The new system—earned in the Warfront mode to purchase cosmetic skins (desert camo USA, urban camo China, etc.)—feels grindy. You’ll need ~20 hours to unlock the “Black Lotus” holographic decal. It’s not pay-to-win, but it’s tedious.
At launch, Zhao’s cyborgs were hilariously overpowered—they self-repaired and ignored toxin damage. A patch fixed it, but the DLC’s balance still leans aggressive. Matches end in 8 minutes if you don’t scout early. Veterans will love the high lethality; casuals will rage-quit.
Shockwave doesn’t reach the legendary status of Zero Hour , but it injects much-needed chaos and personality into Generals 2 . If you loved the base game’s visceral, explosive RTS action, this DLC is essential—just lower your expectations for story and prepare for server hiccups. For everyone else? Wait for a sale and pray a community mod fixes the balance.
Here’s a review of the hypothetical downloadable content (DLC) for the canceled Command & Conquer: Generals 2 , written as if the game had been released and later expanded.