Supreme Ruler 2020 (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 2.0 stars Mediocre
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 4.5 (2.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Brett Todd
• Reviewed on: 07/10/2008
• Updated on: 07/11/2008
• Released on: 07/01/2008
• Originally published on GameSpot: Supreme Ruler 2020 (PC) Review

Geopolitics is the subject of Supreme Ruler 2020, a fiendishly complex real-time strategy game from BattleGoat Studios. Unfortunately the developer doesn't appear to have learned any lessons from 2005's more-than-promising Supreme Ruler 2010 and has issued a sequel with virtually all of the flaws of the original game intact but, in many cases, made even worse. Unbelievable political events, statesmanship by proxy where the game practically plays itself, and an incredibly steep learning curve that comes without the assistance of an interactive tutorial will turn off all but the most fanatical strategy gamers.

The focus of Supreme Ruler 2020 is exactly the same as its predecessor--attempting to guide the country of your choice through all of the wars, economic crises, and international intrigue that states face in the early 21st century. Sandbox-style grand campaigns are available, along with scenarios dealing with specific situations, such as the United States taking on an allied Canada and Mexico for control of North America. Multiplayer support for up to 16 players is also offered, although the absence of an online matching service means that you have to connect with other gamers via direct IP.

Regardless of the game mode or the opposition, you play a president or prime minister with total control over all of a nation's affairs--both foreign and domestic. Policies are set by bossing around a cabinet of six ministers who look after portfolios, such as the state department, defense, and trade. This is handled by pinpointing key policy initiatives and checking them off under each minister's area of responsibility. So if you want to crank up the troops, you might make "massive military buildup" and "increase unit readiness" the top priorities of the defense minister. On the other hand, you can move toward peaceful nation building by ordering your finance minister to prioritize such initiatives as "family subsidies" and "health care." The buck stops with you, so you can do just about anything you want.

The game feels somewhat similar to Paradox Interactive's grand strategy franchises Europa Universalis and Hearts of Iron, with slightly futuristic concerns replacing the medieval and WWII worries of those series. Comparisons shouldn't be taken too far, however, as Supreme Ruler 2020 isn't nearly as refined as something like Europa Universalis III. For starters, it is just about impossible to make heads or tails out of the gameplay. As with its predecessor, tutorials are built around rough walk-throughs of the interface and some basic game concepts. These guided tours contain a lot of information, but it's hard to remember enough of it to put into practice when actually playing the game because of the absence of any sort of interactive element.

Even after you do suss out gameplay, you quickly discover that a lot of the basic game mechanics seem broken, or at least the information is poorly presented. The cabinet system is an absolute mess. There is little feedback regarding the effects of each policy change, which leaves you in the dark about what is actually happening when you prioritize issues. Every policy is accompanied by nothing but skimpy tooltip pop-ups that tell you next to nothing about what they actually do. "Massive military buildup," for instance, is accompanied only by a few sparse words revealing that checking it maxes out unit building and deploys reserves. That's awfully uninformative when you consider the vast number of military units and facilities that the average nation will crank out during the course of a campaign. The AI seems fairly good, at least, although Supreme Ruler 2010 was already no slouch in this department. So if you put your ministers on a war footing, you can pretty much guarantee that the military will get top priority all over the nation. Barracks start going up, and you soon receive e-mail from the defense minister suggesting that you start utilizing unused army construction slots. If you ignore all of the nitty-gritty about what's being built when and where, you can still fight a pretty solid war on autopilot.

But watching a game play itself isn't very satisfying, and neither is the alternative; digging deep into micromanagement to construct every uranium mine, water works, and barracks on your own. Given the complexity of the game design, the former is certainly the path of least resistance because the game generally knows how to play itself better than you do. So adopting a cruise-control philosophy can lead to quicker success with meeting campaign and scenario goals. Yet it's hardly enjoyable to play this way because you spend most of your time waiting to make a decision. The latter option offers a lot more action in the form of taking charge of everything, although the game is such a wide-open geopolitical sandbox that determining what to do at any given moment can be deeply frustrating.

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