The diplomatic game is simple, and it’s not yet clear how responsive it is to player expansion. You have three levels of agreement (intelligence treaty, non-aggression pact and trade agreement) and once you sign a deal, the AI seems happy enough to stick with you most of the time. The only disincentive for signing treaties with everyone is that, eventually, you will want a fourth or fifth planet to get the higher level goodies. Playing nice seems to be a good strategy until you finally bump into your logistics cap.

Will Sins of a Solar Empire be the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup of strategy games, seamlessly meshing two great tastes in one package? It’s still too soon to say. The pacing of the game will make for a challenging multiplayer experience and the tutorial still needs a lot of work. But, succeed or fail, this is one of the strategy games to watch and should be ready to go next month.