Supreme Ruler 2020 [PC]

As far as life goals go, I'd say that being a dictator who rules with an iron fist and crushes his neighbors underneath the heels of his goose-stepping armies is pretty high on most of our readers' lists. I mean, who doesn't want the opportunity to be absolutely corrupted by absolute power? Just thinking of the narcissistic excesses is enough to make me smile.

Enter Battlegoat's Supreme Ruler 2020. This follow-up to their original game of world conquest, Supreme Ruler 2010, recreates the same near-future geopolitical turmoil that scored such a big success the first time around. Fortunately, the team has included a number of improvements, both in terms of functionality and AI, that make the game easier and more rewarding to play. Unfortunately, many of the first game's problems have also found their way into the sequel.

To begin with, Supreme Ruler 2020 follows a model popularized in Paradox's long-running Europa Universalis series. You take a map of the entire world, fill it up with armies, governments, trade goods, cities, religions, and all the other stuff that makes the world a compelling place to live. Then put players in charge of one of the countries and start the whole thing running in real time and watch as the pressures of competition and cooperation drastically shift the balance of power for or against you. The big difference between Supreme Ruler and games like EU or Hearts of Iron is that Supreme Ruler takes place in the near future of our own world.

There's a basic backstory behind the 2020 setting, and it's worth reading simply because it's well thought out and offers some compelling and chilling hints at the direction things might actually be moving for us in the "real" world. Fortunately, you don't absolutely have to immerse yourself in the backstory to enjoy the game. The small intel briefing you get for your country at the beginning of the campaign should be enough to get you going.

The map of the world here is probably the best global map we've seen in a game. Not only does it make use of NASA satellite imagery to create a high-resolution super-detailed geographical map of the world, but the political aspects are just as accurate. Containing thousands upon thousands of cities (even my hometown -- big points there) and nations from the US and Russia to Jamaica and Luxemburg, Supreme Ruler is impressive at both ends of the scale.

But all this detail takes a toll on the game. Let me say at the start, that players of games like this often take a perverse pleasure in the fact that their games are just too complicated and incomprehensible for most players to appreciate. I count myself in that category. Given the mass-market design that's bleeding over from the consoles to the PC these days, this may not be an unhealthy response. But I think games like Supreme Ruler (and Paradox's other global sim games) can and should do more to streamline the access to controls and information.

Fortunately, Supreme Ruler 2020 takes some satisfying steps in that direction. To begin with, the information that you're given is laid out in a much more intelligible format and you won't have to hunt around for it quite as much as you did previously. For such a stat-heavy game, it helps to be only two or three mouse clicks away from the important numbers you need. There's definitely a lot more that can be done in terms of pop-ups and context menus, but overall, the management of information is refreshingly easy. Well, maybe not easy, but at least more attainable.