There's a lot of depth and moving parts to attend to, and while it can be overwhelming at times, everything moves at a comfortable pace. Diplomacy is always an option too, though all-out war provides the real thrust behind the complex strategic gameplay.

Sins of a Solar Empire's absorbing brand of real-time intergalactic warfare finds you colonizing and defending planets, researching military and economic technologies, expanding your cultural influence, mining useful resources, and building up a powerful fleet of diverse ships to thrash your opponents with. You still won't find any proper solo campaign to speak of, which feels like yet another missed opportunity, but that's not much of an issue, since the thrill of getting caught up in a heavily armed bid to conquer the galaxy with single sandbox-mode game can last for several days straight. With the sheer breadth of content found here and in-depth tutorials to balance out its dizzying level of depth, Rebellion is a killer entry point to the venerable 4X tactical space combat series.

This standalone expansion rolls all the previous add-on content into a neat bundle rounded out by a slew of subtle fresh updates that nod heavily towards veteran players without leaving newcomers out to dry.

Sins of a solar empire advent