SuperPower 2 is a real-time strategy wargame developed by Canadian based GolemLabs and published by DreamCatcher Interactive in 2004, following SuperPower. It was released between October 12 and November 19, 2004, in North America and Europe, respectively.  On April 18, 2014, Nordic Games officially released SuperPower 2 on the Steam Store.

Players may join a game as any of the 193 nations recognized by the United Nations at the time of its development. All standard games start in the year 2001, with the player taking control of their nation. They then must work toward their predefined goals, such as achieving world peace, balancing their nation's resources, or conquering the world, or, if they did not set any predefined goals, they have the opportunity to work toward developing their nation's infrastructure, increasing their military strength through new unit designs and development, and encouraging the economic and cultural growth of their nation.

Any nation not controlled by a player is considered an AI nation. If there are predefined objectives, the player will attempt to reach this objective to win the game. The AI will have their own objectives, which they will try to reach as well. If and when the player and the AI have conflicting goals, it is up to the player, and occasionally the AI, to decide if diplomacy is the way to go, or if war is the answer to their problems.

Because SuperPower 2 is a real-time game, there is no preset end date. This means that a single game can, in theory, run indefinitely.

SuperPower 2 was released in English, French, German, Spanish, Korean, Chinese and Russian.

Spheres

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 

The 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. This is also where the "Autarky" bug does most damage because in the game trade is almost always the most income generating source and when the bug sets in, this well of wealth inevitably dries up when no other nations buy your goods. However, playing country with high levels of raw resources like South Africa with precious metals, seems to not fall victim to the bug as quickly as countries relying on services and agriculture. Also, by invading nearby countries followed by annexation and high levels of taxes can also stave off autarky. At this point however, convincing the rest of the world not to invade is a bigger problem.

Reception 

Although slightly improved over the original SuperPower, the sequel received "mixed" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.

Many critics referred to the game as highly ambitious but critically flawed. One of the most positive reviews, from GameZone, said 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." The game also features plenty of mods to choose from which change and edit the game play to specific real time or fictional settings.

Steam release 
After nearly 10 years from the original release date, the game was released on the PC game distribution platform Steam on April 18, 2014, after a successful Steam Greenlight campaign. The Steam version features updated code and patches for bugs that were long neglected in the older version. However, this version also came with its share of problems, such as fullscreen mode not being an option, and the updated code breaking user-made modifications from the older version. The former was fixed however. Steam achievements were also added, as well as a new authentication system and server browser, which replaced GameSpy, its former server browser service that discontinued the game earlier in the year.

GOG release 
Remastered DRM-free version of the game was released on the PC game distribution platform GOG.com on August 13, 2015, with a 4 day -50% launch discount. Game is sold with additional manual, design document, concept arts and team photographs. Much like Steam version it lacked full screen mode. Remastering included support for widescreen resolutions, new multiplayer matchmaking with modified multiplayer user interface, and an updated source code to offer support for modern operating systems. Initial reviews were mixed.

Bugs 
After playing for a long period (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. It makes it nearly impossible for a nation to trade because everyone has a surplus of 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 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 through the building and canceling of large numbers of soldiers while paused, it is possible to sustain a pan-global computer nation export economy with one underdeveloped, vastly overpopulated nation.

There are several patches made by the modding community fixing bugs, but the Autarky bug has never been fully patched out.

Sequel 
GolemLabs announced a sequel to the game, SuperPower 3, on September 17, 2021, during the THQ Nordic 10th Anniversary Showcase. The preview showed no gameplay but was stated by GolemLabs to be a "direct message" to those who have waited for the game, with the President of the United States stating "Because we've all had to wait, and for much too long, to be finally heard." in the showcase. 

The Steam page for SuperPower 3 went live the same day as the announcement, showing improved graphics and even a character customization kit available before every game. The game is reportedly much larger than the previous edition, requiring 55GB of hard disk space. 

SuperPower 3 was released on October 7, 2022. Although following release, it was met with negative reviews.

References

External links 
 Facebook superpower forum
 
 MultiMOD site 
 Dreamcatcher's Forums (see the SuperPower 2 section near the bottom)
 Unofficial SuperPower 2 fan server. Most active server about SuperPower series.

2004 video games
Real-time strategy video games
Government simulation video games
Grand strategy video games
Video games developed in Canada
Windows games
Windows-only games
DreamCatcher Interactive games
THQ Nordic games
슈퍼파워 2()는 2004년 캐나다의 골렘랩스가 개발하고 드림캐쳐 인터랙티브가 발매한 전략 시뮬레이션 게임으로서, 국가를 운영하고 군사적 행동을 할 수 있는 실시간 전략 게임이다.

게임 방법

싱글 플레이 모드 
싱글 플레이 모드의 목표는 국가를 선택, 미션을 골라 임무를 완수하는 것이다. 싱글 플레이 모드에는 가상 시나리오와 사용자 정의 게임이 있다. 또한 미션이 정치, 경제, 군사별로 다르다.

가상 시나리오 
가상 시나리오는 정해진 미션을 완수하는 것으로, 정치, 경제, 군사 세 부문으로 나뉘어 있으며 각 부문마다 세 개의 난이도가 있다. (각자 맞는 난이도를 선택해서 깰수있는 시스템을 지원한다.)

 정치 부문
 터키: 유럽 연합 가입 (초급)
정치 조약의 가입 절차를 배울수 있는 미션

 보츠와나: 정치 안정도 상승 (중급)
정치 안정도가 야기 시키는 경제적, 정치적 효과에 대해 이해할 수 있는 미션
나이지리아 미션으로 나아가기 위한 작은 연습 미션이라고도 할 수 있다.

 쿠바: 미국이 쿠바에 가한 경제 봉쇄 해제 (상급)
경제 봉쇄의 효과 및 외교 관계의 개선, 그에 따른 경제적 효과를 체험할 수 있는 미션
(실제로 쿠바미션은 명확히 원인을 알 수 없는 버그로 인해 게임이 튕겨 종료되는 경우가 많은 관계로, 공략이 불가능하다고 추측된다.)

 경제 부문
 프랑스: 경제의 건전함 상승 (초급)
금리와 경제생산의 관계를 이해할 수 있는 미션

 나이지리아: 자원 수요 충족 (중급)
전반적인 경제 생산과 수요를 가늠하고 자원 생산을 조절하는 방법을 배울 수 있는 미션

 사우디아라비아: 화석 연료 독점 (상급)
세계 시장에서 자원 점유율이 갖는 의미를 이해할 수 있는 미션

 군사 부문
 미국: 이라크 침공 (초급)
시나리오에서 배웠던 부분 외에도 전쟁선포와 군사행동에 관해 필요한 방법을 배우고 시도해 볼 수 있는 미션

 캐나다: 핵무기 생산 (중급)
미사일 탑재 전략미사일의 개발부터 생산, 발사까지 모든 과정을 배울 수 있는 미션

 러시아: 구소련 영토 수복 (상급)
이제까지 다른 시나리오에서 배웠던 내용을 모두 사용하여 대규모 군사적 행동 및 첩보 활동을 대전략에 맞게 구상해 실행, 목적을 달성하는 방법을 배울 수 있는 미션

사용자 정의 게임 
사용자 정의 게임은 자신이 직접 국가를 선택해서 미션을 완수하는 것이다. 게임의 목표로는 세계 정복, 세계 평화 실현, 개발도상국 탈출, 자원 수요의 균형 맞추기, 1인당 GDP 50% 상승이 있다.

 세계 정복 : 자국 이외의 모든 나라를 합병해서 정복하는 목표

 세계 평화 : (이 목표를 달성하는 조건에 대해서는 아직 알려진 바가 없다. 세계정복을 완료하게 될 경우, 타국이 존재하지 않으므로 이 목표도 자동으로 달성된다.)

 개발도상국 : (이 목표를 달성하는 조건에 대해서 명확히 알려진 내용은 없다. 일반적으로 경제성장을 하게 되면 어느 시점부터는 자동적으로 목표가 달성되게 된다.)

 자원 수요의 균형 : 자국의 수요를 어떠한 방법을 동원해서든 만족시키면 된다.
일반적으로 경제성장을 시키는 방법을 사용하지만 경우에 따라서는 필요한 자원을 수입하는 방법을 병행하여 해결할 수도 있고, 수요 자체를 감소시키는 방법을 같이 사용할 수도 있다.

 1인당 GDP 50% 상승 : 처음 시작했을 때 집계된 자국의 개인소득에서 절반정도를 더 상승시키면 목표가 완료된다. 역시 일반적으로 경제성장을 시키는 방법이 사용된다.

멀티 플레이 모드 
멀티 플레이 모드는 온라인으로 전 세계 슈퍼파워2 유저들과 플레이를 할 수 있는 것으로, 싱글 플레이와 같은 여러가지의 선택 미션을 할 수 있다. 외 멀티에서는 이용자들끼리 방 내 규칙을 만들어 주로 플레이하기도 한다. 방법은 다음과 같다.

1. 1.5V Steam version
현재 정식 경로로 구매할 수 있는 버전이며, 온라인 서버 중계가 지원된다. 멀티플레이가 가능하다.

2. 1.4V 비정품

멀티플레이는 현재 gamespy의 공식적인 서버 중계 지원이 중단되어 tunngle이나 hamachi 와 같은 가상 네트워크 수단을 이용한 유저들간의 임의 플레이만 가능하다. 네이버 포럼에서 멀티플레이가 활발하게 이루어지고 있으나, 점차 스팀 버전으로 옮겨가는 추세에 있다.

스팀 에디션 
배급사인 드림캐쳐 인터랙티브가 파산하여 노르딕 게임즈를 통해 2014년 4월 18일 그린라이트 투표로 출시되었으며,

스팀 에디션은 몇가지 개선사항과 HD 화질 지원 등 기존에 없던것들이 추가되었다,

또한 스팀 에디션은 멀티플레이가 가능하다.

평가

각주

외부 링크 
 슈퍼파워2 공식 홈페이지
 슈퍼파워2 개발사 홈페이지
 슈퍼파워2 멀티 커뮤니티

2004년 비디오 게임
윈도우 게임
실시간 전략 게임