Supreme Commander 2 Review

13 Apr 2010 at 13:22:35 by Staff Writers
Systems used to review this title: (PC)

When a publisher announces it's going to release a strategy game on the console, I shudder to the core. I immediately recall Stormrise (or Shitstorm, as it became affectionately known) and the many tortuous hours I spent in order to review it. The scars are still raw.  

Of course that's not to say there aren't some good RTS games on consoles. Take, for example, Ubisoft's EndWar which added a surprisingly useful voice command system that worked and, not forgetting, Microsoft's Halo Wars.  Both games, although completely different, proved that it wasn't impossible to make a bearable RTS experience on consoles.

Like Stormrise, Supreme Commander 2 has a commander in it (no surprises there), but unlike Stormrise, you don't have to play parts of the game in the third person (or was it first person? My memories are clouded by pain). Instead your commander on the battlefield can do pretty much everything you would expect a commander to do, from building bases and units to engaging enemies that compromise your base perimeter.  Equally, commanders can heal units, reclaim resource points and capture enemy units. The commander is versatile and, more to the point, useful and it seems Gas Powererd Games has made every effort to make things comfortable for the player. 

Take, for example, the unbelievably handy ability to ZOOM OUT.  All the way too.  This was, to me, a revelation. Never before had I been able to see the full battlefield on a console RTS game. I was as excited as a fly on a shit, and I couldn't stop thanking Gas Powered Games for finally making a game which allows you to zoom ALL THE WAY OUT.  Not only that, but you can also select all the units on the screen with your right bumper, making it easy to navigate between your groups to attack or defend a certain spot.

And, thankfully, moving units is also a simple affair.  In fact, the whole control system is a joy.  OK, it might be a little simpler than what it was in the original game, but that's no bad thing.  For a start, the notion of levelling up has been dropped, thankfully.  Instead you must now research your technology which unlocks perks such as upgrades to guns and weapons, shields, vision and defence measures to name a few.  As you continue to research your technology trees (these are land, air, naval, structure and ACU) and unlock perks, you'll find that you're able to start building Experimental units. These are the daddy of all units and can deliver some pretty devastating punishment. In order to progress through the trees quicker, build research stations, but keep an eye on your resources too.

Supreme Commander 2 is all about the building and resource gathering. The key to building an efficiently-run base without running out of units is to make sure you have plenty of resources which can be extracted by placing a mass converter over a valid mass location. Once your engineer or your commander has placed the mass extractor, you can start building energy converters that, in turn, produce all the stuff you need to build bases and units.

And building couldn't be made easier.  Not only has the complexity and confusion been dropped, but you find that you can queue up builds, assign tasks and navigate your map relatively simply.  For example, to build a factory (on land), you select your engineer or commander, press Y and choose what you want building from the radial dial.  Once that's done, you can go back and start the process again.  Because you're researching your technologies, upgrades and defenses will already be applied once the technology has been researched, and this means that you don't have to faff around jumping from one building, or one unit to another. 

But jumping from unit to unit isn't quite as easy as it ought to be, and there is no real direction or explanation of how to move from one unit to another of the same unit family.  Let's make it a little easier to understand...

I have selected my engineer, for example, to build a research facility and as it's getting on with it, I pan the map making sure we're safe from all sides.  By this time my engineer has finished its task, and I assign it to another job.  After doing so I realise that there's actually another engineer, but I can't remember where it has gone, or where I assigned it to go.  There is usually a button which allows you cycle through your units that are selected, but here it doesn't work.  It's frustrating.  I must make it clear that there is a cycle facility, but it cycles through everything, including buildings.  Not particularly helpful.  Instead it's easier to double tap the A button while your reticule hovers over a unit, and this will select all units of that type, which then become easier to find when you zoom all the way out of the map.  Ironic.

And it's not just the little things like that which hamper the game.  There are bigger issues, like the fact that although there are three different campaigns and factions to play, there's not much variation between them and it all feels too similar.  This is a real disappointment, and the six faction missions can become very boring and very tedious, very quickly.  There doesn't seem to be any twist to the plot, and the AI doesn't learn what your weaknesses are and adapt to your style.  It's also frustrating to find that you can just keep building any amount of energy generators you want, meaning that you can pretty much withstand any kind of attacking force.

But like most RTS games, it's all about the multiplayer and taking on other human opponents. I was really looking forward to giving another human a run for their money, but unfortunately this is a real let down, especially if you want to play with a friend.  You can't do it properly, and if you set up your own private game you can't just find two other randomers to play with. 

Despite all of that, however, the game is a solid example of how an RTS game should be made for the console fingers of this world.  The controller isn't alien, nor are the controls, and other RTS games could learn from some of the features which Supreme Commander 2 has implemented so well.  But equally it's hard to forget the uninspired moments, the lack of real story and the mediocre visuals which threaten to eclipse the game's charm.

I'm hoping the third iteration will define the series, and I'll look forward to it when it arrives.


 

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