SuperPower II for PC Review

My roommate and I were shopping at CompUSA the other day, and we were both tired at that instant of the many FPS games we have been playing...

We decided to try to find a new type of game, with GeoPolotical ties, a bit of world domination, and more of an RTS type of feel than anything. Enter SuperPower II.

The box reads great!

"Access the largest database of real-world data ever assembled for a computer game"

SWEET! Not only is this a political game it's got REAL maps and REAL information!

"Choose to play as any one of the 193 countries recognized by the United Nations"

Again, adding to the realism factor and my interest.

"Gameplay has been expanded and is more realistic with more depth than ever"

Depth is good because I usually get games like this and then am done playing them about 72 hours later. It sounds like this one might be one of the elusive "Diamonds in the Rough!"

"Use the in box toolkit to easily create your own scanarios or trade over the internet"

The final piece that sold me was finding out that this title was indeed multiplayer via the internet. I'm a big fan of PvP aspects of all games, and am nutorious for hating AI.

SO, HOW DID THIS GAME TURN OUT?

Let's just begin the only way I know how, DO NOT BUY THIS PIECE OF AMPHIBIAN DOG SHIT SOFTWARE. I figured I'd better get the warning out of the way just in case you don't read to the end of this post. Anyways, first install went relatively smooth until one intriguing thing happened; my roommate and I pulled out our CDKeys and both of them were the exact same. (We came to find out later there's only ONE existing CDKey for the title) That made me feel REALLY good about actually buying two copies of a game for once. $29.99 down the drain already.

After I got over that, we installed and took tutorials. Tutorials were average at best, not explaining much except how to get to the different menus. Looking in the manual didnt help much either, each facet of the game had only 3 pamphlet pages of instructions in the book.

Blazing ahead, excited for my new geo-political world domination diamond in the rough game, I began to play. Various portions of the game AI didn't seem to make sense, and Brandon and I could NOT for the life of us start a LAN game. There was a grand total of three servers up on GameSpy arcade (one of the many 3rd party programs you must install to play this). So, we continued solo until we got more familiar with the game.

Played for another hour or so, tweaking economies, nuking countries, doing all of the outlandish things you want to do with this title right off the bat, but then got bored. We were going to go nuts if we didn't get connected soon. We decided to regroup and get the LAN happening again.

Before that, I had the wonderful idea that there may be patches for this title. Simple google searches yielded information supporting my theory, and I downloaded the latest (v1.4) patch.

After install of the patch, my AMD 64 computer would not get past the CD protection message requiring a restart. Every time I started the game, after as many restarts as I could handle, the same message appeared. "Must restart to complete installation."

Brandon's went in without a hitch.

After some digging, I found out that this piece of software uses STARFORCE 3 for security, a piece of software many hate, and the game has been boycotted by many due to it's inclusion of this "virus like" protection.

Anywho this game isn't worth any more of my time than it's already stolen from me.

Final Take:

Don't buy this because it cost $29.99, there's one CDKey for millions to share, and there's no guarantee you'll be able to patch the game. Not to mention the gameplay experience was luke warm at best. File this box in the "was hoping for more from what the box said" drawer. If you don't believe me, ask IGN.



This game turned out to be reason #5843294309 review sites own.