When we say 'first impressions', we really do mean it -this is all based on about 5 hours with the game. We get the distinct feeling that it's going to take a good ten to fifteen hours to really understand what's going on, so this is all about trying to get a toehold in a game that gives every indication of being one of the best strategy titles ever released.

We downloaded the game directly from Stardock, a process that proved to painless and remarkably fast and suffered none of the launch day issues that might be expected when a whole lot of people are downloading the same thing at the same time from the same place. The download took about twenty minutes and installed flawlessly.

Into the game, then...

First stop were four tutorials that, to be honest, we weren't paying as much attention to as we should have, being immediately distracted by the wonderfully smooth zoom in-zoom out perspective on the universe. Our decidedly mid-range PC - 3.2ghz Pentium IV, Nvidia 7600GS AGP and 1GB RAM - coped with it all very well, though we haven't yet seen a really huge battle take place. There are still a lot of tweakable options that we can crank down if needed, so performance doesn't look like it will be an issue.

The actual game lives up to the promise of blending turn-based depth with real-time gameplay. If feels slightly more RTS-y than 4X-y, though that might be because we haven't come anywhere near to grasping the intricacies of the more 4X specific elements, such as research and economic development. Encouragingly, these things don't feel as if they'll be completely overwhelming to keep tabs on - we're starting to remember that the little research button up the top of the screen is quite important, and in our second game today managed hoist the economy out of the red. Quite a special little moment until an intimidatingly large enemy armada ripped our front door off its hinges and beat us to death with it. Note to self: keep home planet defence force in tip-top condition and do not, under any circumstances, send them off on picnics...

The only question we can address at this early stage is whether or not the whole 'RT4X' thing works or not. Is it fun? Is it a game you'd want to play? Yes, it is. Without a doubt. It all just seems to work and if it does get a bit much, you can largely negate the real-time pressures by making liberal use of the pause button. Definitely handy as you fumble through the tech tree. The game seems rock solid, polished to a glossy sheen and packed with detail, to an obsessive degree. Just one example: every individual map has a unique title card in the menu. Yes, really. Madness.

Once you add in Stardock's completely laid back attitude to copy protection - there isn't any - and Sins of a Solar Empire simply has everything going for it.  It's fun, it's unique, it runs well and it's cheap. It's one of the best reasons for owning a PC that we've seen.

Sure, our opinion might change after another five hours (or ten or twenty) and there are bound to be elements of the game that need further tweaking, but so far, Sins of a Solar Empire is easily exceeding our expectations.