SuperPower 2

SuperPower 2 Impressions

Though taking over the world is a time-honored gaming concept, 2002's SuperPower took that idea to a whole new level. A highly ambitious geopolitical simulation, SuperPower let you play as any one of 140 real-world nations in the global arena. Inspired by the nuclear war scenarios from the classic 1983 movie WarGames, the game let you control the political, economic, and military destiny of a nation. While admirable in scale and scope, the game suffered from a complex and unwieldy interface and a flawed combat model. Still, the game sold remarkably well for publisher DreamCatcher Interactive. In fact, SuperPower was so commercially successful for DreamCatcher that it was able to commission a sequel from developer GolemLabs.

Jean-René Couture, president of GolemLabs, told us that the studio has learned a lot from making the original game. SuperPower was its first game, and it was developed with just three people. However, with the feedback received from fans, as well as increased financial support, the developers have been able to design SuperPower 2 to be much more intuitive, realistic, and accessible--especially for new players. According to Couture, the game will let you "invade a country in just three mouse clicks."

In SuperPower 2, you'll be able to control a real-world nation, and you'll be able to control virtually every aspect of its economy, political system, and military. For example, your country may have a multiparty democracy, a theocracy, a military dictatorship, or a communist government, to name just a few of your options. You can decide to switch to a market economy to set the tax rates, or you can shift to a state-controlled economy to keep a tight rein on power. Whatever you do will have an impact not just on your own country but on your relationship with the rest of the world.

The first notable difference between SuperPower 2 and the original game is the way the newer iteration looks. In the original game, the world was presented by a traditional Mercator-projection map. That is, the world appeared as a flat, 2D map, much like the one you'd hang on your wall or lay on your table. In SuperPower 2, the game is played on a 3D-rendered version of the globe. Clouds float above the surface of the Earth, and the game even renders a day-and-night cycle, so you see the lights of cities illuminate the surface wherever night falls on the planet. The developers are able to model all 193 nations of the Earth, including the Vatican (which is a playable faction). Each nation is subdivided into appropriate political regions. As a result, the United States is divided into 50 states, Canada has 13 provinces, and so on. This means that you can now choose to invade certain portions of countries. For instance, if you play as Canada and you only want to invade Washington State, you can do so. The map zooms down to a 200-meter scale, so you'll be able to see terrain features such as rivers, roads, and mountains, which play an important part in the military portion of the game.

The interface has been simplified to the point that all the important pieces of information you need have been distilled into the primary interface screens. So if you click on the economy button, you'll be presented with a window that has all the controls and options you need. More-experienced players will have the option to dig deeper into the interface to micromanage virtually every aspect of the game, but the idea is that a beginner can still figure out the game and can win using just the basic interface. In addition, players can choose to activate artificially intelligent advisors who can control any of the three portions of the game (economic, military, and political) so that they can focus on other areas. You can even activate all three AI advisors to then watch as the computer essentially plays itself.

Let's Play Global Thermonuclear War!

While military operations won't be the sole focus of the game, it will constitute a large percentage of the gameplay. Of course, the quality of a nation's military will depend on its economic power, which itself is a measure of political stability. The game will model all sorts of military operations, from guerilla conflicts and Special Forces operations to full-scale wars and invasions. Designing military units is easy and uses a simple building tool that lets you customize unit appearances and abilities. If you want to build a tank, all you need to do is choose a chassis, a turret, and a gun. You then texture the tank and then build it in quantity. You can move your forces around the globe using a simple point-and-click interface. So if you dispatch a tank division from the US to the Middle East, the game will automatically calculate a route that takes into account sea lanes, terrain, and allies and enemies along the way. In this case, the division embarked by sea and then traveled southeast around the Cape of Good Hope before swinging north toward the Persian Gulf. Deployments cost money, though, and the larger and longer the deployment, the more it will cost you.

Once there, your forces may engage in combat, which could affect both your international relations as well as your domestic tranquility. An unpopular war could result in the opposition getting elected. Combat itself is modeled down to a somewhat "macrolevel," so you won't be able to control individual tanks or units, but you will have some operational control. So you could direct a division to engage in a frontal assault and then send another division around to hit the enemy in the flanks. The results will depend on the tactics you employ, as well as the quality of the forces involved.

In keeping with the first game, you can also choose the nuclear option if your back is against the wall. When you switch to nuclear warfare, you'll have the option of targeting civilian areas, military targets, or even just a single city, such as a capital. You can even attempt a sudden decapitation strike if you move your ballistic-missile subs close to the target country. The shorter range will cut down on the time the enemy has to react. Of course, it goes without saying that the nuclear option will make you very unpopular, even with your allies. It will also make you vulnerable to political and economic unrest at home, because if people are too scared of retaliation, they won't go to work, and they may even riot in the streets.

SuperPower 2 will have a multiplayer component, though the developer is still fleshing out ideas. So far, the developer says it will support up to 32 players over a LAN or the Internet. Each player will control a separate nation, and the AI will control the leftover countries. Multiplayer matches could run from a few hours to a few months, depending on the multiplayer game and the dedication of the players involved. Additionally, GolemLabs is borrowing a concept from the first-person shooter genre--modifications. The entire game will be fully "moddable," and the final game will include all the tools needed.

Needless to say, there's a huge amount of depth and detail in SuperPower 2. The developer used data from the United Nations, the CIA's World Factbook, and UCG, which has supplanted Jane's as the leading provider of information to the Pentagon. There's so much data present that Couture says SuperPower 2 will have the largest amount of nonclassified military information in a game. The game will also model realistic tensions and hotspots, including the Korean Peninsula, the Middle East, the Taiwan Straight, and independence movements that threaten domestic tranquility, such as the one involving the Basques of Spain.

The success of SuperPower indicates that there is an audience out there looking for a rich geopolitical simulation of the Modern Era. Hopefully, GolemLabs has been able to learn from its rookie experience in making the first game. It certainly appears that the developer has taken the lessons to heart, because SuperPower 2 looks to shore up all the weaknesses of the original game. The game is scheduled to ship this fall.

Gamespot