Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment Review

You can’t fault Stardock for its ambition. Not content with introducing hectic real-time action into the traditionally staid world of the 4X strategy with one of the surprise hits from last year, Sins of a Solar Empire, now it’s intent on re-writing the rulebook for PC game expansion packs as well. Normally, expansion packs try to add to the story of a game, but what do you do when your game has no conventional narrative to expand? Entrenchment is Stardock’s answer to this conundrum, a ‘micro-expansion’ that doesn’t seek to alter the game’s history or story, but instead alters the balance of the game’s mechanics by introducing a whole new style of gameplay through the addition of new units and a new research tree.

‘Micro-expansion’ is essentially a fancy way of saying ‘downloadable content’, a concept that will be familiar to console gamers, but unfamiliar to PC gamers who are unused to premium updates that grant extra features for their games. So-called micro-transactions have a poor reputation amongst PC gamers, but rest assured that Entrenchment is not as cynical an addition as Oblivion’s infamous Horse Armour. One of the key gaps in Sins of a Solar Empire’s balancing was that it did not cater for a player who likes to ‘turtle’ – that is, slowly build up their resources and conduct a defensive campaign, only entering combat when forced to.

Entrenchment is specifically tailored to provide players with the tools to do precisely this, adding several defensively-minded units, plus the offensive units necessary to effectively assault a heavily fortified choke-point. The addition of starbases is almost worth the admission price alone. Though horrifically expensive, starbases are highly upgradeable and can be customised according to whether you need a trade port, an extra ship manufacturing facility, or whether you simply want a heavily armoured offensive platform, armed to the teeth and stuffed full of starfighters to make it as hard as possible for enemies to invade into your territory. A starbase with ten or more starfighter squadrons, plus full armour and weapons upgrades, will easily be capable of hampering the progress of a force including up to three or four capital ships, and the Vasari starbases come with an extra sting in their tail. Unlike those of the Advent and the TEC, Vasari starbases are not fixed to a set position. Imagine then, your horror, as this huge behemoth of a structure, with more hit points than your entire fleet, starts chasing you around the gravity well of a planet, harrying your capital ships. Tackling starbases, therefore, should be done with great care and in great numbers, or as early as possible – before the enemy has had chance to fully upgrade them. For the player, they are a fabulous defensive tool, and assuming your economy can afford all the upgrades, you can have one at every single planet you own, since they don’t impact on your precious logistical supply stat. It’s hard to overstate their potential value, as they can be vital in preventing pirates and enemies alike from getting into the rear of your Empire and wiping out your home planet, giving you the time needed to redeploy your fleet and reinforce your colonies.

Another defensive tactic introduced in Entrenchment is the deployment of mines. Mines can replace the other starfighter squadrons in planetary Hangar Defence units, and are best deployed around the edges of the gravity well. There can be nothing quite so satisfying as having an enemy whisper to you smugly that they’re about to attack one of your planets, only for them to phase jump into a huge minefield. Here the Advent get to cackle even more evilly than the other factions, as their mines have a homing ability that will make them actively hunt down anyone encroaching into the system. The only defence against mines is to use scout units (usually the first frigate type everyone stops using once they can build cruisers) to hunt them out and force them to de-phase so that they can be attacked. Other new units include cruisers that are specifically dedicated to attacking tactical and logistical structures (such as orbital gauss guns and ship factories) from stand-off range, giving offensive fleets added strike power against planetary defences at the expense of not being able to fight other ships.

Entrenchment also gives Sins of a Solar Empire a much-needed visual update and a few useful interface tweaks, so if you’ve not played Sins for a couple of patches, you’re in for a pleasant surprise, as not only is the game better-looking, it’s also more intuitive to play as well – with the Black Market commodity price monitor being added to the main screen being a particularly welcome tweak. One minor issue is that save games from Sins are not compatible with Entrenchment (nor vice versa), so it is not possible to import a save game from one version to the other. The only other real concern is whether Entrenchment (at an asking price of $10) is good value or not.

This is subjective and highly arguable. If Sins of a Solar Empire left you cold, Entrenchment will do little to change your mind. But if you’re still getting a lot of mileage out of the original game, then Entrenchment is without doubt absolutely essential. Adding the ability to conduct a campaign with a defensive mindset fundamentally alters the game balance in a positive way and gives Sins of a Solar Empire the one extra facet it needed to truly become a shining jewel in the morass of RTS titles on the PC. Entrenchment makes Sins of a Solar Empire more playable and accessible to 4X strategy and RTS gamers alike and builds on its predecessor’s success to create a memorable experience with both depth and spectacle. At this price, what more can you ask for?