Supreme Commander 2 is much leaner game compared to the first one and its expansion. The number of available units have been significantly reduced to a core set of basic and unlockable units, which are improved through researching add-on technologies. This completely wipes away the sense of redundancy that we felt with the previous games (which had all but useless low level units), but at the same time, reduces the sense of progression. Although the strength of these units is apparent with upgraded firepower and personal shields, units still look the same but with a few special effects added. So, advancing up the technology isn't as much of a visual treat as it once was.

Fans of the original Supreme Commander and the Forged Alliance expansion might be disappointed to learn that the sequel does not continue the story shown in the Forged Alliance post-credit reveal. Instead, things in a different direction. In this story, a long lasting and peaceful alliance between the UEF (United Earth Federation), Cybran, and Aeon Illuminate factions was possible. However, peace can't last forever, and as certain parties try to tear the alliance down, it's up to the player to ensure that it somehow survives. The campaign is broken into three chapters, similar to StarCraft, that sequentially puts the player in charge of UEF, Illuminate and Cybran forces to experience the conflict from multiple points of views. Although this removes the hassle of having to replay the same content all over again to experience different factions, it also means that there are no alternate endings. There's also an emphasis on a central cast of characters instead of being a nameless and faceless commander, which doesn't always work to the game's benefit. Although the overall story is pretty good (not counting the puzzling post-credit surprise reveal), the relationship between the three characters is more than a bit contrived (they were all Training Academy classmates) and some of the voice acting is laughably bad.

In fact, there are precious few connections between the sequel and its predecessors. What happened to all the cool technologies, like the radar stealth generator, dedicated repair building and decoy ACU? All gone with no explanation. Supreme Commander 2 is more of a reboot of the game than a continuation. The most prominent gameplay change is the resource management system, which no longer allows players to build beyond their means. In previous games, a resource deficit meant things simply built slower. In Supreme Commander 2, if you don't have the required mass or energy on hand, production comes to a halt - and in many ways, so does the game. Production facilities set on infinite build will automatically pause production without alerting you, which gets annoying when you're expecting assembled reinforcements but discover there are none. An on-screen message would have been beneficial, along with the ability to prioritize factories so certain ones will shut down before others.

However, the change we like best is the new technology research system, which includes separate trees for upgrading land, naval, air, structures or the commander's ACU. Players accumulate research points over time, which can be improved with additional research facilities, and allocate them toward unlocking different technologies. So, players can choose to rush toward building their favorite experimental units. Although, we mentioned how we don't like how static the upgrade system makes the game feel, we do like how accessible upgrades are now. Previous games required a long process of factory upgrading and constructing specialized engineers. In those games, if an advanced factory was destroyed in an attack, players could potentially lose all their technological progress. The new tech tree offers a sense of permanence, so players don't have to feel like they're knocked back to square one. We also like how factories can now be upgraded with add-ons like shields and anti-air guns to guard from attacks. Creative missions, like the one where we had overcome waves of defense tower building engineers trying to assimilate our forces, helped break of the monotony of the mission structure and forced us to think out of the box, but there aren't many of those.

At the same time, we have to admit that even when they're fully upgraded, tanks most other land units are still pretty useless, even as shield breakers, since they don't stand up well against defense towers or experimental units. Land units are also the toughest to manage, because even though Supreme Commander 2 uses a sophisticated pathfinding technology that allows units to naturally flow around each other as they move, it doesn't always work. Units that are standing still don't move around ones that are passing through. Instead, what happens is that the moving unit will literally shove the others out of its way. Ground units also have the highest tendency to get stuck on things like debris left over from a battle, but we should note that there were a few times when we saw airplanes getting stuck in the environment too. For the most part, we found that relying almost completely on air and navy (where possible) combined with a few choice experimental units to create an overwhelming force usually won the game. Oh yes, having a few nukes comes in handy too.

Experimental units are all sufficiently powerful and impressive, although we question the usefulness of ones like the Pullinsmash, which has to be planted in a stationary spot to suck in units, crush them up, and fire the debris back. It's a fun concept, but we used it very little in practice. Experimentals also have critical vulnerabilities, which keeps them from being completely unstoppable. But the problem isn't so much that they have weaknesses, it's that they all practically have the same weakness. With rare exceptions like the Bomb Bouncer (a giant mobile shield) and aptly named Airnomo (an advanced anti-air unit), half the experimentals are vulnerable to air attacks. Even experimental air units like the UEF's AC-1000 Gunship or the Illuminate's Darkenoid flying saucer have trouble standing against fighter squadrons. Oddly, The Cybran Soul Ripper II can more than hold its own, suggesting a strong imbalance between the factions. In any case, the game puts extraordinary emphasis on air power and placing down a ton of anti-air defenses. The campaign can be won by using artillery to remove anti-air turrets, then sweeping in with a massive wave of aircraft to destroy the enemy commander.

Although the experimental units are still big and intimidating, despite their general weakness to aircraft, we noticed that the maps have been scaled down quite a bit. Don't get us wrong, the battlefields in Supreme Commander 2 are still way bigger than ones you'd find in just about any other real-time strategy game, but they're not as expansive as in previous games. The campaign doesn't play the old "battlefield expansion" trick anymore, where the world suddenly increases in size, revealing a new enemy. As a result, the strategic zoom feature isn't needed as much anymore, which takes away much of the game's identity. Instead, the challenge of the campaign comes from having to build up a strong defense in short time as enemy factions throw waves of troops your way, accompanied by experimental units. What makes things worse is when you have to work alongside AI controlled characters that seem to give up on rebuilding their bases about halfway through the mission, so your focus needs to switch toward defending them too. Our biggest gripe is the apparent lack of an autosave feature, so unless players are diligent about stopping and saving, they could potentially lose everything if an AI ally falls and causes the mission to fail.

The alliance theme in Supreme Commander 2 isn't nearly as exciting as in the Forged Alliance expansion, since the player doesn't get access to cross-factional technologies unless they manage to steal an engineer or factory from the enemy. This is a huge task in itself, because there's no way to tell units to stop firing long enough for a friendly engineer to take something over. It was also very difficult for us to discover how to steal enemy technology trees, since the process is a little unintuitive.

Considering how the original Supreme Commander busted onto the scene with a "size does matter" attitude, we expected a lot more from the sequel. Although we appreciate the streamlined gameplay, it seems like the it lost a lot of the ambition that drove its predecessor. Even the multiplayer seems a little too straightforward. This game would have benefited greatly from some sort of cooperative campaign. However, if Supreme Commander 2's intention was to broaden its appeal to new players, we're happy to say that it successfully does so. Supreme Commander 2 is relatively easy to learn and play, and given the somewhat hardcore complexity of its predecessor, that's a major feat.

We're a bit torn when considering Supreme Commander 2. When it comes right down to it, it's an excellent real-time strategy game, but apart from the features that were pioneered in the previous games, this sequel seems to be playing it pretty safe. Fans hoping that it would bring Supreme Commander up to a whole new level may be disappointed, but they may also appreciate the refinements that make the game more accessible to new players. Ultimately, if you want real-time strategy on a grand scale, with larger than life super units, Supreme Commander 2 is the way to go. But don't expect the game to take the series to the next level... just a different one.