FutureFive New Zealand - Consumer technology news & reviews from the future
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Thu, 1st Mar 2007
FYI, this story is more than a year old

From the genius of Chris Taylor comes the highly anticipated RTS mega-title, Supreme Commander. And for a game    this epic, we were quite willing to give up  our next born to play it - or at least barter with our souls. Yes – it’s that good!

The setting for Supreme Commander is the future; the year 3844 to be exact. Three races are locked in a bitter  struggle for supremacy. An ‘Infinite War’ means no surrender and as a result, the galaxy is in utter turmoil. The main  players in this war are the UEF (humans) - an empire once ravaged by war which has now recovered to rise again. The other two empires are known as The Aeon Illuminate, a rogue human faction that split from the UEF and formed a newempire on an alien planet taking onboard the alien technology and way of life. And lastly we have the Cybran nation. A  race of robotic humans originally created by the UEF to fill gaps in the workforce deemed unfit for humans. Initially, the UEF allowed the Cybrans to leave the planet but when the Cybrans demanded independence, the empire refused, viewing the request for independence from the UEF as a rebellious act. It seems the UEF have enemies everywhere.

Visually, Supreme Commander is extreme on every level. The amount of detail in the game is remarkable. You can  really see things from a unique perspective. Viewing a tank from your SC unit (Supreme Commander Unit) really gives  you the feeling of playing ‘God’ where everything is under your control. You can do things like zoom around your air  transport unit when moving your tanks around and you begin to get a sense of the magnitude of what’s possible in this  game.

For those of you concerned about what sort of hardware you’ll need to run a game like Supreme Commander, I  reviewed this game using the following hardware; AMD AM2 3200+, 2 Gigs of RAM and a 7900GT(256Mb)  graphics card on 1280X1024 resolution and had no problems at all for most of the game. Even when dealing with 50  units on screen at once, the game play was relatively smooth sailing.

What I liked about this game (aside from the killer graphics and spectacular gameplay) was the importance placed on  your SC unit in the game. Although you do possess a lot of control and power as the Supreme Commander, you’re  also an integral part of the game and dying is not an option. This puts a very different spin on things. You can’t just go  running into battle without taking precautions and you really have to think each move through, just like you would a  game of chess. With the ability to both destroy and build, the Supreme Commander unit is the centrepiece of both your  forces defensive and offensive systems.

Being able to zoom in and out around the map gives you the ability to make quick decisions with your SC unit. The  interface is easy to manipulate and with the use of the mini-map, you can easily take stock of what is happening much like a birds-eye view of the warfare. You can also cycle through various levels of construction (Tech Levels) and as  you progress in the game, the units you can produce also expand and improve.

The essential elements of an RTS are ever-present in the way of the constant building of troops and fending off the  barrage of enemy attacks. If your troops get destroyed, you build more or you find a way to infiltrate your enemy.  Although the basic RTS game play forms the basis of what this game is all about, the most exciting part is undoubtedly  using your Supreme Commander unit as a last ditch attempt at taking out your enemy with a massive explosion!

Anyone with a love for RTS games will enjoy Supreme Commander immeasurably and we give it two thumbs up! I  haven’t seen an RTS as good as this since the days of Total Annihilation so you’re definitely in for a treat!

Pros:• The level of detail is simply awe inspiring• The graphics in the game are impressiveCons:• Tell us one, we couldn’t find any.