capital ships.
Pros: everything else.
omg! I've been really enjoying this game as it was released now, and there's more stuff coming to it? That's epic 🔥
Yeah, I dunno. It looks like a polished Sins 1, which is nice and all... but there's a lot more 4x-ish space games to choose from nowadays than what was available 12 years ago.
My only complaint is the tech tree is still confusing. Aside from that, its the best iteration of the game
Loved Rebellion but Stellaris still has my heart. I really hope we get a Stellaris 2 at some point, with all the performance issues ironed out like this game seems to have done... This game looks great though, I will have to pick it up next pay check.
It looks great and it LOOKS great, god damn, the graphics are a huge turn on
Let's be honest, everyone will buy this for the base game engine, and mod the everlovin' shite out of it.
Yes. Yes I can hear the star destroyers and gundams being modelled right now.
Playing it now, but im just waiting for SIns of a Prophet 2 mod to be ready. I will defend Reach !!!
I wish they added a new alien race. Maybe the one the Vasari are running from or losing to in their previous wars.
This is everything for SINS that HW3 wasn't for HW...
Sold.
I did not play the original but this one looks very interesting. Is it hard to get into as a newcomer?
It's got a bit of a learning curve, but once you understand it, it's easy to play.
There are many tutorials in gane
I never played sins before but i have played stellsris, there are tutorials for every mechanic in the game but they dont tie every mechanic together in a seperate tutorial you have to play the game to tie all the information you gathered into coherent gameplay. It took me 30-40 minutes to do this but ever since it has been smooth sailing
I am a huge Sins fan, this has been my favorite RTS and the only RTS I've played so much since the C&C series. However I agree that it is a bit of a shame that they didn't add a new race, as back in Rebellion, the narrator says, that they are expecting a big threat and are currently teaming up. And it has been speculated that this threat is what forced the Vasari into hiding. Anyway, I'll buy it for sure.
Not going to lie, I'm an old Sins fun and I bought this before watching any reviews based on copium alone. I'm glad Montu's only criticism is that it's the same as first Sins. So many games out there try to reinvent the wheel and shit on the source material in the process. Look what they did to Homeworld 3 and my poor beloved Supreme Commander (Sqeenix you shitheads, release the IP to someone who can use it!)
This is such a good base for future expansions I can see Ironclad working on it further and releasing an expac. Maybe we'll find out who Vasari are running from =)
Yeah the late game lag in SoaSE was the only bad point of that fantastic game and this one alleviates that entirely....even with over 100 planets and many huge fleets.
The only thing missing right now are the fantastic universe mods like Star Trek and Star Wars....and a system editor.