Supreme Commander

TA's long-overdue sequel in all but name...

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Who ever said that size doesn't matter is a liar - at least if said person was mouthing off in terms of real-time strategy (RTS) titles. Although the heftiness of PC technology has increased at a formidable rate over the past couple of years, (much in terms of affordability than anything else), on the whole the RTS genre seems to have been stuck back in 1995, where Command and Conquer's battles, played out on small and intense plains were one of the heights of PC gaming. Well, it's over a decade later now and finally Gas Powered Games have blessed us with Supreme Commander. It's a game bigger than Rik Waller's waist measurement after a couple of litres of cheap, gassy cola, as complex as a box of tangled shoelaces and it'll leave your PC's innards groaning in agony, but it's all worth it because this is something quite special. So long, Total Annihilation.

Supreme Commander is set in the very distant future, at a time where the people of Earth have separated into a trio of groups, each who would love nothing more than to, we suppose, reign supreme. At first there isn't a whole lot of an obvious difference between The Cybrans, United Earth Federation and Aeon, but it isn't until each faction's technology really starts to bloom that their great strengths become apparent. While this is so, their philosophies couldn't be any more different. Cybran are fighting for independence, the United Earth Federation are driven by the desire for order and regiment, while Aeon plump for the task of liberating the entire universe like some sort of hippy alien race... man. Furthermore, each party has their own completely separate campaign mode documenting their own battle for justice and instantly extending the game world's structure beyond a two-dimensional battle between good and evil or vice-versa.

Supreme Commander takes the established RTS staples of building and development and hacks it down to its bare bones. Rather than a number of rigid and time consuming steps, each important to the process of engineering weaponry, the boffins of the future have discovered how to meddle with matter and energy in their most basic forms in a way that allows factories to churn out hundreds of units in a relatively short amount of time. It's a bit like the way Tesco has figured out that wheeling packets of crisps in to the store on one trolley (rather than unpacking them and placing them neatly on the shelves) is a much more efficient method of selling in the long run. Despite all of this, you'll spend hours building and forming units, generic and experimental in structure, in order to succeed.

One of the most refreshing strings to Supreme Commander's giant bow is the fact that that the wealth of tactical options is so vast, thanks to its assortment and availability of artillery. In each and every skirmish, the number of methods in which the enemy can be disposed of is plentiful. Whether you decide go to bide your time whilst building up your forces before a full on assault, fly on overhead to weaken their anti-aircraft defences to begin with, or travel around them and take them from the rear (ooh, err) is a matter of approach that is best pondered before you begin. Or failing that, as quickly as possible because although the enemy AI is a little tame on the easier levels, let them loose once the difficulty has been racked up and you're in for a torrid time. Although their actions aren't anywhere as impromptu or unpremeditated as that of a human opponent's might be, their often-bullish approach to play is certainly enough to keep even the most experienced player on their toes. While it might take a whole lot of time and effort, once you've found the enemy's weak point and begun to hit 'em where it hurts, it's more satisfying than that first sip of a pint of beer after a hard day's work.

Let's take a moment out from Supreme Commander's play to admire its sheer size. Each faction's six missions are set across a game world that is measured in virtual kilometres squared. While the smallest is a mere 5x5km squared, the largest is a mighty 81x81km squared, a vast and sprawling landscape home to a pair of rival armies, where at any given point no matter where your view is centered, something interesting is going on. The generous amount of room often manifests itself as a key part of your strategy, linking in nicely with what's previously been said about the scope for offensive and defensive decision-making. That said, war on such a large scale requires an accessible and well-organised interface in order that your plans for attack can be managed just as you want. Thankfully, Supreme Commander executes this feat with relative ease, bar a few slower-than-you'd-like communication grievances. First and foremost, the game allows you to zoom out from the events on the battlefield to an almost god-like overview in which realigning your troops and reassessing future options is made simple. With a few clicks, back-up artillery can be drafted in; the path of air and ground-based units can be chopped and changed, as can the location and production methods of your factories.

Aesthetically, Supreme Commander is a beauty. While much of your time will most certainly not be spent concentrating on the game's graphical grandeur, taking time to utilise the zoom feature for an inspection of your army will expose an impressive attention to detail in every area, on land, in the air and at sea. The inclusion of dynamic environments helps add an additional layer or realism, as the effects of one beautifully crafted explosion of one factory, for example, could be the trigger to another enflamed unit, creating a domino effect that systematically wipes one of your army's vitally functioning sectors. Cue the incontrollable contortion of the face and quivering of the lips, a prefix to blubbering like a baby after hours of play lead to nothing but an unceremonial trouncing and one option - to start from the beginning - if you forgot to save.

The lack of an auto-save feature is just one a number of apparent niggles in Supreme Commander that, in this reviewer's opinion at least, halt its rise into the realms of 90 per cent plus, videogaming awesomeness. Another is the length of time it will take the average player to notice any real difference between the three available factions. Sure, when they're heavily developed (after lots of technological advancement) they're quite a sight to behold, but in the game's earlier missions, their striking similarities evoke a sense of mediocrity in the way that the stage develops, a downer not helped by the backing of a storyline that really doesn't manage to grip you as much as it might well intend to. Lastly, you're not going to be able to appreciate Supreme Commander unless your PC is the Mr. Motivator in its field (minus the multicoloured spandex outfit) - with a high-end graphics card and a killer processing speed. Picky it might be, but it does mean that a great number of gamers are going to be missing that little something that, in a seamless duet with the title's audio contributions, it pulls off almost perfectly.

Supreme Commander is the real-time strategy experience that fans of the genre will have been waiting for. Its complex, finely tuned, gorgeous to look at and includes extensive online support for those who have 'pwned' the single-player mode, so to speak, and fancy taking on the world. It isn't absolutely perfect, but if real-time strategy is the type of gaming that rocks your socks like a call to work demanding you to take the day off for no reason whatsoever, then you'd be a fool to miss one of the most comprehensive and compelling PC titles this year is likely to bring us.

88%

By Andrew Macarthy