Posted on: February 25, 2015
Kahani
Games: Reviews: 14
Fun, but ultimately flawed
It's not a bad game, but it's a clear case of the developer's ambitions greatly exceeding their reach. The parts that work are great - moreso than Paradox grand strategy games, this is a true real time grand strategy, with combat that takes place on an hourly time scale on a grid down to a few kilometre scale. You need to balance multiple resources including both civilian and military economies, and of course being based on the real world this is not at all balanced - most countries simply don't have access to all the resources they need and are forced to rely on trade or conquest to acquire them. There is also a detailed tech tree that not only provides access to appropriate units depending on your country, but also a variety of upgrades to both military capabilities and civilian benefits. The problems come with what is missing or only partially implemented. There is supposed to be a pollution mechanic forcing you to balance cheap fossil fuels against other more expensive power sources, but despite many references to it in game and researchable technologies with no other benefits, the whole mechanic is simply not there and can be ignored entirely. Various other mechanics suffer similar problems, and it's often not at all obvious which they are unless you look it up in forums. Where things aren't missing, single player often suffers from the AI just not knowing how to use them properly or at all, with it frequently building huge numbers of totally inappropriate units and then leaving them just sitting around. Perhaps worst of all for this game, the developers have been doing a lot of work on it, but released the results as different games. Supreme Rule Cold War and 1936 made big improvements, and now there is Supreme Ruler Ultimate which puts everything together and allows play from the start of WW2 right up through the time that 2020 covers. If this game appeals to you, don't bother buying it and just get Ultimate instead. It's exactly the same game, but better.
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