Supreme Commander [PC]

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You are not ready for Supreme Commander. That statement is both a challenge and a warning. This real time strategy game is a hardcore exercise in scaling a steep learning curve and then finally being able to enjoy a spectacular view and a deep strategy game. But it's going to take a while to get up here, and it's not a climb for the faint of heart, much less the average non-committal RTS dabbler.

Supreme Commander was created by the same developer who made the 1997 classic Total Annihilation, and the connection shows. Both games are about queuing up build orders to create a booming economy based on mass mined from the ground and energy produced at generators. These aren't accumulated and spent like you do in a typical RTS. Instead, they're maintained as a careful balance between income and expenditure. If you don't know what you're doing, you're liable to stall your economy faster than George W. Bush with a budget surplus (don't worry, we'll take a stab at the Democrats later in the review).

You then use this economy to amass dozens, if not hundreds, of the robots, tanks, planes, and ships that Supreme Commander offers. Perhaps you'll also build fearsome artillery or missile silos to pound the enemy base from a distance. There are even powerful game-busting experimental units, which are generally giant robots that shrug off damage with their thousands of hit points. All the while, you're building defenses to protect your base and radar to keep an eye on your enemy. You might even dabble with setting up shields or hiding under a stealth generator. In Supreme Commander, knowing is half the battle.

It's an epic game, and it's a strange combination of complexity and streamlining. The mandate behind the interface seems to be automation. You can chain together complex series of orders and then leave a unit alone to fulfill them, whether you're pre-building a base, setting up a patrol, or coordinating two separate groups to attack a single target at the same time. You can tell units to help other units with an all-purpose "assist" command. You can lay out formations and automate air transport routes. For the most part, this works wonderfully, and it creates the feel that you're laying out plans instead of holding hands. This is a game about being a commander, and it feels more like managing a command center than playing with toy soldiers.

There are times when the interface breaks down, and hopefully the developers will be able to patch these shortcomings. But even worse, Supreme Commander does a terrible job of teaching you how to play. The tutorial consists of extended and dull non-interactive videos that play over a sandbox set up with nothing to do. It's almost as if they forgot to actually put in a real tutorial. In a game so complicated, and one that relies so heavily on know how to use the interface, this is particularly disappointing. Woe to the poor newbie who jumps in without doing his homework. At least the campaign (speaking of extended and dull) gradually introduces you to new units and buildings as it progresses.

Unfortunately, the three different sides don't differ much. Next to the difficulty level, this is one of the biggest shortcomings of Supreme Commander. There's no hook here, no personality, nothing beyond swarms of little robots, each side almost exactly like the other. At a time when real time strategy games are brimming with personality and character, Supreme Commander is a bland and sometimes boring throwback.