Supreme Commander 2

10 Review to this product

• 

  Dinners
  August 18th, 2010 on 9:48 am

  Rating

  So much negativity from trolls on this game…..they go from site to site slamming pretty much everything and anything…like a seven year old kid who doesn’t get his candy exactly in the right color!
  
  So…onto the review! The demo unfortunatly does not do the game justice….you really have to get in an play Skirmish against some (now updated) very tough AI opponents (with skirmish save game coming very soon I hear) the ranked MP games are incredible fun……huge 8 player matches with strategies that will make you roll over with laughter.
  
  My favorite MP game had a player using a teleporter to get into my base…..I was able to build a magnetron and chew up 2 universal colossues coming through it which gave me a huge mass gain…..I was then able to get through their teleport beacon with my units and attack his base. I still lost as this game can get turned around on your pretty quickly.
  
  The publisher or GPG is putting out patches almost weekly as well which are really improving the game.
  
  Don’t listen to the trolls and give this game a try…..you will get addicted pretty damned fast!
  
  Hoping they get some DLC coming out soon though….and new maps!
• 

  David Hoffman
  August 18th, 2010 on 2:50 pm

  Rating

  I own both the PC and the 360 version. The reviews that came out from the ‘hardcore’ fans are total crap. The game on both platforms is amazing and tons of fun to play. There are always people on the multiplayer sections so it’s easy to get a game going. The developer has already released about 5 patches and improved the game quite a bit.

  Do yourself a favor and download the FREE demo for yourself and check it out. Great stuff! A+++
• 

  Austin Yun Hao Liu
  August 19th, 2010 on 2:16 pm

  Rating

  The game is great. there isnt as many types of units as the first one but u can upgrade them to do different things. The game require steam in order to play
• 

  T. Lowe
  August 19th, 2010 on 2:58 pm

  Rating

  The original Supreme Commander was an instant hit with me because it updated the Total Annihilation Real-Time Strategy game with a modern interface; strategic zoom, re-routable waypoints, and several ways to automate mundane tasks.

  While buggy, I even appreciated the first game’s 360 version because this modern interface lent itself to a simplified control scheme on consoles. Though I still played mostly on the PC. Now Chris Taylor has released Supreme Commander 2, which streamlines the interface and gameplay even more. There has been a lot of controversy over the simplification. Some people have gone as far to say it has been dumbed down and shouldn’t be given the proper name of “Supreme Commander 2″ but rather, should have been named with a qualifier that would scope its ambition as a simple spin-off.

  The primary complaints I’ve heard from others:

  * The economy is no longer rate-based, but a more traditional “buy only as you have the money” system
  
  * The number of total available units has been reduced significantly
  
  * A new resource, Research, has been introduced with a literal tech-tree associated to spend resource points (kind of like RPG skill assignments for new types of units or enhanced abilities)
  
  * STEAM is used for activation, community, and multi-player

  The game is different from Supreme Commander 1, however, it is still recognizable and doesn’t feel like something completely foreign with a SupCom skin applied as some have suggested. It is faster paced, quicker battles, and rewards players that take action.

  Economy
  
  In the previous games, you could queue up build orders to your heart’s content and the building progress rate would simply slow down if you were spending more resources than you had on hand. So all of your building projects would decrease evenly, and then increase evenly as your income became better.

  With the new system, you pay the full price for each item as you queue it. When you drag a line of power to be built for example, once you get to a length you cannot afford it turns from green outlines to yellow. Those buildings will not be built at any future point.. You will need to re-select to build them once you do have the resources available.

  It was only in the very early game where I hit a wall where I needed to wait for resources in order to build something. Once I had my economy research done, I was able to pump out what I wanted when I needed it. One aspect of the design with the literal tech tree and resource points costs, is that I now tend to focus on what I plan to do. Because I’m focusing efforts down a particular path, my resource spend is also focused. I think this actually makes me a better player because I’m not building a general pool of economy in order to react to my opponent… I’m more aware of my strategy and tend to be more on the offense.

  Another change related to economy is that there is no longer a resource storage system or resource cap. This means there is no longer an element of wasted resources and is probably why I never saw “yellow” telling me I couldn’t build as the game progressed. I have infinite storage, so nothing was lost.

  This change will take some adjustments, but it doesn’t render the game unplayable. One might even argue that it makes the game more accessible by adhering to a more universally accepted system.

  UNITS
  
  Instead of increasing your rate of income or damage by advancing unit types from Tech 1, to Tech 2, Tech 3 and finally Experimental levels, a single unit type has been defined, and the rate at which it grows over the course of a game is impacted by researching specific skills to “level up” the in-place units.

  For example, you start with the ability to build a basic tank frame. It has two canon barrels. You do research and now that same frame, including all currently deployed tanks, get a third canon barrel. Upgrade again and you give them all anti-air, do some more research and now they have shield generators. You basically get all of the Tech 1-3 built on the same frame via research rather than self destructing Tech 1 units to clear the unit cap limit so that you can build Tech 3 units.

  I think this is a great change.

  RESEARCH
  
  In addition to Energy and Metal, Supreme Commander 2 also introduces the concept of Research. The points are earned in two ways.

  For each research station I build, I get .6 points per time unit. However, when I research the “research Income” that goes up to .8 points per time unit. So an orange bar is filling up faster the more research stations I have, and each research station rate is impacted by leveling up the research skill. Once I earn a research point, it is stored in a virtual wallet, and cannot be destroyed. The number displayed above the orange rate bar indicates the points on hand for research.

  The second way points are earned, is through combat. So the more battles I engage in, the faster the research bar increases earning me more points as well.

  These points are spent on leveling up your units. These research items can impact build rates, costs, range, armor, hit points, available units, special abilities, and more. There is a new panel that displays the hierarchy and dependency mapping for each ability, very similar to skill trees common in Role Playing Games.

  STEAM
  
  The downside of STEAM integration is that it is forced for product activation. I can imagine there are still plenty of people out there that play PC games without reliable Internet connectivity, and even more people that would just rather not tie themselves into a particular digital distribution provider. However, Total Annihilation’s service, Boneyards died and it is now difficult to play that classic over the Internet without a 3rd party application like Kali. Compared to the current incarnation of Boneyards known as GPG Net, STEAM performs better and appears to be better for community features, hooking up and playing pick-up games, as well as giving you more widely recognized achievements.

  I’ve played enough of Supreme Commander 2 to know that I love it despite its changes to the formula. The enhancements that made Supreme Commander’s interface the best in the business, are still intact and now the gameplay has been streamlined as well giving a more consistent experience and welcomed healthy pace for games lasting between 30 and 45 minutes.
• 

  Jacob Dieffenbach
  August 21st, 2010 on 2:25 am

  Rating

  There’s been a lot of debate about whether Supreme Commander 2 is worthy of its predecessor’s title. Some of the points raised are valid, some not so valid. But here’s a quick rundown of why you should buy this game–or not–addressing each concern raised by the community upon release.

  The Economy:
  
  Supreme Commander and Forged Alliance both had stunningly complex and intriguing economies. You could be acquiring 50 Mass per second, and be spending it at a rate of 100 Mass per second. The result would be a 50% production rate (a unit which takes 60 seconds to make will take 120). This has appealed to many RTS fans, who may have gotten tired of the old RTS standby where you collect resources, and spend them at the moment you tell a unit to start construction.

  Supreme Commander 2 does not have this feature, instead hybridizing the two methods. You still construct mass extractors and power plants in the same fashion, and you still ACQUIRE resources in a steady flowing stream, but you spend them in chunks. There are pros and cons to this situation: the benefit is, it’s nearly impossible to overextend your base’s economy, reducing yourself to 1% production speed, and since this fashion is more familiar to most RTS players, it makes the Supreme Commander 2 learning curve quite pleasant, and for veteran RTS players it makes the game more accessible. The downside is the loss of fluidity, which while an attractive feature on paper, made gameplay difficult, made the downward spiral to defeat steeper, and made the first 10 minutes of the game cookie-cutter base building to maximize efficiency.

  The Units:
  
  The units in Supreme Commander 2 are vastly reduced in quantity compared to Supreme Commander. You don’t have a tier 1 tank, a tier 2 tank, and a tier 3 tank: you have a single tank that you can build at the start of the game, which can be upgraded (again, in a more familiar RTS style) through a branching research tree (not so familiar except to perhaps Civilization players).

  Again, there are pros and cons to this situation. Building small but powerful control groups composed of only the highest-tier selection of units is difficult (NOT impossible however, as research will allow you to unlock a wider variety of units, some of which ARE more powerful for composing these elite strike forces), but it also vastly increases the amount of specialization–and thus, tactics–you as a commander will have for your troops. You’ll often find yourself attempting to field a massive, highly upgraded air force, or tank army, or whatever, rather than spreading out your research points evenly. Again, this leads to more variety in combat, and much deeper tactical decisions than in Supreme Commander.

  The Maps:
  
  The maps look spectacular. Many old ones have made a return, and the new ones include geometric man-made terrain and bridges without water that allow for interesting tactics and choke points. The only complaint I’d have is that there is only one 8 player map, but plenty of smaller maps in both FFA and vs. formats.

  Gameplay:
  
  As I’ve hinted at, gameplay is streamlined and much more tactical. Specialized armies with much better pathfinding, area-attack brushes and simpler controls make for a somewhat non-intuitively more entertaining experience. The improved AI for your troops makes thinks a much more pleasurable experience as well: no more micromanaging your engineers to salvage mass, no more waiting for your troops to enter formation before moving out, and so on.

  Games have become rather quick, but no less intense. However, units seem much better balanced against each other, including your ACU and experimentals (which can be taken down by a well-coordinated army of tanks or the like), so I can only attribute quicker battles to the increased need for tactics: ill-coordinated tactics (such as a poorly maneuvered flank or not successfully managing a choke point) lead to your fall much quicker than in Supreme Commander.

  Steam:
  
  Many players seem to dislike the fact that this game requires Steam installed. I speak from a biased perspective as someone who has Steam on every second that my computer’s on, but Supreme Commander used GPGNet, which was vastly inferior to the services Steam can provide. I’d rather have Steam than any other form of DRM, and at least with Steam my game is permanently backed up, I can redownload it anywhere without the DVD, and best of all, since I already have Steam, using Supreme Commander 2 means I don’t have to have a SECOND piece of online gaming software installed on my PC.

  Conclusions:
  
  This game is fun. You will have fun playing it, you will come out from both victories and failures feeling more accomplished, and wanting to use your tactical knowledge to greater effect next time.

  But is it the game for Supreme Commander fans? Well, speaking as a great fan of Forged Alliance and Supreme Commander, I’d have to say yes, and I’ll tell you why:

  I don’t find myself doing anything in Supreme Commander 2 any less than I’d do in Supreme Commander. Do I have less unit options? Yes, but in Supreme Commander I only used one tech level of tanks or planes or whatever at a time anyway (starting with 1, upgrading ALL of my factories to build 2, then moving on to 3). Are battles quicker? Yes, but that’s because they have more satisfying finishes and more clashing crescendos. Are the controls simpler? Yes, but that’s because they have streamlined things into more convenient ways of managing them.

  Does the game have problems though? Yes it does. My factories cannot assist each other, I can’t ping the map for my allies–and why, oh why, can my Cybran Experimental Research Facility not give research points to my allies?

  Where are my scout planes, or my stupid little army units that take 1 second to build but make for hilariously ineffective assaults?

  These questions beg answers. I hope the answers come in the form of updates and DLC (which Valve and GPG seem to have specifically designed the game to have the capacity for, so here’s hoping for that!).
• 

  J. Dunlavy
  August 21st, 2010 on 8:10 am

  Rating

  Small review: After Command and Conquer 4 was complete suck, I bought this. I’m quite pleased! The game is good, so don’t be put off by the bad reviews here, which I think is the result of a very vocal, upset fanbase leftover from the first game.

  Growing up with Age of Empires and Command and Conquer, though, this is a great RTS game to own and practice.
• 

  javajeff
  August 22nd, 2010 on 5:56 am

  Rating

  General/Summary:

  When I played Total Annihilation when it was first released, I was blown away. The debates were out at the time between Total Annihilation and Starcraft fighting for the title of best RTS game. On one hand was the all flash and personality of Starcraft while the other hand had Total Annihilation with big depth, mass destruction, and a killer soundtrack. I liked both games, and they were so different that I was able to enjoy them for different reasons. However, something deep inside always had me prefer Total Annihilation for the substance over the flash.

  A decade later came Supreme Commander and Supreme Commander Forged Alliance which provided the same big depth as Total Annihilation, but added a new 3D graphics engine and the ability to zoom out to a satellite view of the battle field. This feature is so innovative, that the old minimap is no longer needed. It may not be a superior game to Total Annihilation, but as the spiritual successor, it likely did equal the original title. Although it can be argued either way, and you will find people in both camps defending their favorite game. While I enjoyed playing Supreme Commander, I always struggled with the economy part of the game and this is one of the reasons that I preferred Starcraft for the online play. Total Annihilation had the easy economy game with Metal Maps, where players could build metal extractors anywhere on the map. Supreme Commander’s economy is difficult and requires players to be able to click fast to win. I prefer a slightly lighter economy so that the game can be more about strategy and less about clicking. The reason a light economy game is more strategic is because it keeps all players on equal footing whereas a complicated economy games only benefits the players with the LEARNED build orders. Something that is LEARNED is not strategic, and only necessary to put players on equal footing. However, even the best RTS players should be able to compete and dominate in a light economy game if they are indeed the best RTS players. This is where Supreme Commander 2 jumps into the mix with the depth of a bigger game and a more accessible economy.

  I applaud these changes and find that I will enjoy Supreme Commander 2 more than the previous titles even if it does not offer anything groundbreaking. The innovation already happened with Supreme Commander Forged Alliance, so now it is time to bring this gameplay to the masses. The mass, energy, and research bank type of resource system is easier to play and manage, but still allows other players to cripple the economy.

  Gameplay:

  The design team made the right decision to simplify the economy, so people like me can have an easier time competing online or in a skirmish against the AI. I am not going to talk about the missions that much, but I can say that it is story driven. I am not big on stories in an RTS game. I am just as happy when games add a conquer the world style of mission gameplay since the story is not needed for me. However, RTS games will always be about the skirmish online or against the computer.

  On that note, There are more differences between Supreme Commander 2 and Supreme Commander. The tiered unit system from Supreme Commander is gone and was replaced by a researchable tech tree. There is no longer a need to send your pee wee units off to die since all your units will upgrade when the chosen research is selected. People can debate about their being more units with a tier system, but the reality is that tier 1 and 2 each have their tank, anti air, long range, etc. units just like the upgrade system. It is just a different way to do it, but accomplishing the same result of upgraded units. For the more casual gamer, they do not have to worry about upgrading their buildings to build upgraded units. They can simply enter research and increase abilities and stats. Research is divided up by land units, air units, naval units, structure, and ACU. So you will have to decide if you want to upgrade your economy or units.

  A unique feature is that the buildings can be upgraded with add-ons like shields and anti air, which is a cheap way to have some early game defense. Another unique feature is the automatic grouping of units. While zoomed out, units traveling on the same orders like a waypoint will have a number in a circle that can be clicked to select them. This makes it easy to select a group of air units on the same patrol for example. The game still has the commander, a variety of units, and of course the experimental units. Some units require research to be unlocked and available to build. There is room for more units that have unique functions, so perhaps this can be addressed in an expansion pack.

  Graphics:

  The 3D engine is fantastic with terrific looking maps and huge explosions. The animations have pieces of the units flying everywhere. The game was optimized to run smoother than the previous Supreme Commander titles. I have two complaints that could be due to optimization. First off, the air units just float in the air after production if no patrol waypoint is created. Supreme Commander and Total Annihilation had them land on the ground, but that would require extra animation. Second, the units look a little more blocky or cartoony than previous games. I am sure the design team had to make many decisions to make this game run well on a variety of computers. Overall, they made good decisions and the game looks great.

  Sound:

  The sound is fitting, but not a big difference between other games in the genre. I would not hesitate to call the sound average or bland. There are no unit acknowledgements that other games have, which is why some personality is absent. I do not always need a cute reply from my units, so a straight forward RTS is fine. However, some people love personality and thrive to find it in games.

  Conclusion:

  Overall, this is a fun game. It has the name Supreme Commander in the title, so it will always be compared to the original. I think that the game was improved to be more accessible without taking out too much of the elements that make the first game fun. The Supreme Commander veterans will complain that this is not the first title, but they will still have Supreme Commander and Forged Alliance to play if that is what they prefer. It is really a small percentage of the population that are RTS gurus that memorize every possible build order to maximize their economy. I personally find it frustrating that someone else has twice as many units as me, and the game is actually over before the first battle. I prefer this new gameplay that allows me to think on my feet with tactics and strategy than worrying about what buildings or units to build first.
• 

  Clear to Land
  August 22nd, 2010 on 6:51 pm

  Rating

  This is a terrific game all around, I don’t see what all the low ratings are all about. The gameplay, graphics, and story are all terrific. Although you do need to have STEAM access, the overall gaming is awesome. The best part of it is that you do not need a high end graphics card to really enjoy this title. It is challenging to both novice and veteran RTS fans. Anyone who is a Supreme Commander fan, owes it to themselves to pick this one up. Awesome concept, Awesome game.
• 

  Alexander Sommer
  August 22nd, 2010 on 10:58 pm

  Rating

  Sure, Supreme Commander 2 is not Supreme Commander. Nor Fordged Alliance. And yes, it is not that complex as the previous versions. And yes, I also would like to have the complex game. But compared to other RTS games, it still has *enough* complexity. Compared to C&C, i like it MUCH more.
  
• 

  El Conquistador
  August 23rd, 2010 on 5:55 pm

  Rating

  Now, almost all of the reviews that I have seen for this game are negative, claiming that it is a complete rip-off compared to the original game. On most aspects, I disagree. Also, I think that a lot of people are intentionally going against everyone who says that the game is good by giving them thumbs downs and commenting against them, so just know that people are going to purposely spread false information about the game, and don’t be surprised if this review has lots of thumbs downs and negative comments.

  Pros

  1. Games don’t take 5 hours anymore-In the original, games often took more than five hours for me, and I didn’t really like saving, because then you had to re-adapt to the middle of a battle, so I usually spent hours on end playing the games. One main reason of this was because the, for example, nuke launchers took over an hour to build unassisted by a single tech 3 engineer, and the actual missiles took about 10 minutes, during which they were eating away at your resources and getting you nothing. Now, nuke launchers take just a minute to build by the ACU, and the missiles take about 2 and a half minutes. Overall, most of my games now take less than an hour and ten minutes, with my shortest time being 4 minutes and 40 seconds (this was to get an achievment on Steam, called Rushin’ Front, which requires you to win a skirmish in less than 5 minutes).
  
  2. Research-Although a lot of people think that the research is retarded and pointless, it actually is a really good idea. Basically, you have research points which are generated gradually over time or quickly during combat, and you use these points on five tech trees, all of which use the same points: Land, Air, Naval, Structure, and ACU. There are three types of techs: Unlocks (which unlock new structures or units for construction), upgrades (which give units new guns or shields or etc), and boosts, which enhance preexisting systems (the UEF (human) faction has a bosst which gives their tanks and mobile artillery guns 1 extra barrel).
  
  3. New UI-The strategic mode, for instance, seems weird and is annoying at some points, but it actually makes the game easier to handle, especially when coordinating large assaults, because the unit groups stack together and you just click the number for the group and you get control of the units.
  
  4. New Experimentals-Now, instead of there being just one type of experimental units which are built by the ACU or engineer, there are now technically 4 types (Land and Air, which are built by factories, and Naval and Structure, which are still built by ACU and engineers) and there are minor and major experimentals. Minow experimentals are cheaper and build faster, but lack the firepower and abilities of major experimentals (the Cybrans (the half-computer faction) have a minor experimental, the Megalith II, which has heavy beam and aa lasers, but is lightly armored, whereas the bomb-bouncer, which is a massive experimental deflector shield, deploys a large shield over a large area which projectiles bounce off of back at their launchers, while charging the Mega-Blast, which releases a massive explosion that damages and destroys all enemies in a large radius). Some experimentals lack certain features, like the darkenoid (the new CZAR) which doesn’t have AA guns.

  Cons:
  
  1 A bit too simple-not much to elaborate on there
  
  2. You Need Steam to get it-Another obvious one that i won’t explain
  
  3. You Can NOT SAVE SKIRMISHES-I hear that Square Enix is working on yet another patch to correct this, but sometimes there are the “Got to Go” moments in life where you just want to finish the battle later.

  Overall:
  
  Play the demo first, see if you like it. If you aren’t really interested, get third-party opinions from friends or people online who have the game. Don’t go with what people here think, ask people who actually have played the game (as retarded as it sounds, some people reviewed the game and mentioned in the review that they had never actually played the full version). If you like the demo, stil ask others, but this is still a great game. Remember, experience is greater than what a stranger said, and I am talking about my own review negatively.