Topic: Supreme Commander

[J. Carney]

No, I'm not playing it right now... I was wondering who was and how good it is. I'm thinking about buying it in a bit, so I was hoping for a review form a source I could trust first.

[Dash Jones]

Hmmm...

Well, it lives up to the hype.  It's very big.  Once you know a build order, you can actually make the game go faster...but faster is not as fast as other RTS games.  I find the games are more tactical the way I play instead of strategic anyways, despite what they say about being strategic instead of tactical.

You always play zoomed out (or so I do).  Some people are big fans.  I can't say I am.  Since I'm not a huge fan, it's hard to really give it a fair review.

I'd say to give the Demo a shot.  The Demo is actually a good representation for a taste of what the rest of the game is like.  If you REALLY enjoy the Demo, you'll probably like the game.  If you like aspects of the Demo, but get bored (like me), you MIGHT enjoy the game, but be aware that if you think the demo mission is long and get's boring...well...you just MIGHT get bored with many portions of the game's campaign.  If you don't like the Demo...it's a good gamble you won't like the game.

The game has some rather awesome ideas, and is great for what it sets out to do.  It DOES live up to everything they said it would in my opinion, however, I found that after the Demo for C&C came out, and I tried it...I ended up playing a DEMO (C&C3 demo) MORE than the full game of SC.  But that's more of a speedy high and fast game vs. a build up game with hundreds of troops.

I think the micromanaging of SC with that many troops is what turns me off...but for many people, that's what turns them on.

[J. Carney]

Just OOC, Dash, is there a sandbox mode where you can just have some free play, or is it all scripted campaign.

I don't like games that have just storyline.

[Major A Payne]

Carney. If you've ever played TA then Supreme Commander is just a massively larger version of it with far updated graphics. All the usual RTS game modes are in there and whilst the campaign is not to bad at all (as far as I'm concerned) you have to remember that with ALL games of this genre the AI is never going to be as good as the human player unless it cheats heavily. However, as Dash suggested grab the demo. Its pretty conclusive as to what the complete game plays like.

[Dash Jones]

Just OOC, Dash, is there a sandbox mode where you can just have some free play, or is it all scripted campaign.

I don't like games that have just storyline.

As Payne stated, it has the game modes that other RTS games do, inclusive of a skirmish/mp modes.

I haven't finished the campaign however so I haven't actually tried them out to see how they work or anything.

[Skaren]

I saw a review of this on the G4 channel and it looked great.  Reminded me of Star Craft/Brood War games we played back in the day.

Keep up the feedback as to how it might compare with that older game ?

Is it multiplayer ?  Anyone try it.  I am worried with all the units it will crash ?

[Dash Jones]

Meet the specs and run it properly it shouldn't crash.  It's not like Starcraft.  At least not to me.

It's...different.  Much greater scale...perhaps like Rise of Nations...but different...with a bigger scale...but not quite as grand a scale...if that makes any sort of sense.

[Lloyd007]

It's been awhile since anyone's replied but since I got the game a little while ago I'll comment on it.

If you liked Total Annihilation you will like this since it is basically TA2 but since the guy couldn't get the rights he called it by a different name... Heck even the storyline is a direct iteration of the original...

Game balance is skewed too much towards turtling and massive defenses tho instead of raiding. The pathing is just as bad as TA's and I'm wondering if they updated it at all  . The units are beautifully designed and give each side a very unique look and feel. Apparently the game is very moddable tho so if you absolutely cannot stand something you can change it... (being able to make a nigh impenetrable shield wall easily is one of the things that is a problem)

Basically its very polished and patched up at least I've had no problems. Late game it goes from being RTS to Sim City online apparently but I've only played single player against the ai's and they are quite nice for my skill level and if I wanted to be called names I'd fire up Starcraft.

It's also a VERY resource intense game. Computers that weren't top of the line 2 years ago will be hard pressed but even on lower quality its still a nice to look at

[Sirgod]

I picked up Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance today for about 30 bucks.

I must say, I'm impressed. I never tried the first one, But this one is pretty fun. The Interface is pretty intuitive, and clean. Chris Taylor has done a really good job on his games lately.

Stephen