5:55 Acksuahlly. You can build other factions' experimentals. The game never tells you this and I found it by random chance but when you capture a different factions' engineer you have to build that faction's research center. Then in the research tab, you will find a little arrow next to your faction icon in the menu. Click that arrow and now you have access to a new faction tech tree and are able to build all their stuff and research including experimentals. Again the game never mentions this and I've played it for years and only found out recently.

One thing I really like about this game was the pathfinding. I almost never had to babysit a unit or get it unstuck. They really made some leaps in pathfinding in SupCom2.

one really minor thing that pissed me off with SC2 was the art direction of the Aeon. in the first game the Aeon were sleek and efficient. their design philosophy was elite specialists. each unit was designed for a single role and there was not an ounce of metal on it that did not contribute to that role. an example of this in forged alliance was the swift wind. while the UEF and Cyberons added fighter bombers to their roster, the Aeon were not having with any of this dual role nonsense and instead created an excellent fighter and a single use missile aircraft to fill the tactical roles. come SC 2 and every Aeon unit is multi role and covered in banners and aestetic flourishes. it's a complete reversal of the entire Aeon design philosophy.

I have to leave a comment here. Supreme Commander 2 was my FIRST RTS I ever played. I was very young and only Played FPS games and wanted to have a game where I could see the whole battle and army. I saw Supreme Commander 2 in a Blockbuster (Yes that long ago) and saw a cool robot on the cover. On the back, I saw giant armies duking it out and tried it out. It was incredible, creating giant armies and watching this spectacle of war play out before me. I was a kid and kind of dense so I played through the entire UEF campaign not knowing there was a tech tree so I didn't unlock any new units and only figured it out after replaying the final mission for the 5th time (I completed the mission several times before cus I played on easy and only realized when I accidentally misclicked on my controller. Yes a controller I played on Xbox 360) I love this game because it's what got me into RTS. The simple mechanics made it not to hard for stupid kid me to get into and enjoy the game. It was not until later I got the original Supreme Commander and then got overwhelmed by the depth and complexity, it was nothing like Sup Com 2. You have to admit though Sup Com 2 looked beautiful, especially with the colorful battles that went on. The biggest overlooked part however is the music. The music of Sup Com 2 is GODLIKE, perfectly illustrating the calmness as you build a base and factories churn out machines of war to the awe-inspiring battle scores as oceans of tanks and robots were shredded as skyscraper tall giant mechs fought with earth-breaking weapons. While now I like Sup Com FA because it's the current best form of Sup Com with large beautiful battles Sup Com 2 is a good game worthy of praise even if it is no doubt a terrible Sup Com sequel. Also, side note isn't it hilarious that in the original Sup Com the Monkey Lord is a cheap, quick to build, and the least powerful experimental while in Sup Com 2 it's the most OP BS experimental that is costly, takes forever to build, and shreds everything in its path capable of beating all the experiments in the game including the Universal Colossus in a 1v1.

There is actually a reason why SC2 was the way it was. A while back they tried to port SC1 to Xbox 360 to get more of a player base. However, while the port was done surprisingly well, the game was so powerful that it practically melted the console (I almost lost my 360 to it a while back). So in order for the sequel to run properly on console they had to drastically downscale everything from maps to units to ai. Which is why the controls and behavior of the game is so different from previous titles.

There was an interview with one of the devs that made supcom and he said when they got bought over by another company due to financial problems they were only given 2 years to make supcom 2 whereas the first supcom that they made took them 4 years.

Well, as a veteran-ish of this game, and after watching the video thinking that it was going to be another supcom 2 bash video, im positively surprised! Thank you for not just hopping onto the hatetrain but seeing the game for what it actually is!

I wouldn't say the faction differences were only in the experimentals in Sup Com 2. The Aeon/ Illuminate didn't get boats and had more hover units allowing much of their force to be amphibious. Which was probably a bad idea, since it really kneecaps the variety of Aeon forces, but it is different. Just not a good difference. Also you could use multiple engineers to assist factories in making units or buildings. The problem was, since it didn't increase resource drain the amount of build time gained was a third of the last level. For example, if a unit took 27 seconds to build, one engineer would take off 9 seconds, while a second one would take off a measly 3. As for the defense buildings, I'd say the artillery were too good. Mid game artillery could reach across the map, and there was no drain on your economy for having them continuously fire. Combine that with cheap, long range radar, and maps like Corvona Chasm turned into massive artillery wars, especially with UEF. I think you hit the nail on the head that Sup Com 2 may be a bad sequel, when looking for something that builds upon Sup Com, but it's a good game when it stands on its own. I think some of the new experimentals have delightful mechanics, like the Cybran brain that either boosts your research or gives units extra xp. The game is different and I think too many people don't give it a chance.

Hey Zade - Love your content. Just wanted to point out at 5:15 you said Experimentals were coming out like Shermans in Detroit. That footage is actually an M3 Lee. Its an early production as it uses rivets - and when it was hit with a shell the rivets would sheer off and make hamburger of the dudes on the inside. I like SupCom 1 over 2. But SupCom 2 isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. At least its not like CnC 4. =\

You can actually access a different factions tech tree if you build one of their science generators.

Supcom2 UI and pathfinding was god tier. If you combine the UI and pathfinding with SupcomFa you literally have the perfect game.

I haven't finished SC2 but one thing in my initial testing and watching this video that stood out was much more varied and "handcrafted" looking levels, environmental design looked in SC2 like more than just someone raising some terrain and lowering a bit here and there like it looks like in SC1, SC1 environments look so placeholdery and barren, one thing I love in stuff like C&C, look at how richly detailed the environments are in C&C3 for instance, with signs and streets and garbage lying on some sidewalk and decals placed with care and thought around the different locations that you're going to be fighting in.

I feel like one of the best and often not talked about elements of SC1 is the sound design. You can instantly recognize the distinct sound of every weapon in the game, and some of the unique walking sounds as well. I'm not sure if this is the case in SC2

Great video. You forgot two important things (if I didn’t miss them) 1. No custom map support 2. No mod support. Especially the first one is a huge downside of the game. Anyway I agree with you. SupCom 2 is a really fun game. It just shouldn’t have been the successor of Supreme Commander. I remember the reason why GPG went for the decisions for this game is because the game was hugely aimed at consoles. Man I started to hate conolifacation at that time. Same happened with the Crysis series. Crysis one was a pc masterpiece. Then Crysis 2 happened lol.

I can agree. It just baffles me that the people that made supcom FA would look at what they made and decide.. "You know what? lets make a sequel that appeals to NONE of our core fan base, and takes away well recieved features!" I swear the amount of series that have died on the hill of finding a "wider audience" really is sad...

Supcom 2 defence turrets are actually VERY devastating. It's actually much easier to turtle in 2 than FA due to the nerfing to T3 arty and reduction of shield cost. Also most Supcom 2 turrets' fully upgraded DPS match that of T3 units and some are even hiigher

For me, I love Supreme Commander 2, I grew up with it back when I was about 11 or 12yrs old. It was my first introduction to Supreme Commander overall and it was a random surprise gift from my grandma at the time for my xbox 360 that I used to play. I think the game on its own was awesome and it had a great story with amazing characters. I especially loved the uef campaign and the ending of it with the epic battle that took place.

As someone who hasn't played this game, it's good to hear you discuss its good points! I look forward to hearing where Dawn of War 3 falls on the "Tiberian Twilight - Supreme Commander 2" scale of Maligned RTS Sequels...

It's also worth to mention that why SUPCOM 2 didn't follow SUPCOM 1, was much due to economical difficulties. They didn't have time or money to invest in a project that cud do SUPCOM justice. I realy recommend Zades interview with Chris Taylor

Me, who played SC2 before SC1: I actually prefer SC2... I mean the thing is SC2 went away from the massive scale of SC1 to being something of a middle point between classic SupCom and C&C, so I can see how people who liked the original Supreme Commander didn't enjoy it as it was a stark departure from what made SupCom great, though I think it is a fantastic game on its own merit.

I enjoyed SC2, especially playing with friends against insane A.I. Nothing beat being 5 mins in and hearing "strategic launch detected." 😂

Awesome video, got a few thoughts though... 05:10 Yeah experimentals in SC2 are easy to build and might seem underpowered if you're playing vs AI or noobs, but I think it's definitely better that they're no longer a jack of all trades and you actually have to support them and kite enemy units to abuse their range. If you just walk them into the middle of the enemy army/base expecting them to annihilate everything you will be disappointed. You have to use their strengths and if you do they basically make small land obsolete in the lategame. 05:46 Probably a decision to prevent people from building hundreds of engineers to assist one factory, lagging the game and cluttering the base instead of just building more factories 05:50 You can totally capture an enemy engineer, build a research station and in the research tab you will now see arrows (where the faction icon is I think) to switch between faction trees. The biggest plus of SC2 is flowfield pathfinding. I think the old pathfinding system in FAF is the only thing stopping me from dumping thousands of hours into it, because I always want to pull my hair out anytime I'm trying to harass somebody with bots, they get stuck on some random rock and the pros tell me "it's okay that just happens sometimes and you can't do anything about it". I've also watched FAF tournament POVs and it's crazy how much time pros spend working on their base. In SC2 you spend most of your time microing units and attacking, which is way more fun than memorizing tons of math to upgrade your mass extractors in the most efficient way while moving your buildpower engis around where they're needed while they're also getting stuck on every single little thing in the way. If you ever want to learn more about the game feel free to hit me up and I can get you into a lobby filled with top players all willing to teach and have some fun ^^ Thank you so much for making this video Zade. Hopefully you won't get too much hate from the FAF community for sticking your neck out x)

Supreme commander 2 was actually one of my first, if not the first rts games I've ever played. Because of this it's been on a pedestal that's been untouched by any other games sense then. I abosutly loved that game and it single handedly dragged me into rts genre and because of this it will always have a special place in my heart (right next to C and C).

I do totally agree with you on it not being SC sequel, I play it like a stand-alone due to it's minimalistic easy play style.

On those maps, they are certainly smaller than SupCom 1 maps, but they are by no means small exclusively. Especially compared to its contemporaries at the time, like Starcraft 2 and Red Alert 3, the maps are rather meaty in scale.

I think some of the bitterness about SupCom 2 is that, thanks to the publisher change, for years it was the only one on Steam and SupCom 1 was difficult to get. But now both are easy to get so there's not really any reason for bad blood. Just a matter of preference. Oh, which one do I prefer? Both are on my bucket list. Yep. I'll get to both of them eventually!

Y'all should check out Beyond All Reason, it is basically Supreme Commander and Total Annihilation reborn into a free, open source and well made game with an active multiplayer community. There are even references to AKs and peewees in the game's own documentation/menus, though the units are named differently to avoid copyright.

Machines collide still rings in my ear to this day ever since I heard it on ps3 KZfaq back in 2013.

Ackthyually thats an M3 Lee/Grant at 5:15

I actually own the disks for all the Sup Com games, I feel so old lol. But I really enjoyed all 3 of them. Very much including Sup Com 2. Its MP was pretty fun, and I didn't mind the tech tree all that much, I will say that recently I played a game of it, and I didn't remember how fast paced it was, or how small the maps felt. I think in hindsight it having larger versions of the same maps would of been great. And more units overall could of made the tech tree a bit more interesting.

I play supreme commander 2 on Xbox 360(my first rts)...are supreme commander forged alliance worth it for me or I should play games like planetary annihilation,beyond all reason or there's more game like scfa?I'm trying to get into rts again and it's gonna be my forever game.

question did you use a mod for the supreme commander 1 gameplay or is the mech apart of it?

SupCom 2 reminds me of HomeWorld and Homeworld: Cataclysm. Both good games designed not as sequels of each other but just as different games using the same universe for inspiration

the flow field ai thing is amazing, though its bad for experimentals who are supposed to stomp on small units.

All 3 games i buy them from steam... supreme commander , supreme commander 2, and forget alliance all 3 they crush when i change resolution... please advice. Running windows 11. Thanks

5:15 that was not a sherman but a m3Lee, which was more of was predasestor to the sherman (great video bdw)

This game actually introduced me to the supreme commander series and strategy games as a whole.

Speaking of a different kind of gamer, maybe a look into the Majesty series would be worthwhile? They are RTS games where you don't directly control the units. Instead, you set bounties on tasks, set up guilds, and basically hope your D&D delinquents manage to save the kingdom.

So I have never played Supreme Commander 1, as around that time I was playing age of empires, empire earth, and other classics and honestly didnt hear about the franchise until me and my mates decided to all get Supreme Commander 2. And for that purpose we have all universally loved it, every single game, pvp or against the AI feeling like an epic struggle.

I hate to be that guy, but it is possible to build enemy experimentals in SupCom 2. When you capture one you can build their basic buildings. This includes their research buildings, and building that gives you access to that faction’s tech tree. From there onwards you can use the capped Engie to build their factories, make more engineers and their own combat units, and any research points you gather can be applied between your tech tree and the other faction’s tech tree. From there you can get all their upgrades, including the experimentals, build the experimental factories, and rock and roll. That said this is fairly esoteric, I don’t blame anybody for not figuring it out. It took me a while to notice this myself. As for my thoughts on SupCom 2, I do enjoy it. It was one of the first RTS I played, albeit on Xbox 360, and I had a lot of fun. I have it and the predecessors on Steam, and the entire franchise kicks so much ass. That said I prefer the games that came before.

It also has a small dedicated modding scene that blend the gameplay of one, with graphics of two with a weird blend of stuff.

The main reason I played SupCom1 was because growing up I had an Xbox360 and SupCom2 caught my eye and I loved my time with it. I've no doubt many concessions were made to get it to run on consoles (unit cap definitely) but it let young-teenager me enjoy one of my first RTS games. I prefer SupCom1 now but I enjoyed both equally during my time playing them.

At 8:00 didn't they patch the economy to be more like Sup Com 1 with a continuous flow system? I remember that being the case when I last revisited it and it really helped the game flow better!

I can't hate the game. I learned about SupCom in a litteral Wc3 map. It was a big part of my childhood. Supcom was coming out so I'm like, well it looks so cool and the demo was COOL and free for my high school years. It was an easy, fun entry into RTS. I must have played the campaign many times and it was entertaining. I really like the different techs, pathfinding and animations were so smooth and immersive, the graphisms are great, the action is immediate and effective, not a mass of turtle shit. The ost is great. It suffers from having a predecessor. Though the actual design and gameplay is somewhat questionable though, but there's a lot of creativity. There's a lot of design flaws in gameplay design. It's frankly a bummer that Aeon decided to not make any navy anymore... It's still a very entertaining game.

It was a good game it just wasn't a good Supreme Commander game.

-Watered down. -Smaller scale. -Graphics look like a downgrade. -Smaller rosters. You see where I'm going with this... Few good things were the research mechanic and ACU upgrades making them powerful enough to fight Experimentals.

An interview with a lead dev revealed they had to cut out a TON of stuff because the stupid publisher forced them to make it work on console.

Having never played SC1, I really enjoy the 2nd game. It's one of my favorite RTS', because of the ability to do more wacky things. Doing chokepoint maps with a 5 dozen built artillery will never get old.

One of the strangest sequels ever made. They actively made a game they knew was the complete opposite of what their entire userbase wanted and decided to go after the casual RTS market. Every SupCom fan is well within their rights to hate it. It's okay to hate something if it's justified!

Nail on the head. It's a fine RTS, but it's a terrible SupCom. To me it's in the space of a Starcraft 2 sidegrade. It doesn't stand out from the pack in the way the original game does.

There should have been an expansion to Forged Aliance .In that there should have been unit types tiered between tech 3 and experimentals .

The absolute game breaking bug was the supply glitch, where you could duplicate supplies by deconstructing and constructing a building at the same time. Was never fixed :/

I loved SupCom 2, as the story was awesome (especially loved the UEF and Cybran story) the only downside to me was the lack of T3/Experimental units compared to the original one. The economy for one was much improved in my mind.

I was only recently introduced to SC1 (about 2-3 months ago) and I've been loving it, playing on FAF. Soon after I picked up SC2 and played it for about 5-6 hours. I enjoyed it well enough, but I then went back to FAF. To me, the original is just so much more, with its grand epic scale battles. I would agree with what has already been said - SC2 is a good RTS, but a bad sequel.

Another Issue with SoupCommander (that was ON PURPOSE) is that very obviously the guys (and gals) behind the story and technical details had NO CLUE. In Supreme Commander and Forged Alliance UEF were solid non-stupid competent forces that hated their enemies but NEVER for one second thought them incompetent, or themselves infallible. There units reflected this; solid dependable but kinda old~ish tech base Cybran were experts in adaptable sneaky asymmetric warfare with have energy weapon nano tech and anti-matter toys; again there stuff reflected this: fast adaptable and packing lethal energy weapon load-outs Aeon built their stuff NOT out of grey-nano-goo but out of quantum manipulated liquid metal, their tech was NEARLY otherworldly, but hobbled by the religious nature demanding they build their stuff 'perfectly'; so you get all the really odd exotic effect/weapons that are 'perfect' for their one role and nearly useless outside of it Seraphim were full bore floaty tech with quantum poof it exists now tech.. and a fetish for asymmetry; again their stuff reflects this And the story is obviously one of intelligent people fighting a war; they know the strategic situation. All the human factions are aware that the UEF is losing and the UEF is trying desperately to get their 'death-star but not' online before this inevitability happens. In Forged alliance Humanity has finally traded enough space (and lives) for time to reorient and face the Seraphim. Seraphim aren't stupid and have noted humanity's posture change and retaliate by building that quantum arch; again forces react to each other. But in SC2? UEF are dumb stereo type jocks saying things like UEF are superior and all that malarkey; never mind the main char is so horribly undisciplined as to contact his wife from a top secret base for a freaking 'hi honey how are you'. The UEF were a force to be feared: HINT it wasn't because they were a bunch of dumb meat-heads with no discipline or operational security Cybran have dumped all their nano-tech all the anti-matter and have gone full bore crazy; lets randomly stuff Seraphim DNA in a human and see what happens?!?! W.T.F? Aeon have somehow got the nano-tech? how'd that happen? they lost all their 'it floats cause I said so' tech and now have eye blinding hover tech that has been named by a 2 year old Seraphim... MIA And the story is just abysmal. Just the core of it the Terra-former IN THE AEON HOME SYSTEM?!?!? MISSED FOR A 1000 YEAR TIME PERIOD?!? IN A WAR WHERE STARSHIPS EXIST?!?!? - NO! just no, nope not a thing that makes any sense. This is completely never-minding that this top secret super project that is researching the thing (IN THE AEON HOME SYSTEM, ON A HABITABLE WORLD) has a UEF general in charge who absolutely would fail every psych-eval ever, did I mention this was a project LITERALLY IN THE AEON HOME SYSTEM?!?! Sure lets allow a top secret planet killer project headed up by the Klingon General Chang in.. SOL SYSTEM terra-formed mars; yes this is safe and nothing bad can happen here whatsoever. I still haven't even mentioned the UEF player character, or the Aeon wife who DID NOT act so (hint Aeon wife means a little tiny bit more than: oh she's Jewish or something as trifling as a mere modern religious belief). Or just how dirty they did every Cybran character; Player? less personality than cardboard, Brackman? survived 1000 years in a tank as a brain still sane... went nuts for 'lulz', Gauge? Complete psycho... and handed an ACU... because reasons. Somehow the Aeon are actually worse.. leaving aside he who is in a fantasy land due to his brain melting out of his ears; how is the player character supposedly out performing veteran ACU pilots? in the very first level it is EXPLICITLY stated that you are playing a noob; not new, not fresh from the academy, I mean full: 'what does this thingy do?'. There is wow you are an amazingly talented new guy, and then there is 'I put a random farm boy in a giant mech and said good luck when he asked how do I turn this on?'; Even if your last name is Skywalker and the force says you win there is still SOME training to make that happen. (well for more than one battle anyway, I will fully admit a lucky fool is dangerous) Is SC2 a game, yes it is. Is it a good game, no. It is merely an average RTS put out by a company (Square Enix) who came by and bought up GPG's stuff and produced pathetic knock-off stuff that looks superficially like it's name sake. SC2 is meh, in the shoes of a giant; and DS3 was a BAD Japanese style on the rails so hard that only one build per character was even playable (yeah you use the ricochet build see how hard locked in the boss fight that says you eat your own ricochets, there are others for other classes) RPG standing in the shoes of DS2; a game that I still think beats EVERY Diablo... (Ok, to be fair D2 gets mighty close)

SupCom2 feels like its made by someone who has only vaguely heared about SupCom1

Awesome video! Supreme Commander 2 is a fun game. Too bad they made it a sequel to Sup Com. The pathfinding in Supreme Commander 2 is phenomenal. Thank you for the video!

5:14 That is a M3 Lee not a M4 Sherman.

One thing from SC2 I would like to see on SC1 is the upgrades on factories. Adding AA and shields to them is nice.

I didn't play 2 yet, but from what I get from your video is that they just made a larger scale C&C?

As you and other said, I was a good game ... but a bad Supreme Commander game. I really enjoyed it when it came out, but this was before I actually played the first one. I might have been more disappointed otherwise. Also, just to ruin your joke at 5:15, that's a M3 Grant and not a Sherman ;D

Great coverage, totally agree. As a sequel to SupCom, totally rubbish. As a separate RTS-game? Pretty good. I think it is all down to expectations!

Is that Nividia Graphic Card problem still a thing? I tried playing it again two years ago and found that bug. Essentially the games frame-rate drops to the single digits due to Nividia removing some former code with their newest graphic card updates. There are a couple of steam forums on the issue. So forewarning if you do buy Supcom2, you might be screwed if you have a high end modern day PC (which is a shame, it has its good moments & nostalgia)

If I recall correctly, my first SupCom game was the first one, on Xbox 360, dad thought I would like it. I didn't like it, I LOVED it. I later asked mom if I could get SupCom2 sometime after it came out, don't regret it, made a good number of friends on Xbox Live through it and Halo...most of them are gone now... Never had a good PC that could handle it or really any Strategy game, other than Sword of the Stars(which I never got to play any kind of multi-player in)

For me, THE thing that sold me Supreme Commander 2 was, ironically, the scale. When time is short and life becomes a mess, you need to use your time efficiently. Speaking about entertainment, you have to get lots of fun without spending too much of the day, and then keep the life moving forward. I don't have the same free time as before, and it's not hard to see that games can be a huge time consuming hobby. I don't wanna stop playing them, I just want to enjoy every second. That's why roguelikes are fantastic for this, as fast paced RTSes.

Simplified beyond any reasonable sense

Eyo people, does anybody know how to fix fps in this game for high refresh rate monitors?

Thank you for this. I tried supcom 1 (vanilla) but got overwhelmed, found it so long, slow, complicated, often not knowing what to do nor why I was losing. Looking at forged alliance, I thought "wow that seems even more complicated and tedious", and when looking in supcom 2's way, I only saw negative reviews so I thought "it's even worse". Maybe I should try 2 first and then go back to 1

You didn't talk about the pathfinding, that was the best part of SupCom 2! No more bumper cars! Reeeee Good video tho, because I pretty much agree. Also, the maps are really pretty in this game, especially compared to the first one.

Great game, terrible sequel.

I don't per se dislike SC2 (I enjoyed the campaign cutscenes and byplay) but one of the things that made SC1/FA so epic was the scale. Stacking some research centers to simply "unlock" experimentals doesn't have the same feel of investment. Felt too linear for me.

Something I did say when those games originally came out (within 2 weeks of each other): "Supreme Commander 2 is the game you should try out if you are disappointed by C&C 4." SC2 is a good game on its own merits, and it went for action and accessability in a way the RTSes of a decade prior often went for (the one series which kept prominence was C&C and Total Annihilation at the time was and is loved for doing exactly that not). And it hits high notes in that area. It is just a really bad sequel to SC, not only forgoing the gameplay that people liked in SC1 (because it was different from those other RTSes), but also taking what lore there was and completely ignoring it past the cliff notes, taking away much what made factions and characters work as they did in SC1.

Because it took everything that made the original great and threw it in the bin. There's less variety in units, the cap is decreased, the energy system is simplified (not in a good way) leading to shield and arty spam, the tech tree is a bloated mess, the experimental units are less impactful and game changing (and they can be spammed) and gone are the epic scale maps with multiple fronts. The pacing is all wrong. The cherry on top was the fact they made it incredibly difficult and nigh-on impossible at launch to mod for. There is no defending Supreme Commander 2 as a sequel to Supreme Commander 1 and a relation to TA. It is an objectively bad game when compared to it's predecessors and was a cynical play at making the series faster paced and more RPM based to appeal to the nascent tournament scene back in 2010.

Supreme Commander 2. Probably my biggest video gaming disappointment ever, only possibly contested by Cyberpunk, but even that's stretching it.

You actually can research on other factions by building their research station then clicking the faction icon in the research screen.

SupCom2 was actually my introduction to the series. I played it without knowing any of the context, on *Xbox* of all things when I was like 9. I enjoyed the game, had fun exploring the different factions, and I think the scaled-down and simplified nature of the game helped a snot-nose brat get into the swing of it without getting overwhelmed.

I played sup com 2 first and love it, but having now played sup com 1 I can see why many people would be disappointed.

I haven't finished the video but Sup Com 2 was the first sup com I played then FA I liked FA more because the sheer scale of maps was insane from a game from like 2003-04? The simplicity and not having to deal with research, the streaming income was extremely unique for any RTS I played.

Is the economy work the same way as Supcom:FA ? I think it doesn't work like TA nor Supcom, it work like CnC series.

It is the perfect gateway drug to Supreme Commander. I played 2 first, could not get into 1 at first because it has a much steeper learning curve. But Supreme Commander 2 disguises itself as your average RTS, while having core features that make the first game so special or at least teasing them. The scale, while nothing compared to SC1, already is massive compared to many other RTS. Long range artillery, factories that are supposed to be churning out units endlessly, queueing buildings without having the resources at the moment (which to my knowledge was actually patched in later), powerful experimental units. They all give you that taste of scale few other rts give, and if you like it you will at some point hear that SC1 supposedly has a much grander scale and try it. Oh, and not sure if all projectiles are fully simulated like in SC1, but at least some are. Few things beat the enemy desperately trying to launch a nuke at you only to have it collide with one of your air units that are currently wrecking his base. Sure, I lost my air fleet but he lost his base. Best thing about it that it happened while it actually was on screen for me and not suddenly nuke explosion on the map so I know for a fact that he did not try to nuke my air force and the nuke in fact collided with my flying fortress.

SC FA is so good that nobody really wanted a sequel (unknowingly), people just want a modern coded version of the game. SC2 is a more relaxed, casual bit of fun.

As someone who never played the first Supreme Commander, I really love Supreme Commander 2 and never understood why people hated it. Now I have some idea why. Still a good game though. Artillery goes brrrrr.

I don't know any other RTS game where in an 8 vs 8 match you can have your whole team wiped out so it's a 1 vs 8 game, and still have chance to win than in supcom 1 (the FAF community build). That happened to me at one time, my teammates ACU's died one by one. I remembering thinking wtf, am i actually winning this? We were all around rank 600-900 so nothing compared to pro's. Just the adrenaline rush while playing made my hands shake and the insane APM's i needed to do to keep up with everything. After i won the match i was completely burnt out and just went to bed, happy. :D

Hate is a strong word. It's still a good RTS when compared to others. It just doesn't live up to it's predcessor. I had good memories of supcom2. It was fun.

Personally I loved Sup Com 2, but I played it first over the first one. I think the smaller scale gives it bigger mass market appeal (easier to handle).

ive Always wanted this... Tech 4 Experimental Shields Tech 4 Experimental Base AA units Tech 4 Experimental Base defence gun Tech 4 Soldier, a small unit with devastating short range firepower.

Very interesting video zade I've only played a little of both, this video really helped explain the difference and from a funny new Zealander mate where u been all my life can't wait for retribution video!!

One very important comment to drop: What you showed when talking about the Sherman wasn't a Sherman but an M3 Lee. Thank you for coming to my WELL AKSHULYYY TED talk.

I had the reverse experience, where I played SC2 first and then was totally nonplussed when I went back to SC1.

this and c&c3 were my first strategy games so i really loved them i remember playing the demos like crazy in c&c i managed to Snatch some factories to build avatars in the demo and in supcom 2 i always killed the kraken with my Atlantis carriers

Thank you for this video, it is nice to hear sc2 getting reviewed as it's own game rather than "the one that consoles messed up". That said I think one of the big reasons for sc2's bad rep is how easy it is to exploit with the reclaim/repair glitch. It put all multiplayer matches in the position of "use the exploit or lose". This problem persists to this day on xbox, and along with the anti nuke glitch that shot multiple anti nukes at one incoming nuke, it made for games that felt more like you lost to the games faults rather than to an opponent. Even with those problems i still feel it is the best rts on console, it has the ability to be fast paced while still giving the ability to have long form attrition games. Experimentals are powerfull but not game ending making swarms viable at the end as well as the beginning(along with my favorite, swarms of experimentals). Is it as good as sc1, i don't know, i never played the first one. I can say that it is not as good as my all time favorite, Total Annihilation, but still a good rts that never got the attention and polish it needed.

Zade can you take at look at the upcoming RTS called Beyond all Reason? Keep up the great work, mate.

I'm sure those cookies are fine and tasty, but you said you were baking another cake.

I think everyone that can be said about SC2 has been said already, it's a great game which is fun and satisfying to play. But if I were given the choice of a game that I know is good in SC2, for a more faithful sequel to Forged Alliance, I would most likely take that option.

It should also be noted that the co-op vs AI experience is phenomenal. The AI is really competent and fun to play against, especially for a 2010 game, and it can be easily scaled for mixed groups of player skill.

although the analogy is correct, the tank at 5:14 is a M3 Lee, not a M4 Sherman

I'd imagine the reason SupCom 2 was scaled back was for console reasons, in SupCom 1 was ported to the 360, whilst it could run, the 360 would hate it. wouldn't surprise me if others have already stated this, hence SupCom 2, had some scale backs and simplifications. It's also likely why we have one less faction and Seraphim esc unit's are blended in with the Aeon. to make sure it can run on the 360... also, about the being unable to use another factions tech. You actually can, you just have to build that factions research station. I've done this is so many games against the albeit meh AI, start off as the UEF, yoink a cybran engineer, escort it back to base, build said research station, and eventually make my way down to the protobrain complex for that research point boost.

I hate how little unit variety there is, never mind the fact that everything seemed to be less. You couldn’t make a massive fortress like you could in Forged Alliance

not gonna lie i love the walker the UEF gets in supcom2... its like a fucking emperor titan 40k style

I pretty much agree with the vid, SC2 is not a sequel but more like another game in the series. It's a lot faster pased yet not like Rush Rush Rush, you can turtle, you can go full experimental. That's what I like about it, you can play how you want and while the units are more equel/same to other factions. They almost all have some chimmick that makes em just that bit different. 2 things tough. 1: You can research other factions stuff, just nick an engineer of another faction and make that factions research center. Now you can switch between the research of these 2 factions in the research tab (button near the faction icons). 2 The ai is different on pc compared to console; I got SC2 for the xbox for free and the ai feels like, it takes it's time to do stuff. While I recently got SC2 for free on pc and man the ai goes full sicko mode on ya. Just strange that the are so different but mabye it's cuz 1 is with mouse and keyboard and the other you have a controller. Good vid tough.