Game Changers

Tech levels are entirely gone, too, as now your units can be upgraded through a separate Tech Tree window. As you build Research structures you’ll gain tech points faster and faster, and you can then spend them to upgrade units, your ACU, or your structures. You’ll also unlock new units like gunships or shield generators, and eventually on to the powerful experimental units. One of the best parts of the tech system is that once you have the research points, they can never be taken away by a nuke or a throng of enemies breaking stuff in your base; the tech you research is always available to you, and it doesn’t increase the cost of the units you pump out from your factories. What this means is that you’ve got some chance of recovery if your base is nuked, although you’ll likely need help from a friend to get you back on your feet.

The removal of tech levels also means that the number of units in the game has been reduced. Now, any upgrades you achieve immediately switches your force over entirely. Gas Powered Games also tried to differentiate the races more with entirely different tech trees, unique abilities like the UEF’s focus on artillery, the Illuminate’s hovering land units (they have no navy at all), or the Cybran navy’s ability to sprout legs (all of them, this time) and walk on land. This is a disappointment for some fans, especially those who like to make lists of everything that has been removed from the first game. And frankly, it’s a very long list, although I think it’s debatable whether most of the items on that list actually made it better. (more…)