Stardock might have broken a few hearts with the whole Elemental launch fiasco (for which they recently offered a remarkably earnest mea culpa), but it’s clear they’re still well aware what’s important. Specifically, an epic comeback for Sins of a Solar Empire, the space strategy game that got RPS’s hive-heart all a-flutter back in 2007. It is to return, in the form of standalone expansion pack Rebellion. Immediately standing out in the list of planned features is “New Titan-class ships: Massive warships for each race that dwarf capital ships, these deadly new monsters are capable of wiping out entire enemy fleets single-handedly.”

Massive. Dwarf. Deadly. Monsters. Single-handedly. These are all mighty promising words. These, truly, are words of space war.



At the risk of being targeted by the damning nets of Churnalism.com, I will first brazenly the paste the feature list, as rewriting them would in this instance achieve very little:

New Factions: Players decide whether to become Loyalists or Rebels, which unlocks a unique new tech tree granting them new technologies and ship variants.

New Titan-class ships: Massive warships for each race that dwarf capital ships, these deadly new monsters are capable of wiping out entire enemy fleets single-handedly.

New Capital Ships: A new capital ship class arrives, giving players new strategic options.

New Corvette-class ships: Small, highly maneuverable light ships that are adept at a variety of tasks.

Loyalist and Rebel versions of some of the existing Sins’ frigates and cruisers, each with their own unique strengths and weaknesses.

Updated lighting and particle effects for enhanced visuals.

New Victory Conditions to allow for more variety, differing strategies and shorter game sessions.

Additional capital ship ability levels, for greater strategic choice.

Impulse::Reactor support for chat, friends, achievements and more.

Which all sounds jolly good, but you’ll note the repeated mentions of Loyalists and Rebels. That’s the theme of this expandelionalone – sub-factions splintering out of the existing star-houses in pursuit of their imperial destiny. Politics has failed, essentially. Now, there is only war.

Achievements and multiplayer leagues are also promised. This all sounds suspiciously (but positively) as though it’s about rebooting Sins for an even more online age than when it launched, one where incremental updates and more persistent levels of multiplayer are part and parcel of modern gaming. I can get behind that – in a way, it’s better than spending so much time and resource on a full sequel right away. Instead, make something that people love even better. In theory, anyway.

I can’t find a release date for this yet, but more details are on the official site. “Soon” would be an excellent date if you’d like to give us one, Stardock.

Thanks, Thomas45.