Real Time Strategy fans are in for a real treat with Gas Powered Games’ mammoth release of Supreme Commander. Chris Taylor from Gas Powered Games, the man behind RTS classic Total Annihilation put the effort in where his past games faltered, with a good storyline.
Set in 3844 AD, three factions - the militant United Earth Federation, ethereal Aeon Illuminate, and the Borg-like Cybran Nation have battled it out for 1000 years in the Infinite War. The invention of Quantum Gate technology allows these factions to travel instantaneously across the universe and bringing with them the capability to create vast armies anywhere in the universe in a very short time.
The single player game starts you off with a single Armoured Command Unit (ACU) which you can use to construct various buildings and factories. Once a few buildings are created, your engineers can do the rest allowing your ACU to move away and do the process again. Your ACU can be upgraded with better weapons and construction capabilities but beware if you use your command unit in a skirmish. It is not indestructible, so take real care when you roam behind enemy lines.
The environments created for the skirmishes are awesome with slick 3D graphics. The detail in each of your units is astounding; however a lot of it is wasted as for the majority of each skirmish I prefer to zoom right out to see as much of the map as possible, and when you have enemy craft or submarines attacking you, you can’t really see them. When you zoom in they move so fast they are in and out of your screen in the blink of an eye.
Once you get these niggling teething problems out of your system however, you can settle in and work on building your army, patrolling waypoints and doing what you generally do in RTS games. As with most online games, they tend to suffer with the single player element and Supreme Commander is no different. In single player mode it takes time before you get the ability to create exciting units so the earlier missions are bland and it’s a bit of a struggle to persevere and not switch off.
My recommendation would be to hang off and see what EA’s long awaited Command and Conquer 3 - Tiberium Wars has to offer.
Article
Set in 3844 AD, three factions - the militant United Earth Federation, ethereal Aeon Illuminate, and the Borg-like Cybran Nation have battled it out for 1000 years in the Infinite War. The invention of Quantum Gate technology allows these factions to travel instantaneously across the universe and bringing with them the capability to create vast armies anywhere in the universe in a very short time.
