As the earth reeled into ecological collapse, the JDA established large dome cities to protect the citizenry from the harsh conditions outside. The struggle between JDA and the Sprawlers is, at its heart, the struggle between authority and freedom, government and proletariat.

In the introduction, a Sprawler Leader who interacts with the player in the Sprawler campaign states: The two sides are caught up in a conflict spanning Earth's 26th (and final) century. JDA (which evolve to be the Imperium faction) and the Sprawlers (which later evolve to be the Freedom Guard faction of Dark Reign). The two opposing factions introduced in Dark Reign 2 are the Jovian Detention Authority a.k.a. The game has a built-in map editor and there are several tutorials available on the internet to create custom terrains. Players are allowed to create custom mods for the game by making simple configuration files and using the packaging software which can be found on the original game CD. Deathmatch is a ruleset in which a player who loses all of their units is defeated. Gluttony is a condition where the first player to collect a certain amount of resources wins. Protect HQ (by far the most used) is a ruleset in which a player who loses their HQ for a certain period of time (about three minutes) loses. Blood Bath is a mode in which the first team to kill a certain number of units wins. Multiplayer functionality allows up to 32 players at once, featuring four 'rulesets: Gluttony, Protect HQ, Blood Bath, and Deathmatch. Dark Reign 2 features three modes: campaign, online multiplayer, and an instant action mode.

Full spectrum warrior mods