Supreme Commander Review

Write

However, don’t expect much in the way of big twists or surprise revelations. None of the characters deviate much from their archetypes. Once you know what each faction’s goals are, the story unfolds pretty much as you’d expect. The writing is almost on par with some of the best Command & Conquer games, which I would say quite good.

If there’s one area where writing irritates, it’s the repeated NPC dialogue on a mission. Every so often, one of the NPCs in the briefing will feel the need to reiterate whatever the current goal is. Although initially tolerable, after the tenth time it begins to scratch. Considering that some missions last over an hour, this gets annoying quickly.

Visual

Anyone expecting photorealism in an RTS is barking on the wrong tree, but for a 2005 game Supreme Commander it looks pretty good. The human and Cybran characters remind me of those from Ace Combat 5. It’s not a style that everyone loves, but it ages very well. But they are just movies. Even if Supreme Commander loads them a little too much, they are still only a small part of the game.

The battlefield maps are vast and extraordinarily detailed. The ships have rotating radar arrays and the masts fall as the tanks enter them. The debris remains constant on the ground. The screen pushes when a sufficiently massive explosion occurs for the player to see. While little touches like this don’t exactly make or break a game, they go a long way in creating a sense of immersion that most people probably don’t expect to find in an RTS.

My only complaint is the design of the Aeon units. While it’s reasonably easy to tell the difference between Federation and Cybran tank and aircraft models, it’s really hard to tell one Aeon unit from another. This can become a real problem if the player cannot tell if the object it contains is an anti-tank or anti-aircraft gun.