Gamernode: Reviews - Supreme Commander

Supreme Commander

• Supreme Commander
• PC
• Gas Powered Games
• THQ
• February 21st, 2007

Gas Powered Games has taunted us for several years now with the promise of Supreme Commander -- an RTS to revolutionize the playing field of Real Time Strategy as well as just simply blow our minds. I was curious to see if SC can do either of those things, and ended up pleasantly surprised. Put simply, Supreme Commander comes out of left field and injects a MUCH needed shot of fun into the RTS genre, but it's not best it could be.

The first step is to cover the basics. You know, things that you've generally come to expect from the RTS genre. For instance, there are 3 factions battling it out for intergalactic dominance. Gee, that's original. You've got the Cybrans, who are the genetically enhanced cyborg faction; the UEF (United Earth Federation) is the classic, aggressive, human military group; and the mysterious Aeon, who are essentially the hippy elves of space. The FMV scenes laying out the plot initially could have come from over a dozen games, it's such a generic concept. Still, the single player campaign lets you fight against each of them and alternate to play as the other guys, as well, mixing it up rather nicely.

Something much touted about SC is the scope of the game. Or rather, the scope of the board. On a lot of missions you start out with a tiny playing field with a few objectives, but each objective involves a new area and the map expands, and expands... Ranging from a theoretical 20 to 80 kilometers, these maps make for a very big playing field. But this isn't tacked on like so many of the 'massive' games I've heard so much and cared so little about. The variety of units makes quick work of both close melee and distant strike points.

I know you're all slavering and wondering, "How does it look?" I can say this is another area where I was simultaneously impressed and disappointed. The scale of the game is awesome, and as such you can zoom from one tiny unit all the way out to a see-all map mode. The terrain and explosions are fierce and exceptionally well done. However, when you're curious enough to really zoom in on any one unit, they're generally not super detailed. This wasn't really expected as you don't spend a lot of time zoomed in on any one thing if you want to win, but with a modern day title going up against the insane detail in games like Command and Conquer 3, they could have put a bit more focus into this aspect. Otherwise, the graphics are spectacular and everything you have come to expect from a modern day RTS.

Another nice touch that I found in SC is the full-blown dual monitor support. If you have a fairly modern card with two monitors hooked up to it, you immediately gain a competitive edge. Unlike some games that claim dual support and simply don't do anything very useful, SC gives you 2 independently zoomable full 3D views of the action. Only the primary monitor contains the actions, but you can seamlessly switch between 2 views of the action in 2 locations from any zoom level simultaneously. Not everyone has dual monitors sure, but it's a very nice touch.

So the big game goes boom, does it? Not exactly. The sound is another mish-mash of perfect and weak. The effects themselves are spot-on and feel correct and appropriate, but you spend so much time hovering around zoomed out that the most you hear is a very faint whooshing of ships and tanks taking off or arriving. Despite this, the soundtrack is martial and exciting, and fits the dynamic action perfectly. The music keeps you on the edge of your seat, but the sounds tend to put you back to a normal sitting position. There's nothing bad; the game's just not designed to realistically hear the sounds the units produce very well. Just as you can't hear a jet take off when you're 10,000 feet in the air, you can't here them here. The positional audio, however, is excellent.

Once we're actually in and fighting, things are pretty interesting. You're left with the bare bones version of resource allocation. Mass extractors and power plants provide mass and energy, and that's it. You find more spots to build them, and you can harvest some of both from destroyed units but there are only the two main things to worry about and as I've been hoping for, you don't have to worry about them too much. This takes some of the anal retentiveness out of the game, and it speeds thing up nicely. You might think the factions are well balanced at first, but it's later that you find out that they are all just incredibly similar. Different looks and names are all that really set apart the units of each faction and therefore it's just as feasible to play as any one of them. There is a little bit of wiggle room, but the factions simply don't stand out that much, and have identical features for the most part. This also lends itself to making the game go faster no matter who you are, but it's a little disappointing.

Once you're cranking out units, the scale hits you again. With the ability to make land, sea and air vehicles you'll be busy devising ways to hit your enemy from multiple angles and defend yourself from multiple ones as well. You can build a string of defensive walls, and the enemy can send bombers right over them. You can fill the area with anti-aircraft turrets, and suddenly get rushed from behind by a squadron of battleships. It's a pretty cool rock-paper-scissors style of gameplay that never really gives anyone the definitive edge.

You'll also notice that taking down a unit doesn't always go as planned. The developers put in a form of AI that makes random events occur based off actions. So if you shoot down a giant attack plane it will blow up sure, but it might take a nose-dive onto your base as it does so. The physics and AI of the game makes it so you have to think a little harder than just kill... kill... before you cause collateral damage with a defeated unit. This is also a nice touch.

Once you get down to it, the action is fast and furious and the battles can go on for quite a while. The singe player mode is challenging, but it never matches the devious minds of your fellow gamers on the internet. To this end, there is an excellent multiplayer mode, but it does involve re-launching the game and jumping through a few hoops you shouldn't have to. As you get better at the game and the battles become more intense with more resources, you stumble onto the 'experimental units,' which are essentially your ace in the hole. For example, things such as a super powered mobile fortress or massive walking mech. These deal-breakers are capable of turning the tide of a battle but are incredibly expensive and difficult to make. It's just one more layer on this already complex cake. If you think small, the enemy might come at you with Gigantor, and if you plan for the big guns you'll be overwhelmed by the little guys before you're done. It's complicated, but fun.

On the bright side, the movements are all very intuitive; the zooming and navigating become second nature and are flawless. If you want to make a unit patrol a certain path, you just shift-click the next points and boom, you've made a route. You can shift-click to give future orders to all kinds of units and factories as well, so you can queue up actions to take afterward, meaning you have to plan better but focus less on micro-managing.

Supreme Commander is a blast to play. It's well thought-out, and gets rid of a lot of things I was growing to hate in the RTS genre. It's a shining example of its genre, but unfortunately it doesn't break huge ground in any one area. Still, if you're an RTS fan of any type, this is a great title and worth picking up with no reservations.

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