Supreme Commander 2

[XMEN Gambit]

So, the demo is out, and I have played. The upgrade system is quite different than the first, and the models have been reworked. Primarily what I noticed is the research tree. Kinda neat, a little more conventional than just the 1-2-3 upgrades of SC1. Experimentals are easier to get and easier to kill. Factories auto-pause when not enough resources are present for them to operate. Factories can be upgraded with shields, tactical missiles, and other goodies.

I like it, but not enough to buy it right away. What do you think?

[BlackRider]

I actually hated the demo. It was like SupCom turned into StarCraft. Now it feels like just another RTS. However there was one new feature that I liked: the simple autogrouping feature that lets you reselect a group of units, to which you had previously given an order, with just a single click. (Though it may only show up when you're zoomed out enough.)

I could go on and on about how I think they ruined the game... but here's a few bullet points instead:
* They ruined the economy: One lump sum purchases vs the TA & SC resource flow economy. (Which feels like it just leads to more micromanagement to me.)

* They ruined the units: (Maybe an expanded selection of units in the full game would change this, but I only have the demo to go on.) TA & SC had great sets of limited purpose units... now there's cruisers with AA, torpedoes, long range missiles, and direct fire cannons. It can't get more multi-purpose than that. That just makes for boring battles where the outcome is decided by numbers and not composition of your forces.

* AI in the demo is really bad. My commander spent the entire demo level walking into a building. My cruisers, once given an attack order on an enemy destroyer, spent 10 minutes firing snail paced long range missiles that cant hit even the slowest units in the game rather than closing in to use their ship-to-ship guns................ and I know it was a scripted map, but they AI never sent anything more than 1 or 2 units at a time... they basically just sat back and waited to die.

* The maps are STUPID.!! Too much focus on "pretty" maps (ok, the demo map was hideous), but they don't play well. There's all kinds of no-go zones (can't walk your commander from island to island in the demo map)... and from what I've seen in the preview videos is that the theme for many of the maps will be "limited playing space".


As I said, I could go on and on... but these 4 points are enough to keep me from ever buying this game. (Though maybe I'd pick it up if I saw it in the $5 bin in the future.)

[XMEN Ashaman DTM]

Sounds like maybe it's a wait and see then?

[XMEN Gambit]

FYI - GoGamer has it for $30. For the next day and a half, anyway.

http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103278421 ... 3YHfOLPbY=

[XMEN Gambit]

Steam's weekend deal has SupCom2 for 10.99. I went ahead and picked it up. Can't tell much so far only having done a handful of early SP missions.

[XMEN Iceman]

Been playing with it since release. It's ok, but it does not take much time to go nuclear. Wish it was not so fast on that one. Otherwise it is pretty and the AI can be wicked.

[XMEN Gambit]

Ok, have played through the campaign and have played some AI skirmishes.

My conclusion is that it's worth the $11 I paid. Glad I didn't pay $40 or more.

I have adjusted to the new tech tree as opposed to the old upgrade way of doing things. Doesn't feel very Sup-Com-ish but it's OK. I've decided a lot of the uncomfortable "feel" of the game is the console port design - the bane of many multiplatform attempts. It is pretty and doesn't seem as resource intensive as SupCom1. Still very necessary to make effective strategic (tactical, really) tradeoffs - where to spend my resource and research points? Where to most effectively deploy my resources? Can I feint over here and attack from the flank?

I've not cranked up the difficulty too much yet so I'm still winning.