Sins of a Solar Empire

While games like Medieval II have tried to marry the tenets of Civilization and StarCraft, Sins is the first game to successfully do so without storing them in separate compartments. But I wonder if the game's triumphs may be a direct function of its setting. The contrived sci-fi notions of hyperspace, synchronous jumps, and vast dead spaces make the game possible and plausible-all are central to why the game works, and I can't think of conceptual analogs in Tolkien, Homer, or World War II history books that'd work as well. Maybe someone as clever as the folks at Ironclad will figure out how to take this concept beyond the stars, but I'm skeptical. Sins may, in fact, be one of a kind.

This isn't just the first great strategy game of 2008. It's also an absolute must-have if you love space strategy.