Supreme Commander 2
Encyclopedia
Supreme Commander 2 is a real-time strategy
(RTS) video game developed by Gas Powered Games
and published by Square Enix
. It is a sequel to Supreme Commander
. A PC-only demo was initially released via Steam on 24 February 2010, with the full game released on 2 March 2010.
A Mac OS X
version of Supreme Commander 2 was announced by Mac games publisher Virtual Programming in May 2010. They released the Mac OS X version of the game on 24 September 2010 and released the Infinite War Battle Pack for Mac OS X in January 2011.
The first campaign (dedicated to the UEF (United Earth Federation)) follows Dominic Maddox, a UEF officer who is married to an Illuminate. Maddox fights off Cybran until the UEF Commander he serves declared that all Illuminate are terrorists and orders him on a mission to "round up" the Illuminate from his home city. Maddox refuses, goes rogue, and decides to go on his own campaign to remove his old commanding officer
from power. Immediately following the defeat of the UEF Commander, he discovers a portal that leads to Seraphim VII, unlocking the second campaign.
The second campaign (dedicated to the Illuminate) follows Commander Thalia Kael as she fights to restore the Illuminate to their former glory before realising her mistake and turning against her former comrades.
The Cybran campaign follows Ivan Brackman (an experimental genetic composite (clone
) of Dr. Brackman and Elite Commander Dostya) who is an old roommate of Maddox, who fights under the direction of Dr. Brackman (who Ivan refers to as "father" while attempting to help his friends).
The final battle takes place on the surface of an ancient planetary terraformer called Shiva Prime. After the battle, Ivan comes to a realisation about Shiva Prime and despite protests from his father, destroys the terraformer.
In the heavily-scripted campaign mode, the player is provided with a base at the start of the game, and faces an already-established opponent. In order to finish the level, the player has to complete certain objectives, for example "destroy the enemy's experimental unit". As the campaign progresses, the player is able to unlock a wider range of units, the missions become more challenging, and the enemy grows stronger.
In an interview with MacGamer, an online magazine dedicated to gaming on Mac PCs
, game designer Chris Taylor had this to say about Supreme Commander 2 and its spiritual link to his previous Total Annihilation series: "I think they are indeed the spiritual successors, because of the way I approach RTS Real-time strategy design. I don’t like a lot of rules, and I like big, open worlds. Some might say the economy systems play a role in that, but I think it goes much deeper than that. I think many folks will see our upcoming Kings and Castles game as a continuing extension of those previous RTS titles."
fashion at any time during the game. This produces an entirely different game from the original because it often results in a multiplayer game where one side will suddenly acquire a significant technological advantage (for example the ability to use a loyalty gun, which converts lots of enemy units to one's own side, or the ability to fire a nuclear missile
). It is often this sudden, game-changing acquisition of technological advantage which leads to the end of a multiplayer or skirmish game.
In the game's first release, the resource-system functioned as it does in most other RTS games (resources can only be spent after being acquired, and build orders cannot be placed if there are insufficient resources to complete the build - starting a build reduced a player's resources by the total cost of the build immediately). However, patch 1.23 significantly changed the economy system. Resources are deducted from the total during the build. If there are insufficient resources to complete the build then engineers and factories will build as far as current resources allow and then remain in a quasi-paused state until more resources become available. With this change, the building mechanic more closely resembles that of the previous game.
Mass fabricators (which in Supreme Commander changed energy into mass at a pre-determined rate) have been replaced with mass converters, which must be manually triggered to change a fixed amount of energy into a corresponding amount of mass.
, predicted that the game would "leave much of its intended fanbase cold," and Tom Francis, writing for PC Gamer UK, later summarized Supreme Commander 2 as "a game that solved the accessibility issues of the first game, bought primarily by people who didn’t want them solved." On Metacritic
, which aggregates a wide range of reviews and assigns an average score, the game received 77 out of 100.
After release, the game received several major updates and changes. For example, one update released in October 2010 reworked the way construction was paid for, as described above. The changes were widely praised and the game was considered by critics to have been improved since release. For example, Tom Francis, who gave the game a score of 85 out of 100 on release, said in October 2010 that had he been reviewing it in October 2010, he would have given it a 90. PC Gamer UK named Supreme Commander 2 their "Co-op Game Of The Year".
Real-time strategy
Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....
(RTS) video game developed by Gas Powered Games
Gas Powered Games
Gas Powered Games is a video game developer located in Redmond, Washington. The development studio was started in May 1998 by Chris Taylor, creator of Total Annihilation, and several other ex-Cavedog Entertainment employees....
and published by Square Enix
Square Enix
is a Japanese video game and publishing company best known for its console role-playing game franchises, which include the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest series, and the action-RPG Kingdom Hearts series...
. It is a sequel to Supreme Commander
Supreme Commander (video game)
Supreme Commander is a real-time strategy computer game designed by Chris Taylor and developed by his company, Gas Powered Games. The game is considered to be a spiritual successor to Taylor's 1997 game Total Annihilation,, alongside the Spring remake...
. A PC-only demo was initially released via Steam on 24 February 2010, with the full game released on 2 March 2010.
A Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
version of Supreme Commander 2 was announced by Mac games publisher Virtual Programming in May 2010. They released the Mac OS X version of the game on 24 September 2010 and released the Infinite War Battle Pack for Mac OS X in January 2011.
Plot
The story starts with the newly-elected President's assassination, causing the breakup of the coalition formed during the expansion of the first game.The first campaign (dedicated to the UEF (United Earth Federation)) follows Dominic Maddox, a UEF officer who is married to an Illuminate. Maddox fights off Cybran until the UEF Commander he serves declared that all Illuminate are terrorists and orders him on a mission to "round up" the Illuminate from his home city. Maddox refuses, goes rogue, and decides to go on his own campaign to remove his old commanding officer
Commanding officer
The commanding officer is the officer in command of a military unit. Typically, the commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitude to run the unit as he sees fit, within the bounds of military law...
from power. Immediately following the defeat of the UEF Commander, he discovers a portal that leads to Seraphim VII, unlocking the second campaign.
The second campaign (dedicated to the Illuminate) follows Commander Thalia Kael as she fights to restore the Illuminate to their former glory before realising her mistake and turning against her former comrades.
The Cybran campaign follows Ivan Brackman (an experimental genetic composite (clone
Human cloning
Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of a human. It does not usually refer to monozygotic multiple births nor the reproduction of human cells or tissue. The ethics of cloning is an extremely controversial issue...
) of Dr. Brackman and Elite Commander Dostya) who is an old roommate of Maddox, who fights under the direction of Dr. Brackman (who Ivan refers to as "father" while attempting to help his friends).
The final battle takes place on the surface of an ancient planetary terraformer called Shiva Prime. After the battle, Ivan comes to a realisation about Shiva Prime and despite protests from his father, destroys the terraformer.
Demo
On 24 February 2010, a demo of Supreme Commander 2 was released on the Steam digital distribution service. The demo includes two tutorial levels and two campaign levels all played as the UEF faction, but does not include skirmish or multiplayer modes. The single player includes two missions, which were picked to show the more advanced portion of the game.Gameplay
In both the skirmish and multiplayer modes, players start out with an Armoured Command Unit (ACU) which is a large, powerful, construction-capable unit, and their avatar on the battlefield. They build mass extractors and power generators which produce mass and energy, along with a research facility, which produces research points. Players can also build land, air and sea factories which produce land, air and sea units respectively. Players may also build add-on structures, expanding the capabilities of existing factories. Some buildings and units are more advanced than others, and as players' base and research levels expand, so does the quality of their units. Research points can be spent on faction-specific tech trees to add bonuses, abilities and upgrades, and to unlock more-advanced units and buildings. The final result of this development is the unlocking of experimental units, which are large, research-unlocked units and buildings with significantly more power than other units and buildings. Experimental units can be produced from experimental gantries (buildings with the sole purpose of building experimental units) or built by engineers. The ultimate aim of the game is to destroy your opponents' ACUs.In the heavily-scripted campaign mode, the player is provided with a base at the start of the game, and faces an already-established opponent. In order to finish the level, the player has to complete certain objectives, for example "destroy the enemy's experimental unit". As the campaign progresses, the player is able to unlock a wider range of units, the missions become more challenging, and the enemy grows stronger.
In an interview with MacGamer, an online magazine dedicated to gaming on Mac PCs
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
, game designer Chris Taylor had this to say about Supreme Commander 2 and its spiritual link to his previous Total Annihilation series: "I think they are indeed the spiritual successors, because of the way I approach RTS Real-time strategy design. I don’t like a lot of rules, and I like big, open worlds. Some might say the economy systems play a role in that, but I think it goes much deeper than that. I think many folks will see our upcoming Kings and Castles game as a continuing extension of those previous RTS titles."
Changes from Supreme Commander
While there are many differences between Supreme Commander (together with its expansion, "Forged Alliance") and Supreme Commander 2, the two primary changes are the introduction of a new resource – research – and a complete reworking of the resource-gathering mechanism.Research
Research is a new form of resource which is accumulated by building research labs. The rate at which research is acquired is based on the number of research labs built. Research points can be spent to acquire new technology in a hierarchicalHierarchy
A hierarchy is an arrangement of items in which the items are represented as being "above," "below," or "at the same level as" one another...
fashion at any time during the game. This produces an entirely different game from the original because it often results in a multiplayer game where one side will suddenly acquire a significant technological advantage (for example the ability to use a loyalty gun, which converts lots of enemy units to one's own side, or the ability to fire a nuclear missile
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
). It is often this sudden, game-changing acquisition of technological advantage which leads to the end of a multiplayer or skirmish game.
Resource Gathering
The primary resources in Supreme Commander 2 are still mass and energy. However, the way these resources are accumulated and used by the player has been drastically changed from the first game in the series.In the game's first release, the resource-system functioned as it does in most other RTS games (resources can only be spent after being acquired, and build orders cannot be placed if there are insufficient resources to complete the build - starting a build reduced a player's resources by the total cost of the build immediately). However, patch 1.23 significantly changed the economy system. Resources are deducted from the total during the build. If there are insufficient resources to complete the build then engineers and factories will build as far as current resources allow and then remain in a quasi-paused state until more resources become available. With this change, the building mechanic more closely resembles that of the previous game.
Mass fabricators (which in Supreme Commander changed energy into mass at a pre-determined rate) have been replaced with mass converters, which must be manually triggered to change a fixed amount of energy into a corresponding amount of mass.
Other changes
- There are fewer units and buildings in total: three or four units in Supreme Commander have been condensed into one unit in Supreme Commander 2 and many buildings have been removed. There are 8 experimental units per faction, which are now built by special experimental construction buildings (except for sea-based units, which are still constructed by engineers).
- Experimental units in Supreme Commander 2 are generally less expensive and take less time to build, but have a smaller impact on the game than the units in Supreme Commander. However, like in the original, these units are still generally the units that eventually provide victory in multiplayer games.
- The adjacency system has been removed, perhaps in part because the new navigational AIArtificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
has trouble with tightly packed bases. Some buildings no longer cause damage to surrounding units by exploding when destroyed, but power generators and mass converters still explode on death. - There is a research tree instead of three tiers of technology levels, although buildings are divided into two groups called "basic" and "advanced". All those buildings classified as "advanced" are unlocked by research, except for the radar/sonar station. The tech tiers have been replaced by 5 technology trees - one each for Air Units, Land Units, Naval Units (Which are not included if playing as the Illuminate), Structures and ACUs.
- Formation-based movement has been removed in favour of an automatic self-organization system for units. However, many players have complained that this feature organizes mixed groups badly.
- The Aeon Illuminate has been renamed The Illuminate, and has been stripped of all naval vessels in favour of units using hover technology.
- The campaigns in Supreme Commander 2 are more focused on conflicting characters rather than ideologies; there is not a state of total warTotal warTotal war is a war in which a belligerent engages in the complete mobilization of fully available resources and population.In the mid-19th century, "total war" was identified by scholars as a separate class of warfare...
as there was in the original. - Resource storage buildings for mass and energy have been removed. There are no longer any player-affected resource caps.
- Maps are generally smaller. There is also less "playable" battle space on maps due to an increase in decorative terrain.
- Except for the mission briefings, cutscenes cannot be skipped; this includes the end credits.
Reception
On initial release, the game received mixed critical reception. While many critics praised the game as a standalone title, it was generally perceived to be a simplified version of the original game. Alec Meer, reviewing for EurogamerEurogamer
Eurogamer is a Brighton-based website focused on video games news, reviews, previews and interviews. It is operated by Eurogamer Network Ltd., which was formed in 1999 by brothers Rupert and Nick Loman. Eurogamer has grown to become one of the most important European-based websites focused on...
, predicted that the game would "leave much of its intended fanbase cold," and Tom Francis, writing for PC Gamer UK, later summarized Supreme Commander 2 as "a game that solved the accessibility issues of the first game, bought primarily by people who didn’t want them solved." On Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which aggregates a wide range of reviews and assigns an average score, the game received 77 out of 100.
After release, the game received several major updates and changes. For example, one update released in October 2010 reworked the way construction was paid for, as described above. The changes were widely praised and the game was considered by critics to have been improved since release. For example, Tom Francis, who gave the game a score of 85 out of 100 on release, said in October 2010 that had he been reviewing it in October 2010, he would have given it a 90. PC Gamer UK named Supreme Commander 2 their "Co-op Game Of The Year".
Downloadable content
- Infinite War Battlepack DLC: Contains 8 new maps and 14 new units and more than 10 new upgrades. This DLC was released in March 2011.
External links
- Supreme Commander 2 Supreme Commander 2 on the Steam content delivery system
- Supreme Commander 2 for Mac OS X
- SupCom 2 videos, articles, dev posts and more! - An unofficial compilation of everything Supreme Commander 2 related, on GPG's forum.
- Square Enix Supreme Commander 2 forum
- Supreme Commander 2 Wiki - Unit information, gameplay strategies, modding information and more
- Supreme Commander 2: Eight Minutes Of HD Gameplay - Gameplay videos.
- Supreme Commander 2 Units Database - Regularly updated units database.