Hmmm.. of the top of my head:

Game side of the house;
1. visuals & sounds
2. Interface
3. Functionality
a. save
b. options
c. network
d. scalability
4. Modding ability and promised tools
5. dynamic game play

Business side of the house:
1. License policy
2. Lack of restrictive DRM
3. Support policy
4. Upgrade policy
5. Interactive environment

i love the excellent blend of the game. You have all of the advantages of turn based empire building with all of the advantages of an rts. Another huge positive is the ability to have 10 players to a game. Most games that attempt to incorporate a galactic scale conflict have to separate logistics and strategics on a galactic map and a tactical map. This limits the game to 2 players (generally) SINS allows the player to simple zoom in and command the battles. At first i was skeptic thinking that perhaps some of the advantages to standard rts's would be lost because one wouldn't have as much control over their ships movement capabilities and exploiting weaknesses. (running circles around an Imperial star destroyer and staying behind it in EAW for an example) but this is simply not the case. Even more important however is the ability to run multiple battle with multiple opponents at a single moment. It really stretches your thinking skills, and more importantly your opponents, and of course one thing we all cant deny is that SINS is not a limiting game unlike many others. A great way to show it is that (in my opinion) the pop cap is set remarkably high compared to most games. This truely allows for an ,whats the word, Unrivaled experience.

One more thing I forgot, a none restrictive distribution model.

What makes Sins special?

The reason that came immediately to mind once I read the question is this: Space! I started gaming when I was 7, on an Apple IIE. In my seventeen years as a gamer, most of the most memorable games for me were space games. Master of Orion, Star Control, X-Com, Wing Commander, Star Wars, were all big games for me, and over the past 5-6 years, I have seen NO really good space games come out.

Sins fills the niche, and to combine that with the vastly appealing RTS format, is a winner for certain.



The second reason that comes to mind is this: Strategy vs. button mashing! For argument's sake, say half of gamers like strategy, and the other half like button mashing, Sins is an RTS that finally appeals to strategy players! I personally hate button fests, and don't play most games online for that reason. To have an interstellar field of play, and so many simultaneous strategic options is going to be candy for my brain!

I hope those two reasons help, verbose as they are.

Good day!

What makes Sins Special?
ME and eet

and multi and me

special huh?

lots of people touched it: the kind if scale and pacing is quite unique in a rts and its what I like a lot. you get the feel of an empire, everything supports it, from the massive fleets, to the huge distances between planets and the scale of objects like the various ships and planets and suns. I like the premise of strategy vs clickfest in that it really matters a lot where you position your forces, where to attack and defend, when to counter attack or do a sneak strike, when you need to withdraw your forces.

also while staying manageable the games gives a lot of depth as to the paths you can pursue. you can go for economics and hope to crush the enemy with superior numbers and a constant stream of ships or go for military getting newer ships and upgrading existing ones. each of the ships has a base role and in addition one or more secondary roles which makes pretty much every shipclass a valid option and useful if you know how to deploy them. in spite of that, battles are not predetermined, skillful tactics can still win you a battles with bad odds. and if the improved combat ai and the fleet stuff works as well as I hope, you can do that, but you dont absolutely need to, it would only be an extra factor.

bounties and pirates: just a new and cool system of economic warfare that can be a big factor in the right situations. it might keep you from executing a planned attack on your enemy if you dont have the credits to outbid your opponent or even force you back to deal with them. or you can use them to divert your enemy or soften him up for your own attacks or just to keep him busy while you deal with another opponent. not to say it also influences other players as well. tens of thousands of creds can be tempting.

further the scalablity, it runs on a lot of machines, even pretty bad ones as my old rig showed, but it still lookes beautiful on highest settings if you have the power for it.

the zoom. this integrated interface and feel contributes so much as there were many games where you did have an over-map and the tactical battles, but it gets much more interesting and challenging if its all on one map and you need to dynamically respond to enemy movements.

neutral battlegrounds with abilites: they rock. some make nice places for a stand or ambush, others just provide a puffer zone. nice way to implement terrain in space.

colony penalty. I forces you to consider quick colonising vs developing vs agressive play style, since getting more planets as early as possible need not always be the best move. you need to look at the planet and think whether its benefits and the resources and time you have to spend to get them align with your strategy and are better than alternative courses of action.

lots more I guess.

It needs a story with great characters... until it has that it is me too. Why is WoW on top? you can create your own Character and Pretend with friends. With Crysis It needs GREAT DirectX 12 insanely fast graphics.

Too many space/SF games resued the same graphics over and over and over again with the same story.

I have to agree. SC was my first and only RTS love. Yet right now I cant even entertain the thoughts of SC2 since first playing Sins. I should note when I play Sins I listen the Black Aria and The Ninth Gate soundtracks and they really add to the experience gives me that certain somethin', somethin' feeling that I got from SC back in thr day.

I can only imagine what it will be like with all the functionality enabled. Custom heroes, ships, races, GUIs, trade, espionage, black market, diplomacy, tech, unique flavors, ultra high modifiability, network & team play, and excellent save and record system and so much more...

The only thing it is truly lacking right now is a highly articulated full blown story and lore dimension. When I think of Sins I think of SMAC & Battlestar combined with SC and Starship troopers.

What I would truly love is for SD or IG to contact Arthur C. Clarke to write a narrative and then develop it into the background story and lore. It might seem a little late for that but really it is not and given the nature of the marketing right now it can be spun really well.

There are also many other fine writes out there. One can get a good list here.

With something like that going for it I dont see this title becoming anything short of a super nova in the gaming world in short order.

well thats why i said "can", im also not sure yet. Now i dont want to discuss SC II here but it has a reason that Blizzard doesnt change too much. The simple reason is that the starcraft community doesnt want huge changes.
But like i said that can be discussed at another place and tbh with Sins on the horizon i dont need to worry about SC2 anymore.

Pssh. We gamers give feedback wherever we go. Most developers just don't listen.

I like this game because: it has space, it has ships, it has planets, it has different races all perfect parts of any sci-fi themed game.

What it needs IMO is space monsters

As far as Space Real time games are concerned, sins is the first in a while with easy interface and a combat system that doesn't rely on huge micromanagement. Fantastic tech tree helps, as do very concrete limitations to planetary defense and fleet size.