And no one brings up Haegemonia... Strange.
End of quote
Played that one too. It was more 4x than RTS, IMO. It had a SP campaign mode and only a skirmish mode for free form play which is less 4x than traditional.
Sins captures an old school feel of x4 but at the same time adds some RTS elements that seem to mesh well. And to me that is what is original about it.
4x to me is Master of Orion. And RTS to me is C&C, Dawn of War, Total Annihilation, Sup ream Commander. Some how these two things have gotten cross wired in my brain as Sins of a Solar Empire. Its a good thing.
I mean how many other genres could cross like this. Anyone want to play a FPS/City Builder? Well actually that sounds cool ...