Marines
Member
I was wondering if anyone had played through the demo yet and if not could some download and play test it. I would like to get a feel for this game before it comes out week after next.
Post a review.
Post a review.
Superpower 2
- Thread starter Marines
- Start date
chrisvalla
Member
Lemee see what the ol' T1 at work can do... If anyone's interested, I have a copy of the original... right next to the Orion game that will not be numbered... I'll send you both a for a good deal...
Marines
Member
Well come on Chris I wanna know...chrisvalla said:
Jim H. Moreno
Member
I have seen a copy of the first one stuck down in my local EB's bargain bin. I think I'll pick it up next time I'm there. I also saw one called Capitalism...
Marines
Member
If I were you Jim I would steer clear of SP.Jim H. Moreno said:
chrisvalla
Member
Yeah, avoid the original... if you'll cover shipping, I can send you my copy to see for yourself why... seriously.
I'll have a report-ish on Monday; the work machine (of couse) just kan't dyo it captain...
Capitalism is one of the best/worst hard-core business sims out there (along with Cap Plus and Cap II). When I say best/worst... it's one of the best sims and one of the worst games. I found it completely devoid of 'fun' even though it was otherwise very good.
I'll have a report-ish on Monday; the work machine (of couse) just kan't dyo it captain...
Capitalism is one of the best/worst hard-core business sims out there (along with Cap Plus and Cap II). When I say best/worst... it's one of the best sims and one of the worst games. I found it completely devoid of 'fun' even though it was otherwise very good.
chrisvalla
Member
Well, the demo was a bit neutered when it came to long-term stuff like vehicle design (it wasn't available)... besides, you have only 90 minutes of demo time, not enough to really do anything that time-intensive anyway.
Combat - strategic weapons were disabled (probably the only time the SP franchise has never gone nuclear). conventional combat is handled similar to A&A where various units line up against each other and combat is somewhat abstacted. Instead of the topo map and having to hunt for the bad guys, you line up on one side, they line up on the other, and you pick your combat style (full assault, defensive, stand off, etc.) and the units 'line up' on the upper half of the screen not unlike the old A&A board game. The lower half has a 50/50 green/brown map representation that you can see your unit types (tanks, infantry, attack helicopters, fightes, etc.) moving across as white dots. Depending on your strategy, certain units will advance, hold their ground, or fall back (if you pick air supremacy, your fighters go forward and your ground units hold back, full assault, all move forward, etc.). The 'winner' slowly has the lower map slowly turn their color, like a percentage bar until they win, while the upper 'battle representation' has 'units' enage each other by some formula and the numbers just start dropping for each 'hit'. Very abstract; you pick the strategy (which can be changed mid-battle) and the 'units' do their thing.
I didn't like the movement on the strat-map much. It seems units in the same country will not auto-engage and you can have multiple fights occurring in the same territory at the same time (the demo scenario has you as Russia regaining her lost glory by taking the Baltics, Ukraine, and Moldova back... by force is necessary (required more like it!) in 90 minutes or (in my cases), roughly 5 years time.
There is also a covert ops section where you 'deploy' cells to other countries and pick missions for them ranging from sabotage to assasination to general terrorism, you can pick the severity, and if you want, a country to blame (didn't work too well when I went after Ukraine and trie to blame the Romanians).
foreign relations - I didn't really get too much into this (the demo scenario has specific goals that don't use this very much). It allows a multitude of treaty types (foreign aid, economic, scientific, trade, military, defense, coalition, etc.). The only gripe I had is that the pull-down country list always started at 'A' and you had to scroll down to find your country; no way to just pick them off the map. There have been lots of improvements and option added here for more 'real world' choices.
Economics - massive changes/improvements. No more simple sliders with a limited number of 'resources'. Now, you have a giant list of 'products'/'resources', a world market, foreign trade levels, investments, and such. Again, the small 90-minute timed demo didn't allow me a lot of time to play with this, but you can see what areas you import and export and make adjustments to your investment, tariff, and export levels.
budget - lots of categories this time, but you really need some more instructions on what each does (yes, generically they're self explanatory - infrastructure, tele-com, heath services, police, etc.) but beyond that, I couldn't really tell what each one did (not that I could 'afford' to keep any in the green anyway). Of course you have the usual tax adjustments (corp and private) as well as controlling the national interest rate (I think that's what it was).
government - you can change your government style from multi-party democracy, to single-party, to communism, to dictatorship, etc. which of course affects the stability of your country and your popularity (I imagine it effects much more, but I couldn't see the effects).
main map - there's the standard geographic map with at least a dozen overlays like political relations, government support/approval, tech level, military might, etc.... lots of color scales to show this info.
It definitely has more going for it than the original, especially in the foreign and economic areas (though it's hard to see much in only 90 minutes). The combat has been simplified (maybe too much for some) given all you do is line up, chose a strategy, and watch your unit counters tick down.
I'd wait for PCG and other's reviews myself before making the buy/no buy decision. There just wasn't enough demo (options and time) for me to explore everything enough to gve it a thumbs up or down, just that there's a lot more here than the original had, and it seems to be more good stuff with more options.
Combat - strategic weapons were disabled (probably the only time the SP franchise has never gone nuclear). conventional combat is handled similar to A&A where various units line up against each other and combat is somewhat abstacted. Instead of the topo map and having to hunt for the bad guys, you line up on one side, they line up on the other, and you pick your combat style (full assault, defensive, stand off, etc.) and the units 'line up' on the upper half of the screen not unlike the old A&A board game. The lower half has a 50/50 green/brown map representation that you can see your unit types (tanks, infantry, attack helicopters, fightes, etc.) moving across as white dots. Depending on your strategy, certain units will advance, hold their ground, or fall back (if you pick air supremacy, your fighters go forward and your ground units hold back, full assault, all move forward, etc.). The 'winner' slowly has the lower map slowly turn their color, like a percentage bar until they win, while the upper 'battle representation' has 'units' enage each other by some formula and the numbers just start dropping for each 'hit'. Very abstract; you pick the strategy (which can be changed mid-battle) and the 'units' do their thing.
I didn't like the movement on the strat-map much. It seems units in the same country will not auto-engage and you can have multiple fights occurring in the same territory at the same time (the demo scenario has you as Russia regaining her lost glory by taking the Baltics, Ukraine, and Moldova back... by force is necessary (required more like it!) in 90 minutes or (in my cases), roughly 5 years time.
There is also a covert ops section where you 'deploy' cells to other countries and pick missions for them ranging from sabotage to assasination to general terrorism, you can pick the severity, and if you want, a country to blame (didn't work too well when I went after Ukraine and trie to blame the Romanians).
foreign relations - I didn't really get too much into this (the demo scenario has specific goals that don't use this very much). It allows a multitude of treaty types (foreign aid, economic, scientific, trade, military, defense, coalition, etc.). The only gripe I had is that the pull-down country list always started at 'A' and you had to scroll down to find your country; no way to just pick them off the map. There have been lots of improvements and option added here for more 'real world' choices.
Economics - massive changes/improvements. No more simple sliders with a limited number of 'resources'. Now, you have a giant list of 'products'/'resources', a world market, foreign trade levels, investments, and such. Again, the small 90-minute timed demo didn't allow me a lot of time to play with this, but you can see what areas you import and export and make adjustments to your investment, tariff, and export levels.
budget - lots of categories this time, but you really need some more instructions on what each does (yes, generically they're self explanatory - infrastructure, tele-com, heath services, police, etc.) but beyond that, I couldn't really tell what each one did (not that I could 'afford' to keep any in the green anyway). Of course you have the usual tax adjustments (corp and private) as well as controlling the national interest rate (I think that's what it was).
government - you can change your government style from multi-party democracy, to single-party, to communism, to dictatorship, etc. which of course affects the stability of your country and your popularity (I imagine it effects much more, but I couldn't see the effects).
main map - there's the standard geographic map with at least a dozen overlays like political relations, government support/approval, tech level, military might, etc.... lots of color scales to show this info.
It definitely has more going for it than the original, especially in the foreign and economic areas (though it's hard to see much in only 90 minutes). The combat has been simplified (maybe too much for some) given all you do is line up, chose a strategy, and watch your unit counters tick down.
I'd wait for PCG and other's reviews myself before making the buy/no buy decision. There just wasn't enough demo (options and time) for me to explore everything enough to gve it a thumbs up or down, just that there's a lot more here than the original had, and it seems to be more good stuff with more options.
Last edited:
Jim H. Moreno
Member
OK, I'll pass on the first one, since I've just confirmed SuperPower2 for us to review.
scuud
Member
Super Power 2 is also supposed to have multiplayer is it not? That's one of the main reaons I'm getting it, let's see if Iran and Iraq can conquer the world...
chrisvalla
Member
I do believe so, but of course, the demo doesn't.
Marines
Member
Thanks for the review Chris its exactly the info I wanted.
chrisvalla
Member
Any time I can save anyone from making a 'game which will not be named' purchasing 'error', I'm glad to help.
Dr Zaius
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The original was a terribly flawed game, but it was fun as hell to launch the nukes!
Marines
Member
For about the first 20 seconds maybe. The nuclear warfare model they used must have come from...I have no idea but it was bad. The effects of the detonations were way off in terms of being realistic.Don Maddox said:
JSMoss
Member
The original SP was a real snoozer. Don't waste your money. I too am waiting for some to assess whether II has any real play value.Jim H. Moreno said:
Jim H. Moreno
Member
OK, I have this one in my grubby little hands. Has anyone else bought it? I do think I'll need help with this one, if someone cares to share play experiences and multiplayer with me, that is, once I wrap some brain cells around it...
Jim H. Moreno
Member
Ivan Rapkinov
Harpoon Forum Moderator
almost bought it today...then didn't.
Marines warnings came to mind, hence no purchase - if they fix that, maybe then...
Marines warnings came to mind, hence no purchase - if they fix that, maybe then...