Supreme Commander 2 Review (2011, RTS)

Sequel to the epic scaled strategy game Supreme Commander

Graphics -8
Sound -8
Gameplay -7
Difficulty -8
Overall - 8

 

In 2008 Gas powered games introduced us to a new genre of strategy that allowed us to wage large scale open warfare on land, sea and air.  That was the core of Supreme Commander (SC)... That was what made it so good and addictive. Hence it may be no surprise that SC2 may fail to meet your standards as it seems to deviate slightly from this very important core element.

Expected to meet the high standards of its predecessor SC2 is a Real Time Strategy (RTS) game set in the distant future where 3 warring factions battle it out for universal supremacy. A huge difference in SC2 is the removal of 1st and 2md tear units from the game. Many felt that it was a unnecessary component of SC and the game devs have designed SC2 with a much more limited amount of units. The three sides all have unique units, but these are more or less the same  with some minor adjustments. Buildings and another tear of units named "Experimentals" however are very different from faction to faction.

 Expect to see some familiar and unfamiliar units

The campaign it self is nothing to write home about. With a decent storyline continuing on from where the previous game left off , it acts more of a necessary evil that binds the single player campaign together. Graphics, Sounds and Controls and Camera do not provide anything out of the box but are good enough and can be scalable on even low end systems.  Multilayer and skirmish modes add some replay value but again there's nothing new or unique about them. These make the game a stable and enjoyable one however its not without its flaws.

One of the biggest disappointments for me was that many of the SC2 missions have omitted sea based strategy. So your basically stuck with using both land and air units for your warring needs. This puzzles me a lot as i believed sea based warfare was one of the best selling points of SC. Furthermore the scale of battles have been toned down. So if you were expecting to see battles larger than those in SC (Or at least on a similar scale) then again you might be disappointing. Now these might not be noticeable for someone who is new to the series but as a hardcore fan its difficult not to notice them.

The Bottom line
Whether you are a fan of the series or not Supreme Commander 2 is a game that you should  play if you love RTS games.