Supreme Commander 2: Infinite War review

Big fan of Supreme Commander 2? Then good news: more of the same game is coming your way with the latest DLC pack from Square Enix. Pay no attention to the fanfare surrounding designer Chris Taylor (mastermind of the original Supreme Commander) being involved in this DLC; there's nothing particularly radical in terms of alterations here.

But hey, if you dig SupCom 2 that's a good thing, right? Basically, what you get with this DLC is some new multiplayer and skirmish maps, a bunch of new units (including the return of the beloved Cybran Monkeylord from the original SupCom), and some new technologies on the research tree. Most of the units play to the strengths of their given factions (the UEF get powerful defensive units, whereas the Illuminate get stealth and special-ability units), and the new technologies are primarily geared toward diversifying the factions' core gameplay types (giving more naval power to land-heavy factions, and air power to naval factions, etc.). All of these tweaks add to the game experience, but they don't revolutionize it, by any means.

As for the new maps, most are superior to the original game's multiplayer maps in terms of the way they throw the players at each other, and the way they make use of AI-controlled NPC units, but we suspect that SupCom 2 diehards, with their long experience playing the more standard maps, aren't going to migrate to these new ones anytime soon. They're better than the basic game's maps %26ndash; but not that much better.

All that said, it really comes down to whether or not you love SupCom 2, because what you're going to get here isn%26rsquo;t going to fix any problems you have with the gameplay or structure of the game. Again, there's no new single-player stuff here, it's all geared toward playing online, so you'll still need to be a tank-rushin' SOB if you want to win. But, heck, for ten bucks you may as well be the most complete tank-rushin' SOB you can be.

Oct 12, 2010