The rules are available as PDF download (review is based on those) or hard copy---identical except for who does the actual printing and the price, of course. Diving right in, the first and third chapters of the book cover the core rules plus what you need to know about playing the game using henchmen. Characters are either individual heroes/villains or mook-groups known as "henchmen"; good guys can field henchmen, too.
Each character or henchman group has four main stats: Strength, Agility, Mind and Resolve. Add Agility and Mind and you get the number of Action Points (APs) that your character/henchmen have available each turn. APs are used to perform actions each turn. Add Strength and Resolve and you get the number of Vitality points that the model has, similar to hit points in RPGs. Henchmen are played similar to regular single model characters with the major difference being that each henchman model represents a Vitality point. Other than super-powers, these stats are the core of what you need to track to play the game.
Four Color Figures games use the Goal System. Using only d6 dice, players roll a number of dice equal to a model's stat. Any dice that roll 4 or higher are considered 'successes'. Any dice that roll a 6 are count as 2 successes. Rolls can be opposed or unopposed. Opposed rolls are where you and your opponent roll the appropriate dice and whoever gets the most successes wins the contest. Unopposed rolls mean you roll the appropriate dice and try to get a target number of successes.
If BatGal had an Agility of 3 and I wanted her to make an Agility check, I'd roll 3d6. I would then ignore any dice showing 1-3. Any 6's would count as 2 successes while 4's and 5's would count as 1 success each. If two models are fighting, you basically have a roll-off (each rolling its Agility dice + modifier/super powers dice). That's the basic premise.
Chapter 2 covers super powers and character creation. Characters and henchmen can either be 'built' or selected from the pre-generated characters found in Chapter 6. Building characters is based on 'build points'. You and your opponent agree to a BP cap per character and also agree to field a pre-determined BP limit when you're setting up for a game in order to help balance things out.
Building characters is like building a house. Start with a general concept and then work your budget (build points, in this case) to figure out how you're going to pull it off. The chapter on building characters is necessary to play the game because it explains all the super powers. Some powers equate to more dice in Strength or Agility or for attacks or Defense, etc. Others help you duplicate scenes from the Justice League or the New Avengers. From flight to teleportation to Batman-esque gadgetry to wall-crawling, S2 has probably got a power or combo of powers to match your favorite hero or villain.
A long time ago (when I had more time for games) I had fun playing with character designs for a long time---and it's still fun but without as much time to play with the design thing. Nowadays, I'm very happy that there are pre-generated characters available. The pre-gens correspond with the S2 line of models, of which there are dozens. The models are nicely done 28-33mm scale figures that are close enough to stand in for your favorite comic book hero or your own designs, if you go for the archetypical types of characters. Everything from aliens invading earth to classic 1940s style characters and even packs of civilians are available in the range. Miniatures are a very subjective topic, so I recommend taking a look at them on-line or (even better) at your FLGS, if possible to make up your mind.
Once you've gotten your team of heroes or villains together and set up a place to play, it's time to start the game. Game rounds are simply broken down into Initiative and Actions. Initiative determines who goes first. To simulate tactical and strategic brilliance like Lex Luthor or Captain America (or their equivalents in your superhero setting), each team must have a leader. If your nominated leader gets taken out of action during the game, you have to choose another model.
Roll off at the beginning of each turn (using these leaders) occurs with the winner getting to decide who will get to activate first (his team or his opponent's). Once a model or henchman group has activated, players alternate until all models/henchmen groups have activated and then it's time for a new round.
The action phase of each round is when your characters get to take actions. Actions include movement, attacks (ranged and close combat type), hiding, activating/deactivating objects (like defusing bombs for instance) and all the other neat action-y stuff that comic book types do. There is no required sequence for actions as there are in some games. For example, some games require you to perform all movement before shooting or vice versa. S2 allows you to move, shoot, move, shoot (if you have the APs) or shoot, move, jump, etc. This free-form arrangement lets you do the comic book stuff without having to worry about a strict action sequence restriction.
Like other Four Color games, S2 goes for genre full bore. For example, once per game a model can try a soliloquy attack that gives a bonus for success as long as the player role-plays the typical comic-book-y speech. Watch as recipients of Hulk-like punches zoom across the table (smacking into stuff as it goes) after they get walloped. Fans of The Incredibles will especially know what I mean. Chapter 4 covers the Four Color World, a setting complete with larger than life superheroes and villains. You can use or ignore this 'fluff' as you need but it does give you a decent backdrop to work with if you want to play in the setting. Fans of the original edition and its expansions will be happy to see everything wrapped into a single book (from fluff to character profiles).
Chapter 5 covers campaign-type gaming and really captures the feel of comic book fun. Scenarios from rescues to stopping a "get away" following a heist are included along with the personal and bizarre touches that make superhero worlds super. Experience and fame accumulate as games in the scenarios are played out, allowing characters to improve attributes and powers or even to add new powers if a special campaign event allows it----like a cosmic radiation storm or some such.
In addition to clever scenario ideas, your hero might find out that his long lost high school sweetheart has turned to a life of crime (prior to setting up the fight)----now both characters have to check their Resolve to overcome their old feelings during the big duke-a-roo. Or maybe civilians litter the area, wandering around to become shields for bad guys or maybe a mysterious ally will appear in the middle of a fight to aid one side against the other. All of these events/details help shake up the standard line-'em'-up and charge scenario that many miniatures often default to.
For play test, we pitted a speedster and a beam shooting alien (good guys) against an expert martial artist swordsman and diabolically twisted master mind, using pre-gens from the book. A couple of quick notes on minis-game conventions: S2 does not allow pre-measuring of distances to speed up play and to make each move just a little uncertain. Also S2 models have no facing (as with some games that make models have a limited field of view) and are assumed to be able to watch around them in 360 degrees.
The play test game was over in about 4 turns as the winner was set as the first team to knock out an opposing character. The game mechanics were fairly easy to pick up especially since I had played almost identical ones in the first edition of S2. The major slow-down factor was keeping up with powers during the fight.
It takes time to learn the specifics of each power and most models have multiple powers. Having the PDF print out was handy because we could keep game mechanics open in one pile and the super powers chapter ready in another stack. Like any other game, familiarity will help but the fact that so many different powers are available, it helps to have the book open and ready for reference.
In summary, S2 emulates comic book/animated series combat exceptionally well. A wide variety of powers and quintessential superhero ideals are presented. The game is well supported with a serviceable line of metal miniatures and can also be played with any suitable models or counters that the players want to use.
The book is well organized, easy to read and generously scattered with useful rules examples and inspiring artwork to get players caught up in the supers-atmosphere. Learning what the various superpowers do within the framework of the game is the only slow-down (or even minor drawback) that we encountered.
