Introduction

Hype can be a games worst enemy. It creates expectations that are often blown out of proportion and are impossible to meet. And right up there with hype is having a popular predecessor. Unite both and you get a game that has to not only cater to the originals players but also bring enough to the table to convince the rest that the hype was not based on empty promises. Supreme Commander is in this exact situation and it is inevitable that somebody will be disappointed. The question is who.

Humans just can’t get along

If history is any indicator there will be wars between humans for as long as we’ll continue to exist. SC puts players in a world where humanity prospered for a time, but unfortunately wars broke out eventually. The three main factions are the Human Federation – descendants of the old human empire, Cybrans – a fusion of flesh and machine and the Aeon Illuminate– followers of a religion taught by an alien race (which humans eradicated of course). The distinct lack of alien races is glaring on paper, but since all game units are machines (robots, tanks, aircraft, etc.) there would be no noticeable difference on the battlefield itself. In the singleplayer campaign you can play as any of the factions and each have their own story, but as far as gameplay is concerned there are no drastic discrepancies between the three.

Lack of change can be a good thing

Those who played the original Total Annihilation will experience a strong feeling of déjà vu when first entering a battle. Much like before there are two main resources available – mass and energy. You can create power with the help of power plants while you have to mine mass from ore deposits. Later techs allow you to create mass out of thin air, but the energy cost associated with this is immense. Buildings are still split up into various techs as are the vehicles. In order to build Tech 2 units you first have to upgrade your factories. Tech 2 builders produced in there can than build Tech 2 buildings, which are usually better versions of old structures. The 3rd technology level can be achieved by applying the same principle. Other than getting better versions of old stuff new technology levels also provide you with new buildings that are often quite imaginative. Shield generators, tactical and strategic missile launchers, stealth field generators and massive artillery guns are just some of the buildings you’ll be able to build. Tech 3 builders are also capable of creating experimental units which are capable of changing the course of battle all by themselves.

Another mechanic borrowed from TA is the ability to speed up any structure or unit building process by ordering builder units to assist. If you have the needed resources you can assign huge amounts of builders to a project, thus drastically reducing the time needed for it to be completed. There are also no limitations as to where you can start building, so you can quickly adapt to the terrain and other circumstances. Commander units also make a return. These special units can’t be built and each army only has one at their disposal. Killing the commander is usually the main goal and since its destruction causes a small nuclear detonation it is also an easy way to erase half of the enemy’s base in the process. New to SC are so called sub-commanders, which are almost identical to commander units, but their death doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the game.

Staying true to the roots has some negative consequences as well though. The interface in the game is clunky and takes up almost ¼ of the screen. While I didn’t find this to be a big problem you have to keep in mind that I was playing at 1920x1200, so the ¾ of the screen left were still enough to have total control. When playing on smaller screens the interface can become a major pain in the ass as you will have very little space available for the battlefield view itself. Other than that the GUI is quite good and having the ability to move it around is a nice feature.

Is bigger really better?

Throughout development we were shown screenshots of massive battlefields where armies of hundreds clashed on land, sea and in the air. Thankfully they kept this feature intact and some of the maps available are gigantic (81x81 square kilometers). What the size of the maps causes is that there are usually multiple battles taking place at the same time, and all of them involve several hundred units. Depending on the map it might take several minutes for your fastest units to reach the enemy base, so thankfully there are ample ways to speed up travel. Transport aircraft are the most standard way to do this, but because such carriers are unarmed and quite vulnerable a well placed aerial ambush is all it takes to erase an entire army off the face of the planet. When playing on oceanic levels such tactics can also be used on boat transports. Some of the land units are also capable of traveling underwater, making them invulnerable for conventional weapons (a few submarines can do wonders though).

No matter how hard the developers worked on such features all would be pretty much pointless if the units did stupid things when not being watched over. Thankfully the unit AI is some of the best I have seen, so you can order a whole platoon to move somewhere and unless they get ambushed by a stronger force they’ll deal with anything they encounter on their own. This and the fact that you can split the battlefield view into two viewports enable you to control several battles at once, without getting gray hair from unneeded frustrations. The AI in general is quite good and you’ll have severe issues defeating it in skirmish battles or during singleplayer. An important feature concerning the AI is the waypoint system. The one found in SC is by far the most flexible found in games, as it allows you to plan countless actions in advance with just a few clicks. You can order battle units to move to several points, and it’s just a matter of clicking on an already existent waypoint to link the path together into a patrol route. Builders can be ordered to build multiple buildings in advance, repairing some damaged ones on the way if necessary. What makes the system so great is that when units are following a chain of orders they still dynamically react to outside forces, so an air interceptor patrolling around the map will engage any other air units encountered.

The gameplay system has its flaws though, as one of the best ways of dealing with the enemy is rushing it with a huge force. Tech 3 units are extremely powerful, but a sizeable force of lower tech units can destroy them within seconds. Because of that it is very easy to win multiplayer games by mass producing cheap units and rushing the enemy. Campaign battles are no different, but here you usually have the time to build a large force of more advanced units such as mobile shield generators, huge tanks and later on even massive crawlers and flying fortresses. Campaign missions also have an interesting feature, where you usually start on a very small map, but by completing the mission objectives you expand the battlefield area, usually at an almost exponential rate.

In the future

The game looks good; there is no question about that. In fact, considering the scope of things the amount of detail seen on the landscape and buildings is above average. Imagine looking at a tank from up close, admiring the details like the moving tracks for one minute, than zooming out until a two square kilometer big island the tank was on is nothing more than a small dot on the screen. It works the other way around too, and you can seamlessly zoom to any part of the map just by pointing there and scrolling with the mouse wheel. The game effects are also mind-blowing, both in terms of how pretty they look and their size. A nuclear missile will blast anything in a huge radius and the whole scene will be just as impressive from up close as from a viewpoint located a few miles above the ground.

As always the eye candy comes at a high price. Don’t even think about running the game on older hardware, as just the processing power required to control the thousands of units is enough to choke any single core processor, especially if you are playing against the AI. The visuals are also very demanding, and you can forget about playing at high details with anything less than a X1800XT or stronger. Even the sound, which is not nearly as good as the graphics are, requires some CPU cycles on its own.

Conclusion

Being a Total Annihilation fan I expected more from Supreme Commander. The experience I got was similar to driving a regular jeep and than moving to a Hummer. Sure, the Hummer is bigger and way more impressive, but in the end I can’t use it to get anywhere I couldn’t get to before. Don’t get me wrong, SC is a very good game that I will keep playing for quite some time, especially online where I’m bound to see some very spectacular battles. But unfortunately I can’t help but feel like I’m playing TA version 1.5 with improved graphics and bigger maps. Then again, that alone is a good reason to get the game.

Gameplay	18/20	The core may be old, but that doesn’t mean it’s not good. Quite the opposite, SC is one of the best and most advanced strategy games released in years.
Graphics	18/20	It may not have as many details as Company of Heroes, but the maps are up to a 100 times bigger and the amount of units is jaw dropping.
Sound	15/20	Sound is perhaps the weakest link in the SC chain. The music is not bad, but it sometimes doesn’t fit with what is going on on the screen.
Value	17/20	People played Total Annihilation for years after its release. SC uses the same mechanics but offers more content.
Preference	17/20	If you hate strategy games stay away from SC, there is nothing here to convert you. If not, don’t miss out on this jewel.
Overall	85/100	A game that was hyped to be the best strategy game ever disappoints by being just a great game and nothing more. That shouldn’t stop you from getting it though! Highly recommended.