I have no doubt that Supreme Commander 1 was one of the best RTS games of the last five years ... sorry, not was but still is. The expansion for it, Forged Alliance added the extra features to the game that gave it a new life. So, I was quite excited when I saw that Supreme Commander II was being launched this month. To top it off, Steam even put it on special for the pre-orders. What a bargain! But after a really dodgy product launch, the reality hit ... this was in no way shape or form a Supreme Commander 2. It's a sequel only in story but not in maps, gameplay, graphics or anything else. As I played the first missions I was baffled as to why the graphics were not as good as in Supreme Commander 1. Jumping into skirmishes, I discovered that the maps were not even a quarter of the size of those in number 1, or the expansion. None of the maps require any type of naval units either. The maps included with the game are designed in a way where you can't do anything physically practical with the ships or the ocean. There are no island maps (etc).
So, what would drive a developer to release a game that's not as good as its prequel? Why would you dumb down a game? Take out features? The answer of course is ... console. Supreme Commander II was designed for console gamers. It was dumbed down so that it will run on the Xbox. I am not dissapointed that they made a console version of this game but I am dissapointed that they tried to release this as a sequel on PC. Give me this new story line on the old engine and allow me to use all the maps from the first game and the add-on. Give me back all of the glorious graphics that made Supreme Commander 1 a truly brilliant game. If I was able to return this game, I wouldn't think twice about doing so. Unfortunately, Steam doesn't allow for refunds. I guess that's why they had it on special for pre-orders. Once the word got out about how crap with game is on PC, no one will want it. But hey ... If you're looking for an RTS game on a Xbox, this game could be fun ... but it's only a shadow of what number 1 was on the PC.
