Supreme Commander 2 preview

[jango]

Command and Conquer, Warhammer, Starcraft, the Age of Empires series, and who can forget Elmo Goes Postal - all titles that conjure up scenes of frantic strategic action set amongst mounting odds (especially the Elmo one). So, in less than a month Supreme Commander 2 will swoop in majestically into this company hoping that the phasers are only set to 'pwn'.

What you can expect is a very similar game to C&C or Starcraft in almost every aspect. Now, that might sound like the beginning, middle, and end of this preview (which in a way it possibly could be), but lift up the hood of this RTS and you'll see some interesting features. The game, by Square Enix and Gas Powered Games (Demigod, Total Annihilation, Dungeon Seige etc), has had a lot of time, money, effort, and detail poured into it to make it a more fluid and varied experience than the first game. But, like the law of averages does this mean that it'll still somehow end up landing butter-side down?



Well, to answer that let's look at a few of the salient aspects of the game:

# Take on the role of three enigmatic commanders; former friends from each of the unique factions -- The United Earth Federation (UEF), The Illuminate and the Cybran Nation -- who get dragged into a conflict of galactic consequences.

# Explore a rich, character-driven single-player game which spans over 18 missions and delivers a new level of emotional connection to the RTS genre, or take the battle online for an exhilarating multi-player experience.

# Fight action-packed battles on a massive scale, waging war with enormous land, air and naval units in visually spectacular environments, brought to life by all-new rendering technology and a true evolution of RTS controls on both platforms.

# Upgrade and customize armies with new weapons and technology and deploy them instantly on the battlefield, turning a base-level tank into a high-powered, multi-barreled, anti-aircraft-sporting multipurpose battle unit.

# Deploy wild experimental war machines that can change the balance of power at any given moment.

# Experience a streamlined economy and redesigned UI that put the focus squarely on combat, battlefield tactics and high-level strategic decision making, and give improved player feedback in Strategic Zoom view.

So clearly there's a decent scope for both single and multi-player modes, but with more focus on action than other resource-driven games in this genre. Still, despite the 'spin' you might see some rather obvious parallels to the games already mntioned in this preview, as well as the prospective contents of forthcoming games like Starcraft 2 .. is there anything new, different, unique? Well, if you watch some of the developer videos or read some of the other previews around you'll soon see that while the technology being used is very diverse they've also tried to continually bring it back to gameplay at every stage. However, this was often a short-fall of other RTS games - being only focused.

Generally RTS games with a balanced focus on resource management and action have won through and become classics, whereas games that have tried to hedge their bets (despite having a game engine brimming with the latest gamma-radiated spark plugs that are capable of sending supernova binary widgetbits faster than a nuclear-fuelled rabbit rocket being propelled into the stratosphere) haven't quite come up to par.

Whilst the game clearly looks great, and the units appear to be varied and interesting offering a number of alternatives to gameplay (which will more than likely make it an awesome game to play online), there's a certain sheen that puts doubt in my mind somehow. A lot of the single player success of these games, regardless of which side of the 'resouce-focused or not to resource-focus' line the game falls under, is a decent AI, or at the very least a decent scaling of difficulty. This will more than likely make the difference between Supreme Commander 2 being a filler game before Starcraft 2, or a proper alternative to it.



This might be one of those games to check out at your local store before buying, or borrowing it, or checking out a demo someday. Also, consider how games like Company of Heroes impacted on online communities - a game that managed an enormous following even today despite having a dodgy expansion, with the gameplay rather than the latest engine with awesome graphics being the primary concern. If you want a stop-gap game then this might be perfect, but if you need to make your purchases last then be cautious and perhaps consider waiting for Starcraft 2 or similar.

*More details, videos and links about this game and others can be found on Game-Bank.

Supreme Commander 2 is out on the 19th of March.

Excitement factor - 6/10
Potential gameplay - 8/10
Potential boredom - 6/10
Overall: 7/10

[BobTD]

Elmo goes postal is one I have never played. =P

I love giant mechs/robots especially in RTS. I might go look for a PC arcade with this game before I buy it though, I dont know many people that have the first one.

Also, new favorite quote

despite having a game engine brimming with the latest gamma-radiated spark plugs that are capable of sending supernova binary widgetbits faster than a nuclear-fuelled rabbit rocket being propelled into the stratosphere

great job.

[arhmiK]

I think this game are awesome