However, many high-profile gaming publications panned the game, with common criticisms including frequent crashes, a poorly designed user interface, features that were either not implemented or apparently ineffective, and frequent implausible, nonsensical, and unexplained events occurring during the game (such as Poland declaring war on Burkina Faso for unclear reasons). A reviewer for GameSpy described "SuperPower 2" as "a bunch of pointless hand-waving in a half-hearted attempt to pawn off a ponderous spreadsheet as a game", also stating that "...because the game is so devoid of personality, it's not even engaging as a way of experimenting with nightmare scenarios. There's nothing satisfying about taking control of the U.S. and changing it to a military dictatorship without freedom of speech or women's suffrage, only to see your political standing inch to the right and maybe your approval rating dip for a while." IGN was also critical of the game, giving it a score of 4.5 out of 10 and stating, among other things, that "The art of international war itself is conducted here according to principles that would make Sun Tzu burn his book and restart life as a caterer." The game also features plenty of mods to choose from which change and edit the game play to specific real time or fictional settings.