Flame-breathing dinosaurs, cybernetic Krakens and flying saucers – three things you wouldn’t usually associate with each other. However, fans of the strategy genre know this can only mean one thing – Supreme Commander 2 is here, bringing with it even more ridiculously overpowered units to reduce the enemy to smouldering wrecks. The question is, can it maintain the charm of the original without dumbing itself down for console?

Supreme Commander 2’s campaign is set twenty five years after the frankly forgettable campaign of Forged Alliance . The major difference this time around is that Gas-Powered Games have employed Square Enix to bring a bit of life into the campaign; unfortunately, they failed – perhaps nicknaming the main character “Migraine” was a dig at the painful narrative he finds himself trapped within. Frankly, I’d rather be finding out whose illegitimate child has come back from the dead with amnesia on Days Of Our Lives than suffer through the cardboard cut-out performances of the campaign (at least with Days Of Our Lives there’s the chance we’ll get some gratuitous nudity). Still, a boring campaign is something fans of the RTS genre have come to expect; it’s just the entree to the main course, consisting of multiplayer, a side-order of giant mechanical lizard and just a drop of skirmish to top it all off.

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With a much simplified resource and research system (as reported in our preview), the game begins much like any other strategy game; stockpile your resources and use them to build an array of ridiculously satisfying experimental units with which you'll crush your opponents – from seafaring laser wielding Krakens to flying laser wielding brains, there’s sure to be something here for everyone (except maybe your girlfriend). The first time you witness a battle between hundreds of units flanked by cybernetic dinosaurs and 100-foot tall robots will be a memorable moment. Thankfully the strategic zoom feature makes managing large battles easier than Lindsay Lohan (although disappointingly you still can’t zoom in far enough to check out the attractive leader of the Illuminate faction). If destroying things from an intimately close range isn’t your style, the game thoughtfully includes a nuclear silo in your arsenal. The only thing better than dishing out uranium-flavoured pain is gloating over the charred remains of what used to be your enemy.

It’s not all pretty explosions and absurd experimental units, though. In what seems to be a worrying trend these days, the PC version seems to have suffered due to its console brethren. The game has been streamlined, to the point that a lot of what made Supreme Commander fantastic is nowhere to be seen. Apparently the Mensa members responsible for the resource/tier system in the original were replaced with chimps during development. This even extends to the exaggerated building sizes – I felt like I was playing Playschool Presents Supreme Commander as the buildings are so oversized. This makes bases feel cramped, lacking the well-planned layout that was required in the original.

As a fan of the original, it’s a little disappointing to see that the overall complexity has been toned down. That said, the epic sense of scale that Supreme Commander 2 delivers is still greater than anything else on the market. In particular, the fact that you can dominate your friends with giant, fire breathing dinosaurs means that multiplayer will be a blast for a while to come. Coupled with the fact that modders will probably add plenty of larger maps into the game for those that prefer them, it's a solid, if unspectacular, entry for fans of the strategy genre.