...because I initally voted "I don't like it." I felt that the game was overly complicated, that the learning curve was frightening, and that the whole mess was complicated by worthless tutorials. Over the next few days, I made several attempts to get into SoaSE, but usually ended up closing it down after listening to the menu music for a couple seconds and maybe playing a scenario for five or so very confusing and frantic minutes. I almost shelved this game.

And then, a week later, in a fit of boredom, I actually made an attempt to play the game. I found it surprisingly inituitive and satisfying. The game was much slower paced than I had taken it for, and I found myself with plenty of time to plan and scout. I got sucked in, and have played several full games. After mastering the eco model and learning the tech tree, I found I could run circles around multiple "unfair" CPU players at the same time. Now I'm playing against actual people online, which for the most part is where this game seems to really shine.

I think that Sins is deceptively accessable. It has a lot of disparate elements, but all of them are simplified just enough to be easily managable. It is both fiercly competitive, relaxingly paced (with most settings), and satisfying both due to and in spite of its simplicity. For me, so far, no other game has held that "fuzzy new game feeling" for so long. Multiplayer is chess-like (which can be good or bad depending, I guess), flanking planets through asteroid 'wells' and microing around gas giants to slay LRM blobs with light carriers have been some of my best moments, so far ("haha, you noob, the strikecraft can still kill you").

Good job, Ironclad, your game is fun.

/rant