Supreme Ruler Ultimate

About

"Supreme Ruler Ultimate" is a real-time strategy game that allows players to control any nation in the world and manage its military, economy, and politics. Players can engage in strategic warfare, form alliances, and utilize diplomacy to achieve their goals. The game features a detailed sandbox mode and a variety of historical and modern scenarios, with a focus on deep customization options and realistic military simulations.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

76%

Audience ScoreBased on 1,750 reviews

gameplay40 positive mentions

graphics28 negative mentions

The game offers a vast and detailed world map with numerous eras and playable nations, providing high replayability.
The economic system is complex and realistic, allowing players to manage resources, trade, and influence global markets.
The military simulation is in-depth, with a wide variety of units and technologies to research, making for engaging strategic gameplay.

The AI is often incompetent, leading to illogical military actions and poor decision-making in diplomacy.
The user interface is clunky and overwhelming, making it difficult for new players to navigate and understand the game's mechanics.
Performance issues arise in late-game scenarios, causing significant slowdowns and making the game unplayable after a certain point.

gameplay
162 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
70%
5%
The gameplay of the game is characterized by its complex mechanics and realistic military simulations, offering an immersive experience for players who enjoy deep strategic planning. However, many users criticize the clunky UI, flawed trade and diplomacy systems, and a steep learning curve that can deter new players. While the game features extensive modding options and a variety of gameplay scenarios, fundamental issues with AI behavior and missing core mechanics hinder its overall enjoyment and accessibility.
- “The game's complex mechanics and realistic military simulations create an immersive and challenging experience that never gets old.”
- “If you enjoy tactical planning and engagement theory, this game tops anything I've ever played in my life thus far. This game eclipses that level of gameplay by about a million times over, bringing about 1000 manageable tasks to handle on a daily basis to effectively manage a country.”
- “The core of the gameplay is micromanaging your country as you attempt to win the game, which could range from conquering the world to allying with everyone.”
- “The gameplay is also very rigid and inorganic; I've only seen the AI do anything of interest without prompt on two occasions in my current play (288 hours).”
- “What is the point of playing a game that takes hundreds of hours to understand the mechanics?”
- “Unfortunately, the actual gameplay falls on its face.”
graphics
110 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
9%
66%
25%
The graphics in the game are widely regarded as outdated, with many reviewers noting that they resemble those from the 90s and lack significant improvements since previous versions. While some players appreciate the unique art style and the game's ability to handle numerous units without performance issues, others criticize the clunky interface and overall visual appeal. Overall, the consensus is that the graphics are not the game's strong suit, but they do not detract significantly from the gameplay experience for those who prioritize mechanics over aesthetics.
- “Ultimate is great for the huge selection of historical and fictional maps, but coming back here does make it clear how much improved SR2030 is in the interface, graphics, and new features.”
- “Land features and geography are hex-based and each hex is meticulously modeled and based on real-world geographical data, and the game also includes a dynamic weather simulation that can affect combat.”
- “However, it does look better than the older games; it uses the SR1936 engine and graphics, which makes it much prettier than the old games like Cold War and SR2020 and 2010.”
- “Don't bother buying it unless you love watching grass grow and playing broken unplayable campaigns and scenarios in a game that has the graphics from the 90s.”
- “The graphics are bad, the GUI is terrible to use, and overall the game is poorly done, even for an indie.”
- “It's poorly optimized, incredibly slow-paced, graphically ugly, and there's no transparency to how anything works.”
optimization
72 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
6%
69%
25%
The game's optimization has received overwhelmingly negative feedback, with many players reporting severe performance issues, particularly on multi-core processors, leading to significant slowdowns in late-game scenarios. Despite some improvements in patches, the game remains poorly optimized, causing frustration among users who find it unplayable even on high-end systems. While the game's concept and scope are praised, the lack of effective optimization and clunky performance detracts from the overall experience.
- “Great game, one of the best grand strategy games out there and it runs smoothly on pretty much any computer.”
- “They have continued to patch the game and improve the performance, and while you definitely still see slowdown, it's nowhere near as bad as it was before.”
- “Performance has slightly improved in subsequent patches, least to the point where it's playable in later dates.”
- “Massive downside: the game is poorly optimized for multi-core processors and as far as I can tell, only runs on a single core.”
- “Performance is terrible, especially on the new hardware.”
- “This game has major performance issues and refuses to run without lag on a high-end system.”
stability
58 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability remains a significant concern, with numerous reports of screen freezes, crashes, and persistent bugs that hinder gameplay. While some users note improvements over the years, many still describe it as a "buggy mess" that can become unplayable after extended sessions. Overall, despite occasional fun moments, the stability issues are a major drawback that detracts from the overall experience.
- “The game freezes, and crashes; tried everything to fix it.”
- “They keep adding new features, which is great, but they absolutely fail when it comes to fixing these issues that have existed forever, and so if you continue a game long enough it devolves into a slow, buggy slog that becomes very difficult to tolerate.”
- “It was always a buggy mess that never could keep my attention for very long; it still has a lot of issues I don't like.”
replayability
32 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
66%
9%
Supreme Ruler Ultimate is praised for its exceptional replayability, offering a vast array of scenarios, campaigns, and playable nations that enhance its strategic depth. Players can engage in countless hours of gameplay, thanks to its extensive timeline and detailed mechanics, making it a game that invites repeated playthroughs. The combination of historical accuracy and varied diplomatic options further contributes to its high replay value.
- “With its impressive depth, replayability, and historical accuracy, it's a game that you can enjoy for hours on end.”
- “The game spans through an extensive timeline with many different countries, scenarios, and campaigns to play allowing for a ton of replayability.”
- “The huge timespan, combined with the various scenarios, campaigns, and sandboxes seem to promise quite a lot of replay value, especially as diplomatic relations are another important aspect of international relations and not – as in other wargames – an afterthought.”
- “The game spans through an extensive timeline with many different countries, scenarios, and campaigns to play, allowing for a ton of replayability.”
- “This is a world domination/strategy game that you will keep coming back to; replayability is very high.”
grinding
30 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively tedious, particularly in unit management and economic controls, which can detract from the overall enjoyment. The lack of streamlined options for managing trade and military actions leads to frustration, as many tasks require repetitive manual adjustments. While some players appreciate the ability to delegate tasks to AI, the overall micromanagement can feel overwhelming and unfulfilling, making significant gameplay moments feel like a chore.
- “But every time I have the urge to do something big like take the Caucasus oil fields as Germany, I give up after 20 minutes because unit management is so unnecessarily tedious.”
- “This is unbelievably tedious to micro when deploying armies, moving armies, and game features like experience are absolutely useless when your units die within seconds of engaging, and you can't even select your units in massive blobs like these, let alone use them individually to any effect.”
- “Way too tedious to learn for too little return.”
story
22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
18%
68%
14%
The story aspect of the game is noted to be minimal and lacking depth, with some players feeling that it doesn't progress significantly. However, others appreciate the intricate mission design and the freedom of choice it offers, particularly in the context of historical scenarios like WWII. Overall, while the narrative may not be the game's strong suit, the gameplay mechanics and structure provide engaging experiences for players.
- “This game succeeds because of its meticulous game design, well-structured, intricate missions, and the absolute plethora of tasks to undertake, which always take into consideration the player's freedom of choice.”
- “The interface is complicated at first but easy to get used to, and the campaign and scenario modes offer a lot of cool ideas and story.”
- “[b]Story:[/b] Supreme Ruler Ultimate combines all previous Supreme Ruler games into one.”
- “It took 1 hour just to understand the mechanics and still took so long just to finish the first tutorial mission.”
- “This is just fine with me, I usually find the graphics in games look stupid and cartoonish while storylines are hackneyed crap.”
- “In the WWII mission, basically when I play Germany from the beginning and am busy upgrading and preparing for the next invasion, I find myself forced to jump thanks to Italy (AI) jumping the gun and beginning to siege territory (France first) that would have been mine to absorb.”
humor
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is often described as unexpected and absurd, particularly in how players can manipulate the world economy to comical effect, such as causing oil prices to skyrocket. Many reviewers find the game's glitches and tech support interactions to be unintentionally hilarious, adding to the overall comedic experience, despite some frustrations with gameplay. Overall, the humor is a standout feature, providing both entertainment and a unique twist on economic simulation.
- “Also, you can meddle in the world market with enough cash: for example, I can buy up oil reserves and make the barrel price skyrocket worldwide (not entirely practical but it's an effective way to piss everyone off at once--and is also pretty funny).”
- “Short order being a hilarious concept of this since the game takes forever to play.”
- “Hilarious.”
music
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
30%
40%
The music in the game features unique tracks for major countries, but players frequently criticize the repetitive nature of the soundtrack, which often leads to annoyance. Many have noted that the music feels recycled from previous titles in the Supreme Ruler series, contributing to a generally boring auditory experience.
- “Major countries have their own unique music that enhances the gameplay experience.”
- “The soundtrack features distinct themes for each major country, adding depth to the atmosphere.”
- “The music is engaging and complements the game's overall feel, making each moment memorable.”
- “The same music is going to play over and over again and will make you snap.”
- “The same music tends to get annoying with the same song over and over.”
- “The soundtrack is recycled from other Supreme Ruler games.”
monetization
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization strategy is criticized as a cash grab, with frequent advertisements for the upcoming "Supreme Ruler 2030" integrated into the game experience. However, the presence of mods is noted as a redeeming factor that enhances the game's value and keeps players engaged despite the aggressive marketing tactics.
- “Mods make the game worth your time, but the cash grab scheme feels like a galactic tease, especially with the focus on the 2030 western fantasy.”
- “Updates can be pushed directly into our libraries, which feels more like advertising for Supreme Ruler 2030 than actual game improvements.”
- “The game is filled with advertisements for 2030, making it hard to enjoy the experience when every corner seems to push the upcoming release.”
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional aspect of the game is criticized for its lack of depth, as players feel frustrated by the AI's inability to engage in meaningful conflict, leading to a repetitive cycle of ceasefires that diminish the emotional stakes of warfare.

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322h Median play time

439h Average play time

40-1000h Spent by most gamers

*Based on 18 analyzed playthroughs

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