SuperPower 2

"SuperPower 2" is a strategic wargame game developed by Canadian based GolemLabs and published by DreamCatcher Games in 2004. Players may play with any of the 193 nations that were recognized by the UN at the time of its development. Players can choose their own goals, or play without them.

Players set their own objectives and try to achieve them within a set time. The AI controls the other countries which have their own objectives. When objectives come into conflict or are similar, the player must manage these relationships and form alliances or go to war. "SuperPower 2" is a sequel to "SuperPower".

Spheres

The game is based on three spheres of influence, controlled by the player or by the computer: Political, Military, Economic.

Political Sphere

* Political sphere (menu structure)
** Constitutional
** Internal Laws
** Treaties
*** New Treaty
*** View Selected

Political sphere consists of all political activity, domestic and international, of the selected nation. This sphere allows players to see (and modify if own nation is selected) internal laws, government type, and diplomatic agreements.

Military Sphere

Military sphere consists of all military and covert operations. This sphere allows players to buy, sell, build, train, deploy, disband a variety of military units. It also allows players to train intelligence cells and conduct covert warfare. In addition, strategic warfare is controlled from this sphere.

Strategic Warfare

Strategic warfare consists of nuclear missiles being launched from land based locations, or from submarines. Nuclear warfare is devastating for both the attacker and the victim. When a nuclear missile is launched and detonates in another nation, relations with nations around the world decline, depending on the importance of the nation attacked. The attacker's nation also becomes less stable, increasing chances of a revolution.

Economic Sphere

The economic sphere consists of all financial activity. From this sphere player can view (and control if the selected nation is the same as the player's) income and expenses as well as trade and taxes. Players can set national interest rates, income tax levels, tariffs, and spending levels in this sphere. Players can also nationalize or privatize portions of their economy.

Criticism and Reception

Economics

The economic engine of "SuperPower 2" is elaborate, but has many flaws. Nationalization seems to produce no angry reaction from major powers in the rest of the world, which is unrealistic. When industries are privatized, the player's citizens will forego the purchasing of food to buy engineering services and luxury goods. Also, there is no measurement of income inequality, and inflation is generally far too easy to defeat.

Criticism and Reception by Gaming Publications

Critical reaction to "SuperPower 2" was somewhat polarized, with many critics referring to the game as highly ambitious but critically flawed. Gamerankings.com gives the game an average score of 54.5% with 33 reviews reported. One of the most positive reviews, from GameZone, says that "The number of options, the good graphics for the globe and almost limitless gameplay adds up a game that is worthy of United Nations attention."

However, many high-profile gaming publications panned the game, with common criticisms including frequent crashes, a poorly designed user interface, features that were either not implemented or apparently ineffective, and frequent implausible, nonsensical, and unexplained events occurring during the game (such as Poland declaring war on Burkina Faso for unclear reasons). A reviewer for GameSpy described "SuperPower 2" as "a bunch of pointless hand-waving in a half-hearted attempt to pawn off a ponderous spreadsheet as a game", also stating that "...because the game is so devoid of personality, it's not even engaging as a way of experimenting with nightmare scenarios. There's nothing satisfying about taking control of the U.S. and changing it to a military dictatorship without freedom of speech or women's suffrage, only to see your political standing inch to the right and maybe your approval rating dip for a while." IGN was also critical of the game, giving it a score of 4.5 out of 10 and stating, among other things, that "The art of international war itself is conducted here according to principles that would make Sun Tzu burn his book and restart life as a caterer."

Reception by Players

"SuperPower 2" retains a loyal fan following, which is exhibited by the activity of the official forums and the number of users registered on the forums. [ [http://www.golemlabs.com/community/ GolemLabs Forums - Powered by vBulletin ] ] [ [http://www.golemlabs.com/community/memberlist.php GolemLabs Forums - Members List ] ] Additionally, although few in number, there are still a few players that frequent the various online servers. These servers are run by other players using the SuperPower 2 client on their own computer, rather than using a dedicated server with a game server. [Verifiable by opening the in-game multiplayer lobby as of the time of writing.]

Bugs

* After playing for a long period of time (the exact amount varies from game to game), a bug called Autarky sets in. The Autarky bug will always happen if the game is going on for a long period of time. The Autarky bug makes it nearly impossible for a nation to trade because everyone has a surplus for many of the items they trade. This causes nations to begin to lose money, since they can no longer make money from trade. While in most cases the autarky bug eventually occurs, the use of extensive measures within player controlled countries- such as explosive population growth manipulation, severe limiting of human development and minimal infrastructures and telecommunications development- can maintain a permanent, large, and increasing resource deficit, which results in permanent importing for the player country, and massive export growth for virtually all other countries. With extreme population manipulation, it is possible to sustain a pan-global computer nation export economy with one underdeveloped, vastly overpopulated nation. Fact|date=November 2007

References

External links

* [http://www.superpower2game.com/ Official "SuperPower 2" website]
* [http://www.golemlabs.com/community Official "SuperPower 2" forum]
*
* [http://superpower.wikia.com SuperPowerWiki]
* [http://www.nowastudios.be MultiMOD site]
* [http://www.superpower2.co.uk SuperPower 2 Fansite]
* [http://www.superpower-2.de.vu/ German "SuperPower 2" Community]
* [http://www.dreamcatchergames.com/forums/ Dreamcatcher's Forums (see the "SuperPower 2" section near the bottom)]