It’s time to check back in with Sins of a Solar Empire 2, as a major update touches down in the space 4X game, alongside a new expansion that will put your skills to the test in a range of high-stakes missions. As the Paths to Power DLC launches, developer Stardock has reintroduced the original’s population mechanic to the 2024 strategy game, alongside new units, planet types, and a dramatic balance pass.
Sins of a Solar Empire 2 has proven a winner since its launch in August, bringing a much-needed modern overhaul to the 2008 space game. Now, Stardock has unleashed its latest update, Total Subjugation, which incorporates a redesigned version of the prior 4X game’s population mechanics. Culture will now play a big role upon the various peoples spread across the galaxy, and managing to dominate the zeitgeist on a given planet will earn you bonuses to resource and research generation while debuffing those of rival cultures that live there.
The patch also introduces three more units designed “to help fill gaps in battle rosters.” The TEC gains the Stilat Missile Corvette, while the Vasari gets access to the Heavy Fighter Strikecraft and the Junsurak Warden Frigate. You’ll also encounter three more planet types: ice moons, volcanic moons, and barren planets. Alongside that comes a “massive rebalance of everything from research costs to unit durability and more.”
New Sins of a Solar Empire 2 DLC Paths to Power also arrives with this update, and offers you more than ten new scenario missions designed to offer a range of challenging hand-crafted setups for you to overcome in single-player. Play as the Vasari in ‘All as One’ and form an uneasy alliance with your typically hostile neighbors to uncover and stop a mysterious, unknown enemy threat that is slowly obliterating solar systems.
Scorched Space tasks you with exploring a destroyed star system at the edge of Trader space, determining how to deal with the mysterious, seemingly inactive starbases that are found there. For something more immediately explosive, Superpowers hands you control of half of a resource-rich system, with an initial fleet at your disposal and a large chunk of your tech tree already unlocked. Your goal is simply to wipe out your opponent. Each setup brings something different to the table, so you’ll have lots of options.
The Sins of a Solar Empire 2 DLC Paths to Power is out now, priced at $12.99 / £10.99. Update 1.4, Total Subjugation, has also been released to the base game for free. Head here to take a look at everything the new expansion pack has to offer.
Find plenty more strategic specialities among the best grand strategy games, or the best RTS games on PC, depending upon your particular preferences.
You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We’ve also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.