Supreme Commander vs Supreme Commander 2

[Shadow-Phoenix]

So let me start off by saying I'm a massive fan of RTS and have been playing since the mid 90's from games like C&C to Age of Empires.

Over the years I've grown to love more futuristic type RTS games like Star Wars Empire at war and then I managed to get hold of Supreme Commander and was hooked on the game for the past 4 years.

Now the game is a bit hard in some cases for myself such as sorting out Mass and energy but it's still a great fun RTS to play with the massive scale wars one could have that could last for hours, until recently I'd stayed away from Supreme commander 2 due to a friend of mine disliking it but loving the first one and it's expansion (I've watched him play 2 for quite a few hours and I've seen him have fun and do well so no QQ'ing there).

That all changed when I decided to get hold of the 2nd game from the Steam sale (god bless the almighty Gaben) and started playing the campaign to get to grips with what differences the game had from the first.

I've got to say there are quite a few differences such as the research tech tree which seems simple enough although sometimes you have to wait to stack up the points for the good tech, but there are also some changes I didn't come to like such as you starting off with what looks like Tech 3 engineers who cannot aid one another in building one single structure but can aid each other in building a single unit at a faster pace.

But in the end I'm still enjoying the game s far and I wouldn't say it's an absolute travesty from the first but it could have used some of the ideas from the first game like the Mass and Energy storage (I keep linking power cores to land/air bases still thinking it's doing it's job when it's different to the 1st game).

So I've come to ask all of you, what did you like/dislike about both games and which one was your favourite along with the differences between both games?.(It can be both like myself even)

Captcha: Live Love Internet, yes internet I love you too.

 

[IBlackKiteI]

I haven't played either for more than a few minutes though I keep hearing that SC2 is a dumbed down version of the first, though maybe that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Is that exactly true? And which do you reckon would be better as a LAN type game?

 

[Zeh Don]

The original Supreme Commander was really all about strategy over tactics, which is what most RTS games focus on. Through virtue of sheer scale, you couldn't micro-manage. It was big and hulking, sure, but it's stand along expansion pack, which refines the game to a mirror-perfect shine, is also pretty much the best RTS game on the planet.

Supreme Commander 2 removes pretty much all of that, and breaks everything that it leaves in. It's too small for sheer strategy to rule the battlefield, and too big to focus on tactics, ala Starcraft II. As a result, you end up with a game where spamming units and nothing but spamming units wins. "Thinking" was pretty much stripped out in favour of making it simpler than the original. So, of course, it was tailored for the Xbox 360 which meant complexity was removed at every turn.
It's the weird kind of sequel that's inferior to the original in every single way. It's a step back on every front - especially visually - and begs the question "Why?" when all that was really wrong with the original was a cumbersome U.I. and technical issues.

Luckily, we've got Planetary Annihilation - a spiritual successor that takes the scale of Supreme Commander and magnifies it across an entire galaxy. And, man, it's looking fucking awesome.

 

[LetalisK]

I thought Supreme Commander 2 was a steaming pile of crap.

Actually, let me rephrase. I think Supreme Commander 2 may have been a steaming pile of crap because I couldn't get past how they actually made a sequel that looked like it was made 5 years before the previous game. It looked like crappy legos.

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

Artillery is overpowered in both games. I preferred SC1's shields, they did a much better job, same for the tech 3 generators. I like how cheap it is to build experimental units in SC2 and the fact it gets cheaper when the building levels up). Loved SC1's engineering units. Love some DLC additions to the buildings in SC2, like the Boomerang.

Overall I'd say I much prefer SC1 for its massive scale and the fact the Commander could go hide at the bottom of the ocean and still build from there. SC2 made everything much smaller, but doesn't have the massive slowdowns SC1 had when fighting AIs (on the other hand it suffers from poor networking, in my experience).

 

[EXos]

SC2 doesn't come close... Not even the same planet close... Boring as HELL!!!