Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Gas Powered Games
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 2.6 GHz CPU, 256 MB DirectX 9-compliant graphics card with Pixel Shader 3.0 support, 1 GB RAM (1.5 GB for Vista/Win 7), 4 to 5 GB hard-drive space, broadband connection for multiplayer
Genre: RTS
Release date: Available now

Supreme Commander 2 continues the tradition started by Total Annihilation in 1997. TA was a game of vast spaces, gigantic hordes of units, novel resource gathering and an interesting approach to construction dynamics. It was a technological marvel for its time, and looks fairly reasonable to this day. In 2007 it was followed by a spiritual successor, Supreme Commander. Most of the ideas behind TA remained, but an amazing graphics engine was introduced, as well as an actual storyline. This year, the series has received its most current update. We published a preview a few months ago, and now that the game is out, it’s time to give it a closer look.

SC2 features three factions from the original SC: the UEF, the Cybran and the Illuminate. The differences between them are initially rather marginal and begin to manifest themselves towards the end of each respective campaign, as unique units and technologies become available. The narrative focuses on three commanders, each representing one of the groups, who have been classmates at some point, but now have become (through no fault of their own) involved in a rogue commander’s plot to take control of a powerful terraforming space station and do horrible things with it. The evildoer is aided by “common criminals,” so the three protagonists must overcome both factional and inter-factional differences to stop him.

There are three types of units: land, air and naval. Additional units or upgrades for existing ones can be obtained through a research tree, where you purchase the desired upgrades with research points. These points are accumulated by completing objectives, killing units, discovering bonus caches and building research facilities. The trees for three types of units are separate, and two additional trees are available for the ACU (Commander Unit) and the buildings. Selecting upgrades in a particular sequence can mean the difference between being overrun by incoming enemies or successfully fighting them off and pushing into their territories. Once you are familiar with all the options, the former will hardly ever be a concern.

Graphically, the game is pretty, and does not demand a lot of resources. The zoom feature is marvelous, allowing you to go from the view of the entire battlefield to a more standard view in which you can see individual units, to an extreme close-up with a single unit taking up the entire screen. The voice acting ranges from decent to excellent, particularly in the case of the main villain, who is a pleasure to hear. Sound effects are appropriate, and the music is non-disruptive. The control scheme works well, everything is clearly marked, structures are easily identifiable and the overall UI experience is easily on par with any similar game.

The devil, however, is in the details. Before this game’s release there was a lot of talk about the amazing new pathfinding system that could revolutionize the RTS genre. Some patches later I am still waiting to experience it. Units push each other out of the way, often move in long lines instead of formations, occasionally get stuck on terrain, and generally don’t live up to the hype. Another disappointing aspect of the game is a very low unit limit of 300 per faction. I kept banging my head against it with annoying regularity. Unlike in RTS games of Starcraft type, in SC2 one unit can barely make a difference and there is hardly any microing, so building hordes of units and sending them at the enemy is the easiest and fastest tactic. Alternatively you can play it as a tower-defense game; I won one of the Illuminate missions by building nothing but turrets and engineers to repair them.

All of this is not to say Supreme Commander 2 isn’t fun. As bad as the plot is, I greatly enjoyed my interactions with the villain. He can best be described as “psychotic silly,” and in combination with his refined verse he produces a delightful effect. I imagine the best way to describe SC2 is to say that it has a lot of unrealized potential. Fixing a few minor problems and maybe adding some useful tactical options would go a long way. In its current form, the game’s price of $50 is unjustified, but a good patch or perhaps a $10 price drop would rectify that very well.

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