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.

Let's make Canada a monarchy again.

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.

You can micromanage the economy, though you won't need to.

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.