At first you had my interest.
And then you lost it. Looks like this game has been delayed for a year or so as far as I'm concerned.
Sins of a Solar Empire 2 has been released as an Early Access title on Epic Game Store
, so Zade took a took at it.
He likes what he sees so far, but admits it's very barebones at the moment. Only one faction (the TEC), lots of placeholder art, no Titan ships, no starbases, and the game mechanics are obviously incomplete. Unless you're a hardcore fan who's absolutely set upon playing it immediately (or looking to grab the game for a bit cheaper, since the full release version will likely cost $10 extra), I'd advise against buying the game right now: it's promising, but still has a long way to go.
New update for the game
that adds in a bunch of new mechanics along with the Vasari loyalists and rebels as a playable faction. Among other things you can also now move defenses, scavenge destroyed capital ships, fine-tune your fleet formations, and more.
I'm guessing we'll eventually see SOASE 2 appear on Steam once the game finally reaches 1.0, assuming they're following the same development/release date idea Gal Civ 4 had.
The Art of War: A Symphony of Shield, Armor, and Hull Update is Now Available
EDIT: The link's being difficult - I'll just post it separately.
https://www.sinsofasolarempire2.com/article/525851/the-art-of-war-update---sins-of-a-solar-empire-ii
The game's still chugging along in an Alpha state on the Epic store. Still no word on the inclusion of the Advent faction yet.
Edited by SgtRicko on Feb 23rd 2024 at 1:19:24 AM
Huh... could've sworn it already was on Steam Early Access or something. Either way, it now has the official release date of August 15th on Steam. Doesn't seem like the Advent faction is ready for release yet unfortunately so we probably won't see them until Winter this year.
Edited by SgtRicko on Aug 2nd 2024 at 3:12:13 AM
Playing the game, I have mixed feelings.
I do feel overall, in a vacuum this is strictly a better game than the original.
That said, there's some stuff that rubs me the wrong way. Still no campaign (Yeah i know this is promised in some nebulous future but that's meaningless). So many units just reuse audio from the first game that this gives the game a kind of cheap vibe.
Mechanically the game is better. There's a lot to compliment, but at the same time, this feels like not that much has changed. They replaced damage mitigation which was weird and odd in the first game with Durability, and despite having its own tutorial durability is still poorly explained. What does 1000 durability mean when your gun's dps is 60? The game just tells you more durability is more good. 90% of the ships are returning from the first game. Missile interception is a nice addition, though it feels to me like not all the point defense specialist ships perform as well?
I'm not sure corvettes work as intended. The idea of these small lithe ships flying around and dodging shots from ships who need to turn and lack tracking sounds cool. In practice I find corvettes get shot down pretty easily. But hey they are cheap so whatever.
The big change I'm meh on is the orbits. I get the idea, make the battlefield less static, by having new fronts open and old ones close. In practice I don't think it quite works? It makes some travel just annoying "Oh, this place I wanted to go has gone from 1 jump away to 4 jump away while I built ships to assault it". It also feels like it just makes the Vasari Phase gates even better. Who cares if your planet goes from being the front line to the backline of your empire if you can make sure it's always 1 jump away from the action so your fleet will be there in no time. At least you can turn the orbits off.
On a purely aesthetic level, I'm not keen on the new look of the Vasari ships. How they are all kind of lump and almost dented.
Edited by Ghilz on Aug 16th 2024 at 5:54:49 AM

PC Gamer: Sins of a Solar Empire 2 is reaching for the stars
The Official Website
So not only are we going to get Homeworld 3 next year, but a sequel to Sins of a Solar Empire, AND A spiritual successor to Command & Conquer?! Man, is it a good year to be an RTS fan or what?
Some bad news, though... this is going to be an Epic Games exclusive for awhile. No word regarding a Steam release, either. Kinda dumb really, especially how this game thrived upon the dedication of it's modding community.
A few notable points, as per the article from PC Gamer: