Supreme Commander 2

2 minute TLDR: Supreme Commander 2 (Supcom 2) isn't as complex or as addictive as it's previous highs of Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance (FA). Gas Powered Games were given an almost impossible task of building upon near perfection and while Supcom 2 isn't *better* than FA, it's most definitely different. The main differentiator between the two is how streamlined the games are. Gone are things like manually having to upgrade your mass extractors, tier 2/3 energy/defense/shields and even units get relegated to "normal" and "experimental" sizes generally, which in my opinion really misses the whole point of what made FA amazing and insanely addictive. Other things missing that could really have helped Supcom 2 would be hotkeys - I can't seem to find any of them, not for structures nor units. This is a critical misstep, requiring you to manually click on what you want to build rather than using keyboard/mouse combinations to speed up the process. You also cannot select a unit production facility and right-click on another one to "assist" with it's build queue, something that was pure genius from FA that got lost when making Supcom 2. Then there's research - if you've played Sins of a Solar Empire, you'll immediately know this research system. It's exactly the same; you get research points by building research structures. Get enough points and you can get an upgrade for a tech tree. Simple as that. It feels too reductive to begin with, but once you are really in the zone it's honestly not a terrible system. I still prefer the old FA system of upgrades especially for ACUs, but we don't have to worry about things like SACUs and customizing them so I guess it balances out? On the flip side, you can play this on consoles and there were some genuine improvements such as mass extractors gaining veterancy for not being destroyed, leading to an "automatic" upgrade system as well as being able to assign flying transports to a unit production facility to have them automagically ferry the units to the rally point. This is actually an awesome change that cuts back on the micro busywork that is straight up required in FA. The playing field is much more level in Supcom 2 as well - tier 2 and 3 units/turrets don't exist, so you're all playing with similar toys to an extent. One thing they got right is the Cybran units, the navy units all can sprout legs and walk on land. This is an insane boost to what made the original Cybran units interesting and unique. So I guess if you really love Cybran units you should try this. Ultimately not for everyone, but it has far fewer graphical/stability issues compared to FA and still works online without a community launcher or fan patches. If only there was a Supcom 3 that blended the improvements of this with the old-skool perfection of FA. One can dream...