Supreme Ruler Ultimate

About

"Supreme Ruler Ultimate" is a real-time geopolitical military strategy game, where players can control any nation from World War II to the near future. With various options like historical or futuristic campaigns, set-piece scenarios, and sandbox mode, the game offers unlimited replayability. However, it has lousy graphics, is very grinding, and has numerous bugs. Despite its fantastic game mechanics and multiplayer/single-player PvP features, these drawbacks may impact the overall gaming experience.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

76%

Audience ScoreBased on 875 reviews

gameplay20 positive mentions

graphics14 negative mentions

The game offers a deep and complex economic system that allows for intricate management of resources and trade.
Players can control any nation from various historical periods, providing a high level of replayability and unique scenarios.
The military simulation is detailed, with a wide variety of units and a focus on supply lines and logistics.

The AI is often incompetent, leading to unrealistic military actions and poor decision-making in diplomacy.
The game suffers from performance issues, slowing down significantly after a few in-game years, making it difficult to play.
The user interface is clunky and not intuitive, making it hard for new players to learn the game mechanics.

gameplay
81 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
70%
5%
The gameplay of the game is characterized by its complex mechanics and deep strategic elements, offering an immersive experience for players who enjoy micromanagement and tactical planning. However, many users criticize the flawed trade and diplomacy systems, a steep learning curve, and a clunky user interface that can detract from the overall experience. While the game features extensive modding options and a variety of military mechanics, it also suffers from issues like AI behavior and the lack of certain fundamental features, leading to mixed reviews on its playability and enjoyment.
- “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. It brings about 1000 manageable tasks to handle on a daily basis to effectively manage a country and develop its military forces based on real-world specifications.”
- “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
55 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
9%
65%
25%
The graphics in the game are widely regarded as outdated, reminiscent of late 90s titles, with many users expressing a desire for a graphical overhaul. While some appreciate the unique art style and the game's ability to handle numerous units without performance issues, others find the visuals clunky and unappealing, detracting from the overall experience. Ultimately, players emphasize that the game's depth and mechanics are more important than its graphics, which are not the primary draw for most.
- “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 UI 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
36 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
8%
67%
25%
The game's optimization has received overwhelmingly negative feedback, with many players reporting severe performance issues, particularly on multi-core processors and during late-game scenarios. Despite some improvements in patches, significant lag and slowdowns persist, even on high-end systems, leading to frustration among users. While the game is praised for its concept and gameplay, the poor optimization detracts from the overall experience, making it difficult to recommend without reservations.
- “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.”
- “Hopefully we'll see more performance focus in the next-gen Supreme Ruler and other future Battle Goat titles.”
- “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
29 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability remains a significant concern for many players, with frequent reports of screen freezes, crashes, and various glitches that hinder gameplay. While some users note improvements over the years, the overall consensus is that the game is still plagued by bugs, making it frustrating and often unplayable, especially during extended sessions. Despite these issues, a few players find the game enjoyable, albeit with the caveat of its ongoing instability.
- “Screen freezes after a few minutes in the tutorial, which is not something I'm going to put up with.”
- “The game freezes, and crashes; tried everything to fix it.”
- “Buggy mess, even after all those years.”
replayability
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
56%
19%
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 with the game for countless hours due to its extensive timeline, detailed tech tree, and dynamic diplomatic relations, making each playthrough unique and enjoyable. Overall, the game is recognized for its massive replay value, ensuring players will return for more strategic challenges.
- “With its impressive depth, replayability, and historical accuracy, it's a game that you can enjoy for hours on end.”
- “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.”
- “The choices are overwhelming, but it offers large replayability.”
grinding
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be overly 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 excessive micromanagement. While some players appreciate the depth of control, the repetitive nature of these tasks often results in a desire for more efficient systems.
- “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
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
45%
27%
The game's story is described as lacking depth and flavor, with some players finding it minimal and not progressing significantly. However, others appreciate the intricate missions and the freedom of choice in gameplay, suggesting that while the narrative may be thin, the game compensates with detailed mechanics and engaging scenarios. Overall, the story serves more as a backdrop to the gameplay rather than a central focus.
- “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.”
- “Doesn't progress the story.”
- “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 the storylines are hackneyed.”
humor
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the humor in the game to be a standout feature, often highlighting the absurdity of economic breakdowns and the comedic potential of manipulating the world market. However, some also note that the humor can be overshadowed by technical issues, leading to a mix of amusement and frustration. Overall, the game's quirky scenarios and unexpected surprises contribute to its comedic charm.
- “And all of them were the same result, the world economy breaks down and it's plain funny what happens later.”
- “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.”
music
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
20%
60%
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with players noting that while major countries feature distinct tracks, the repetitive nature of the soundtrack can become annoying. Many have criticized the recycling of music from previous titles in the series, leading to a perception of the background music as dull and uninspired.
- “Major countries have their own unique music.”
- “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 repeated constantly.”
- “The soundtrack is recycled from other Supreme Ruler games.”
monetization
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization strategy for the game is viewed as a cash grab, with heavy reliance on advertising for upcoming titles like "Supreme Ruler 2030." While mods enhance the gameplay experience, the aggressive marketing tactics may detract from the overall value for players.
- “Mods make the game worth your time, but the cash grab scheme feels like a galactic tease, especially with the 2030 western fantasy.”
- “Updates can be pushed directly into our libraries, constantly advertising Supreme Ruler 2030.”
- “Everywhere you look, the advertising for the game is overwhelming, ensuring that even those who never launch it are aware that 2030 is coming out.”
emotional
1 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 effectively engage in warfare, leading to a majority of conflicts ending in ceasefires rather than meaningful resolutions. This results in a diminished sense of emotional investment in the game's narrative and outcomes.