Supreme Commander
March 26,2007 - Supreme Commander, a long-awaited pseudo-sequel from the creative mind of Chris Taylor, isn’t just another disc. It’s a veritable strategy sandbox, defined by startlingly progressive play mechanics and innovative map control. It’s what you might call a “gamer’s game,” with intricacies so complex that the hours melt away until hunger pangs or bowel movements seep through the barrier separating player from reality. Indeed, THQ’s latest is best enjoyed as a bottomless late-night binge, as five-hour, eight-player battles span hundreds of square kilometers before frightening nuclear holocaust decides the victor. And though it sometimes trips when addressing the finer points of usability, Supreme Commander never ceases to reward practice and persistence. Without question, it’s one of the most flexible, innovative, and challenging real-time strategy experiences ever created.

When strapped behind the bulky heads-up display that is presumably the interface for your armored command unit (ACU), the feeling of complete control is dizzying. The ability to view the entire map without unnecessary encumbrance overshadows even the enormous scope of the landscape. Taylor has crafted something incredible – with the flick of the mouse wheel, the camera pans out and the entire battlefield shrinks to miniscule proportions. Center the mouse on a desired location, and flick the wheel again; your perspective zooms in. This method is so elegant that playing other RTS titles feels like an exercise in suffocation.

The massiveness extends to the tenets of base-building, an area contemporary developers have taken great pains to minimize. Unsurprising given Taylor’s track record, Supreme Commander handles the massive pre-battle arms race with more enthusiasm than several of last year’s strategy games combined. Resources (which are separated into mass and energy) gush from the world in almost infinite quantities, provided the player can harvest them fast enough. Regardless of the map or mission, the player must establish mass extractors and power generators, which provide resources that can be converted into land, air, or naval units. Engineering bots can be built from military factories, expanding build options further into the realm of science fiction. Long-range artillery cannons, strategic nuclear silos, airship refueling stations, and shield generators are possible as long as resource requirements are upheld. Things get even deeper as savvy players use engineers to assist factories (and other engineers) in military production, reducing build times on even the most elaborate “experimental” units. Supreme Commander often boils down to a great balancing act of expenditure versus yield. Reckless expansion is punished heavily, and matches tend to proceed at a plodding, deliberate pace.

All the while, you’ll have to raise a balanced mechanized army, which can easily contain upwards of three or four hundred individual units at peak. Aside from icons that look extremely similar to one another, the strategic zoom does a fantastic job of facilitating the management of so many entities. The patrol system is also suitably buffed, with the ability to send any unit (particularly aircraft) into a “seek and destroy” mode along a specific region of the map. Waypoints work brilliantly as well, with options for adding and adjusting routes on the fly. And even though the power of stationary defenses cannot be denied, the options for circumventing them with airborne transports, go-around waypoints, tactical missiles and artillery, experimental monstrosities, or naval vessels more than compensates.

Supreme Commander presents many choices for any given situation, and its relentless, unforgiving approach may not tickle everyone’s strategy bone. Oddly enough, one of the game’s glaring faults seems simultaneously linked to its greatest strength. Visually, it can be the stuff of nightmares and of dreams. When viewing the theater of war from a satellite perspective, the exact representation of a thousand tiny tanks and bombers often causes more confusion than utility. You’ll quickly discover that triangular icons denote aircraft, and a solid circle represents one of several stalemate-shattering experimental units. Yet at first glance, you’ll ponder the difference between a diamond overlapped with a solid crosshair, a diamond overlapped with a transparent crosshair, and a diamond overlapped with two lines forming a ninety degree angle? The many structures confound the problem, with only mass extractors and power generators possessing icons that are immediately discernable. On the dreamy side, Supreme Commander looks much better at ground level, where the luscious terrain evokes immediate invitation and select experimental units bustle with complexity. And the mind-blowing nuclear blasts, spewing orange death amidst a rumbling shockwave, never fail to amaze.

Games, News, Reviews, Media and More