Supreme Commander 2. Got it for a couple of bucks (literally!) during a Steam sale.

Metacritic gives it 77.

Here’s what I think:

The Good:

  • Excellent Command Interface
    Seriously, why can’t more RTS games allow you to so easily and so visually stack commands? Why aren’t all RTS construction units smart enough to do repairs while on patrol? Sadly it is not quite as advanced as the original Supreme Commander (no factories-assisting-factories for example) but it comes close.
  • Strategic Zoom
    Another thing sorely lacking from RTS games. Being able to seamlessly zoom from up close to seeing the whole map is leagues better than a minimap.
  • Multi-Monitor Support
    Two monitors, two different viewports, both fully functional. Again, this is something sorely missing from other RTS games.
  • Decent Single Player Campaign Story
    The plot is decent if simple, the characters are interesting if a bit shallow. What I’m trying to say is that it’s not offensive.


Diabolical! The UEF has cloned Sarah Palin.

  • Some Interesting Single Player Missions
    They throw in a few surprises. My favourite: an enemy that just built construction units. They captured my armies and constantly built defensive towers. I had to adapt to defeat this bizarre new strategy.


In the background of the first Aeon mission, a massive robot plods through the desert. It’s not some cut-scene only thing — it’s real and visible on your strategic map. It has nothing to do with the mission and isn’t mentioned at all, which is why I think it’s a nice touch.

  • Distinct Factions
    Each faction has its own feel, both visually and in terms of what units it has access to.
  • Solid Multiplayer Netcode
    The original Supreme Commander was one of the last mainstream games to allow connection by direct IP. (Only pirates are smart enough to type in IP addresses, don’tcha know?) Supreme Commander 2 doesn’t allow this, but the multiplayer it does have (integrated with Steam I suppose) is flawless.

The Bad:

  • No Grand Strategic Scale
    There were two ways to play the original Supreme Commander. Small or big. In small mode, it’s all action — you’re so close to your enemies you’re constantly skirmishing and even your ACU gets in the fight. In big mode, it’s all planning — you’re in a slow dance of strategy with your enemies, moving armies and constructing defenses to counter what you’ve seen coming on radar or via air scouts.
    Both modes are fun. It’s just that in Supreme Commander 2, big mode is dead. It seems obvious to me it is dead by design — they wanted to focus on the small mode.
    Why is big mode untenable? Many reasons, but I think the main reason is that distance is now treated as a nuisance rather than a strategy. One example: Land units were once slow and needed air transport if you wanted to give them mobility, which in turn meant you needed air superiority over their transport route. Now, even the slowest land units are quite nippy, which means that particular nuance of distance disappears.


Die dinosaur, die! Evolution is just a theory! Commander Lynch told me so!

  • Most Single-Player Missions are Formulaic
    You can win as follows. Make factory. Give factory shields. Put lots of defensive towers inside the shield bubble. Make lots of engineers. Have engineers patrol around the factory, and also venture out to reclaim the scrap metal of enemies who will die assaulting your position. You get metal from the scrap.



    Shields and patrolling engineers will keep everything in good repair. Repeat with more factories to secure more territory. Eventually you’ll be able to afford some top-tier technology at which point you can go on the offensive
    I said most, not all. Some missions are time-critical. Some are simply challenging enough that even with this silly strategy you’ll be pressed.


Most of my campaign missions were rated this way. Why hurry and risk failure? It’s not like the story AI knows how to turn its initial massive economy advantage into a strategic advantage.

The Ugly:

  • Sky Tanks
    Maybe this is a matter of personal taste more than a valid complaint. Aircraft are very mobile. For this, they deserve a downside. In the original Supreme Commander they had limited fuel and they would get chewed up by air defence. In Supreme Commander 2 they have no such limitations and are essentially flying tanks. It seems very wrong to me that a valid means of taking out anti-air towers is to mob them with aircraft.
  • Missed Storyline Opportunity
    Supreme Commander 2 has a fairly light adventure story. To my mind this is a massive mistake. The nature of the “Infinite War” is a unique one. Generals fight one another on isolated planets. The armies they field are soulless robots. Each battle is more like a chess game, man-on-man (or woman). It should have a gritty, dark psychological feel. It should be about loneliness, mental fatigue, the absurdity of growth for growth’s sake and the utter futility of smashing massive armies of robots against one another.
    Or hell, it could be a dispassionate story about tactics and tacticians, much like Total Annihilation was.
    There are lot of interesting themes that can arise from the Infinite War, yet instead we have routine war stories — disobeying orders from war-mongering generals and saving civilians from maniacs.


Whoever made the loading screen knows what I’m talking about. Rain-swept fields of smouldering robotic corpses. Tattered factional flags planted in the mud as if to claim it. This is more profound than the entirety of the single-player campaign.

Conclusion:

  • Rated Ordinary (on the Amazing, Good, Ordinary, Marginal, Critical scale).
  • On its own, it’s a very average RTS which just happens to have a great interface. It’s a real disappointment given its heritage.

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