There are only two issues in this game holding it back from being that "fantastic" game that comes around once in a long while. Sadly, they are big issues.

1. The Multi-player system setup is dreadful. I consistently see 300+ people on, and 3-4 games looking for players. Even assuming there are games in progress, day in and out the chat lobby is filled with people asking why they cannot host or join games. The 3 of us in my clan who have committed to purchasing this game have the same problem. We've followed the FAQ's to the letter, forwarded-opened-and initiated everything that requires it, and still are unable to host any games. This is a very wide spread problem, a problem that was never this bad with other titles that DID have issues like the Total War series, Dawn of War etc. Those were usually small, and patched/fixed immediately. This is something else entirely. If this hosting problem isn't resolved, and soon, there is little point to sinking any more time or effort into the game and forming a community. To say nothing of regreting the purchase.

2. Which leads to point #2.  In the absence of a decent Multi-player experience, the game is looked to for its single player accolades. Sins however, seems to ignore this. I cannot think of a major, or even minor, RTSish title with any kind of lore that did NOT have a campgain mode exploring the storyline. What was the point of a long intro and a few pages in the manual about the races backstory if there IS no story in the game? Warcraft, Starcraft, Dawn of War, Command and Conquer (both series), the list goes on ALL have a single player story mode/grand campagin. The ONLY series that doesnt, is the Total War series, and it does have missions in the game itself/its based on history, which is a story.

Barring a resolution to the above mentioned problems, especially the MP aspect of the game, I feel thats Sins will fall very short of its potential, and Im already somewhat bitter at Ironclad as a company for not following the lead of countless companies/titles who navigated around the routing concerns. Had I known previously of the problems so many people were having, I would have waited or passed on the title altogether.

I am very disappointed.