Supreme Commander 2 Review

2019? still waiting for SUPREME COMMANDER 3

It's a shame SupCom had to end up like this. SC FA was fantastic and was a real testament to the TA original that started it all. The oversimplification of this game and pointless tech tree replacement of the old, more functional, upgrade system has made it both a shadow of the original SupCom, but also of TA and its established formula too. My heart goes out to Chris, who must feel at least a little bit disappointed with this game. The original SupCom featured expansive maps where strategy was key, and managing your economy felt like a challenge, but getting it right and finally building that Experimental Megalith army you always dreamed of was so rewarding. I never got that feeling playing this game, and it's one of the things that makes me really enjoy SupCom and SupCom FA. Then there's the cartoonish graphics which make the game look less than aesthetically desirable. The original also gave the world a sense of total war that just isn't present here, and the moral ambiguity of the factions made it so rewarding to play as the faction YOU deemed the good guys, because back then there just weren't any. The Aeon Illuminate were zealous genocidal scum bags, the UEF was a slavery supporting totalitarian propaganda machine, and the Cybran were almost like an army of space terrorists (odd that their reasons for waging war seemed to me to be the most morally "good," despite the evil look they were given.) In the original the factions were more diverse in this way, perhaps not in the units they could produce (though when you reached t3 the factions were near completely unique) but in the way they were presented as a whole. All of this and more is just lacking in this game, and the simple aesthetics oriented maps are nothing compared to the huge, more ergonomic and functional maps of the original. On the off chance you're reading this, Chris, don't give up. Make SupCom 3 and make it true to the original, and I think you'll satisfy RTS gamers across the world for a good few years.

I suppose I can understand why certain people prefer this over the Original and Forged Alliance. Its a lot easier to understand, and its mainstreamed enough for new comers to the series to saddle up and start fighting; but I personally think that because of this Supreme commander 2 takes away the charm of complexity that was present in the original games. Supreme commander was an ambitious game for the time, no doubt. I feel as though it was built from the ground up to be a definitive RTS experience, and it is something that I at least feel hasn't been matched or topped by any other game. I won't deny that Forged Alliance is a lot harder to learn, and requires a lot more practice to get good at, especially in the multiplayer arena, but that is what separates Supreme commander from the rest of the RTS games out there. Its the depth, complexity and scale that makes it such an amazing and rewarding experience. I feel that Supreme commander 2 missed the point with all of the surgical cutting it did on the games core mechanics, scale and overall gameplay. I own both, and to me at least, this game was a rather large disappointment.

But the learning curve is the best part. Took me a month to fully learn how to play the game and i loved every second of it. Discovering the experimental was the best part.

"Forged Alliance Forever" is all I have to say :P

I love Supreme Commander,the look,visuals,audio,story and sheer scale of an RTS game like it make it unparalled.Supreme Awesomeness!

Supcom 2 is fun in it's own way but is way more simple and dumbed down. Forged Alliance is a much better option for a good game. Also it was square who made this game, they bought the rights to it

the problem with ign is its always someone who likes the game that reviews it

I hate the fact that they did away with the Tiered Units system, as well as how they undid everything economy-based in the original. Time is not not a resource anymore and the economy only works in the same way as any other RTS. They took away that Supreme Commander touch of being able to build even without resources, just slower. Supreme Commander 2 just doesn't feel like Supreme Commander anymore. I'm sticking with Forged Alliance Forever. If the sequel's units and some buildings, maybe, were ported over to Forged Alliance Forever, then I would be fine with that. But otherwise, I don't like it nearly as much.

nice game but the original is still better

I bought it with the expansion Infinite War on offer, it's pretty good. Apparantly the expansion offers some bigger maps and more units to make it more similar to the first game.

@desetnik15second The Rush Timer is the timer that starts from the beginning of the game (if it is in enabled mode) and then starts to downgrade the time which is set and in that time any player in the match can't move or build units over the drawn circle in the map.

@bkismlg it has improved, and improved further with the infinite war dlc, in which the a.i. apparantly mimics strategies employed by leading ranked players. I havent played the game that much, to really be able to judge if that is indeed the case, but the a.i. did seem quite challenging on normal difficulty, and better than TA.

1:55 Welp, yellow team is certainly having a bad day.

For any who are interested, it is currently on sale on Steam for $3.75. Please note that they did not discount the DLC however.

@Barzilayer Mainly because as far as RTS games go, Supcom FA was focused on larger scale games and planning a lot more than other RTS. People liked it because it didn't encourage players to constantly spam units since weaker, more numerous units were almost always outperformed by fewer, stronger units. Supcom2 went away from that and became yet another RTS game in which the best way to win is to drown your opponent in low level units. Basically, it shat on everything Supcom and TA did before it

@MartialNico nope, when you eject, the head of ACU goes off and body does not make a nuclear explosion

@shockmatter indeed. I think you can thank SC1s fantastic slo-motion anti-lag feature for the slow gameplay in SC1. where the games get so slow that 1 second can turn into 6 seconds to stop lag in large scale battles.

@Darkshard1 as much as I agree with the fact spamming away is the only way to go against ither spammmers there are other startegies that coexist with the spamming. Commander rushing (as cheesy as it is) next to spamming creates a different aproach then just spamming. But yeah, it's still spamming.

The expansion is great. Though the game is a major nukefest sometimes, you can filter out the nukes in the game settings if you wish. With them left in: recon plays a key role, keep an eye on what your opponent is building, I set aside large numbers of units who's only job is to take down nuke silos before they're built. Also: the anti-nuke ability is great for taking down a few if one gets built. It's an ok game, just a little ridiculous on the arms race sometimes.

@BigRandomBox i think you can buy it. its looks cool with the glasses lol. but you'll have to look for supported games

@Darkshard1 the thing about "limitless space" is that where the eff do the units end up when teleported?!

Agreed with one of the top rated comments... The tier system was so much better. And you are so right about the experimentals. The whole point of them was that they took a long-ass time to build!

@ Jazzybreaks yea well it runs beter now, in 1 u could have games where 1 sec ingame was almost 10sec ir

SC2 was my first game ever on x360 in 2011

@TheGamer161 I dont know but you could just buy both off of steam since they run on it anyways

@enCODed3 there is a way to counter that you know. you get some anti nuke stuff. then you can maybe get some arti and break through the shields or suicide rush and kill their com with LOTS of mobile missiles

Man... I missed this game so much

@BWBLester It says requires dual core at 3.0 Ghz, I'm running six cores at 2.8 Ghz and it runs at 60 fps on my pc with all settings at maximum.

yeah supcom and FA were both quite hard to learn (took me more than a month to get used to) but doing away with the tier tree was a bad move. experimentals don't seem to be as powerful as they are supposed to (for instance the fatboy in supcom and FA was a freaking beast! have a pair of those and you probably won't be needing any of your base land factories).

@jellybuhbles yes i have, during the beta, and a free trial version, I'll admit, it was kinda fun, but once you've played Supcom FA, you just can't do back to simpler RTS games. Have you ever played Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance before?

@Darkshard1 ikr, i had fun on sup com 2 for like a couple of weeks, now im back on sup com 1 FA. And yeah, RTS REALLLLLLLLYYYYY just belongs on a PC. like seriously, building a base, and selecting multiple units with a analog stick seems like it would be a bit of a clusterfuck of madness.

i think that this game was like dawn of war 1 vs dawn of war 2. they change up the gameplay to see just what people liked and disliked about both. then, in future games, they will take the best of both and make something grea out of it.in sup com 3 we can likely expect tier units, research for buffs, and the commander unit because it is kinda nice to have a nuclear explosion when you lose. it makes you go out with a bang. all in all i like sup com 2 and hope to get sup com 3 when it comes out

@BigRandomBox isn't there a 3d nividia driver? as you've got a 3d led screen

i agree. I'm a console gamer, but recently got into PC gaming. It's amazing I can handle Crysis on High, so i do agree that a PC can out perform a console anyday of the week, but it costs alot of green.

"this is serious work for REAL men!" looool. i'm soooooo buying this game.

i see it as a step foward because i found supcom and fa easy to get your head round alot of my friends did not so in my opion they needed to simplify it a bit

honestly i like this one instead of the first one. true i do miss the feeling of finally building an army of Illuminate Colossus' but it really takes up time. it would take me days to finish a skirmish in SC1 but on SC2 it's only about 2 hours. true SC2 does have fewer units and very unfortunate that only 2 sides have navies and those navies only have 3 units (4 if you count the UEF Atlantis II) but fast gameplay, good detail, and it's an RTS that EVERYBODY can play.

@jellybuhbles Yeah Supcom FA is definently the most strategic RTS but saying it is the best would be personal preference

i was saying it in a positive way, i really like supreme commander 2, i got it a couple of weeks ago and i am preordering the special edition of planetary anihilation

I should try the first game, it sounds fun. definitely sticking with the Aeon

this is a great game people complain about it alot, but the resources and research make the game much faster and there are more counters and recounters to things

@Mw2Freakshow I don't know, cause I haven't played it yet, but hey, I bought this game for only 3,75$ so it doesn't really matter!

which do you like better? i haven't tried starcraft yet and idk if i will or not cause i like strategic game types

supcom 1 and fa are much better it was something special when you finished an experimental unit or a strategic missile in supcom 2 you just spam the shit out of the enemy with over 9000 experimentals

@xponen this is honestly true!!! in SupCom2; you are not free! for example: you CANNOT build if you had not enough resources, you CANNOT use the previous T1, T2, T3 structure to gauge your enemies... you only had BETTER user interface, but lesser information for war. (lesser fun)

@aragod Yeah - it's sad because this game had to take a ton of time to make. SC2 is so much simpler but just has really good gameplay.

@Mw2Freakshow its only $5.10 on the steam store now. is it worth that? even if it gets boring quickly?

@xponen SupCom 2 weapons has large explosion but much lesser awe... it is not possible to gauge the "aweness" of a bullet in SupCom2 strategic view, than in SupCom1. Every bullet is confusingly same and goes "kaboom" the same way... no more screen shaking explosion like in TA... *sigh*

@axel007seve yup...i got it and it was definately worth that price. i really like it!

Who came here because of Xbox games for gold??

@wowisuckatmath u can only have nukes at almost end of game or last scence of each commader's end

I enjoyed the first better. I preferred the style of the first where units were smaller and maps were larger. I loved letting the scenario escalate and sending my best units against the enemies, relying on strategy to break the evenly matched armies. The second shows larger units and smaller maps. The units are ineffective and rely on large numbers to complete and overcome obstacles. Plus many of the awesome experimentals are gone, leaving weaker and more expensive units in their place.

@LnG9 yea i did read they made it so it can run on weaker systems... makes sense.

@lordwouter7 Forged Alliance remains a game that i will play for many many more years to come

Is there any good Ai for the custom battles offline? Or is it only worth buying for Multiplayer?

@7EliteCHEESE7 i think :) good to have anti nuke missles, if there comes af nuke :D

Experimental weren't as devastating anymore. Now they can easily be brought down by 30 tanks, whereas a SC1 experimental would have just torn through that like tissue paper and continued moving. The way they changed the transports were mind boggling. whereas in SC1 they were rather realistic and you could actually see the units attach to the transport, In SC2, they just teleport into 'Limitless Space' land and then teleport back out when you need them.

@Jazzybreaks wow people rated your comment bad, but its so true i have a 52" 1080p HD tv and when i zoomed wow the units look bad and yes the air look really eh....

ah thats what i wanted to hear about the engine running smoother. for some reason even when I upgraded to a xfx radeon 4600 I still only got 4 fps I was like wtf son! This didnt change no matter how low I set the graphics to so I don't think it liked my comp. I have amd 3200 with 1500 ram which i know is dated now but i was at least expecting some increase as all other game smoothed right out with the gcard upgrade. This is one of my fav strategy games ive played ever so hope sup com 2 delivers.

@gunhawk22 yeah it is, well in my opinion

@nessunopassato turn-based strategy, like risk or a game where countries take turns. That is opposed to games like SupCom where all units are made and fight in real time.

Ive got supcom: forged alliance, so shud i get this or starcraft 2 cus they both look pretty cool

@thecapone45 unit tier,or lvls,lvl3 factory produces lvl3 units ....

i have starcraft and the expansion pack. would supreme commander be ideal if i play starcraft?

@Mw2Freakshow You can say that again. I played SC2 to completion a few days after it came out. Haven't played it since.

@BananaBean03 nah, get Forged Alliance instead if you have a quad-core processor

Totally agree. Veteran SC here :). The first one is way better on every level.

Is there a big difference between PC and console? Did they do a good enough job on the console version to make it so it comes close to the PC?

in supcom 1 it took over 131 mins to create a glactic colloussus if u where ussing 1 unit whereas now it takes around 3 mins to create a unviersal collusus

Despite all the "Sup com 2 is trash" I still love it

@cybersteel8 it is on consloe. i have it on xbox

@TheMinnesotaReaper sup2 not sc2 (starcraft 2) and yea u can max it out with that card

@DigitalRed Hey man, don't diss power wheels. As a kid, those things were the bomb. But I do agree with you. They could have had a great game, if they didn't mess up on improvements. Experimental aren't experimental if half the units in-game are experimental. Research upgrades should ALWAYS cost resources, and more importantly, you should be able to scout those upgrades to know what they are doing. I was so amped for SupCom2, but I just seemed too... I don't know, rushed would be a good word.

i'm not interested in the single player campaign as much as the skirmish mode. can someone tell me whether or not that's good?

I do like this game, while different from the original, it is a great RTS game and deserves more credit than people give it.

When i got supcom1 gold it was on sale at the store for 5$. Honestly supcom1 and FA pwn supcom2 but supcom2 is still fun

the core gameplay of supcom shines through? how they changed everything and only for the worse this is no supcom game but then again this is an IGN review who in their right mind would trust it anyway

@liamdudeeee Not really. Its actually very simple when its done right, sometimes more so than a PC. Take Halo wars for example!

Chris Taylor and his crew are starting a new Kickstarter called "Wildman"

When he zooms out in the video, all of those units you see would be equivalent to a small battle in the first game.

@Flashjackmak I don't own the game(at least yet) but i do hear that the Ai in this game is remarkable smart.

Is there a skirmish Mode that you can fight just AI? Because I can't play online and I do want to get it but if it is dull in the campaign then I wont.

He really meant "HD makeover of Total Annihilation"

Good that SupCom 2 doesn't lag. Well, the first one never lagged for me, but it did for others xD

This was a pretty good game I thought, that whole upkeep system in the other one bogged the game down, plus the campaigns in that were bland, just giant rocky mountain maps with some little trees here and there for kicks. This one has more thought with its map designs I feel and the tier tree is pretty nice as well.

Funny thing. On a forum I once saw someone complain about "SC2" not being good, so I assumed they were talking about Starcraft 2, and got confused that hadn't been released yet, then they pointed out that they were referring to this bomb of sequel that got rid off what attracted people to the original.

@foblbby as if i can find any game in my country. licensed that is.

you'll be fine its less demanding on the comp than the first two.

Just curious, is mouse and keyboard available for 360?

@IKillerPieI Yeh, I bought my mate L4D2 haha :D

will a supreme commander 3 ever come out but another company?

Yes this is different to the 1st game and has some issues that need to be fixed or are being fixed. The singleplayer is alright but multiplayer is great. The graphics are good and runs smoothly with huge battles even when maxed out. I give this game overall 7 or 8/10 but theres room for improvment.

Wow I got this for cheap on the steam sale too with all its dlc, and i've only played it once

Yeah, I'm with CmdrTobs here, that although Supreme Commander, or Forged Alliance may not have been overly accessible, they were definately the only way which you could get more choice with everything, and now that this has gone in Sup Com 2 the game may be played by more people but it's probably not "worthy" of the Supreme Commander title, compared to the other Supreme Commander games.

Did they review the first game or Forged Alliance?

Well, I just got off work, and I was trying to correct this young gentleman's grammar. He is the future of this world, I am just doing my best to help the next in line succeed. :) You are just as unproductive as I am, replying to useless comments.

@partyman880 Agread 1 had many many more options to do battle then in two. As well as in SC1 I still found many uses for my T1 and T2 units. One very good example of this is the Cybrion T1 anti air unit which was nothing more then a moble T3 anit air defence platform. The tech tree in two make it feel to simple and to easy. Even the Multiplayer in 2 was boring. While it not a bad game it not a good one ether. single player was very bad as well in this one.

i like supreme commander 2 for its better economy system and the lack of lag but overall i like the first much better it not for the unbearable amount of lag, visual bugs, the length of time it takes to build everything, and the terrible economy system i would have never got this one. this one does have experimental transports which help a lot like he said the technology for experimental units is much to easy to get and doesn't take much time to build.

@koraxsan LOL! and i would love an edit post function... *intelligence.