Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1531 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: THQ
• Model: 49304
• Released on: 2007-02-16
• Rating: To Be Announced
• ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+
• Platform: Windows XP
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 1.25" h x 5.50" w x 7.50" l, .55 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Preview
It may not be quite as famous as Command & Conquer or WarCraft, but for many real-time strategy connoisseurs, 1997’s Total Annihilation is more than a match for its better known rivals. This is the long awaited, unofficial, follow-up by Chris Taylor, creator of the original. As in Total Annihilation you don’t take the role of a nameless overseer, but instead you directly control a giant nanobot dispensing robot responsible for building all major buildings. From these are manufactured a dizzying array of specialised meachanoids, from infantry and artillery robots to repair droids and special construction bots.

The units in the original Total Annihilation ranged greatly in size but here the difference is profound. While many units are roughly human in scale others seem to be the size of a small village, as gigantic spider bots stroll through forests as if they were walking through tall grass. Aircraft carriers are just as massive and function properly as mobile cities with repair and production facilities. The game’s scale is reinforced even further by the new ability to zoom the camera so far out that individual units become icons on an overhead map. This is no gimmick though as you can still control multiple units on this new strategic scale, as well as deploy nuclear missiles and other weapons of mass destruction.

Total Annihilation’s superb waypoint system is replicated and improved here, allowing you to micromanage in exacting detail every movement of every unit. Patrol routes can be plotted out (as useful for repair units as for combat air patrols) as well as strategically circuitous routes around any terrain. All of which is perfect for fighting on multiple different fronts at once. After years of stasis the real-time strategy seems finally to be evolving to the next level.
HARRISON DENT

Manufacturer's Description:
In the 33rd Century, the old Earth Empire finally collapsed. As chaos engulfed the interstellar empire, the military, under the aegis of the Earth Command, stepped forward to restore order.

Acting in a severe and often draconian manner, Earth Command made the difficult decisions that politicians, mired in corruption and their own self-interest, could not. Entire worlds were abandoned, and much of the Quantum Gate network was intentionally destroyed in an effort to isolate the retreating Prime Worlds from the rest of the galaxy.

Despite the best efforts of the military, civil war erupted. After a hundred years, Earth Command was finally able to restore order and establish a new government, which was christened the United Earth Federation.

Risen, phoenix-like from the ashes of the old Earth Empire, the United Earth Federation vowed to purge itself of bureaucratic corruption and remain pure to a single task: the rescue of mankind's war-torn worlds and an end to the Infinite War. By any and all means necessary.

It has worked toward that goal by maintaining an iron grip on the new empire, creating a totalitarian government out of what might be considered the most successful military coup in human history.

Supreme Commander is the first ever RTS to deliver truly strategic as well as tactical gaming with an emphasis on scope as well as ease of use. Set in the 37th Century you command one of three races as the Supreme Commander with a single goal in mind - to end the 1000 year Infinite War and become the reigning power supreme.

Customer Reviews

Just excellent, but know what you're getting first!
While this is a superb game, I'll just point out the few negatives that most people centre on, since these are the only reasons not to buy this game:

1) Not for the occasional RTS player. Don't buy this expecting something similar to C&C3. There are many, many more units and structures - each one powerful and vulnerable in their own way. Just rushing at your foe with an army of your most powerful units will not always work, and will usually be an expensive error. Success depends on the correct use of all of your capabilities, which is why I see this as the most intricate and intelligent RTS to date.
2) It's a power hog. It's common to see hundreds of units on screen at once, so don't expect it to run super-smooth unless you've spent hundreds on an SLI or DX10 system. That said, a half decent machine with a mid-range graphics card will do you proud.
3) The interface takes up an unusual amount of space on the screen - and it needs to. With so many units to keep track of this is a necessity, however a larger monitor running at a high resolution really helps here. If you're running 2 monitors (lucky *****) that's even better, since some of the UI can be displayed in its full glory on the second screen.

As a huge fan of Chris Taylor's 1997 original, Total Annhilation, I'm glad to see the 10 year wait was worth it.

Two monitors are better than one
Having been a fan of the RTS games since they first found their way with Dune II and matured with the C&C series I'm always on the look out for something to fill the gaps between the "next big RTS". Just a few things to start off with. The adverts are pure eye candy; scores of great big hulking machines raining death and destruction on a battlefield that is positively alive with action. Bullets and cannon fire whiz across a scarred landscape filled with smoking wreakage, burning landscapes, explosions coming thick and fast, and in the midst of it all, a Supreme Commander.

The reality? Well, the simple answer is "it depends on your expectations and also on your hardware".

If you disregard the basic RTS elements and focus on strategy, then it is safe to say Supreme Commander is not "like" C&C in terms of gameplay or strategy. There is so much more going on, and the action IS thick and fast, WHEN it does start. Where C&C is about micro-management, this game is about being aware of armies of hundreds of troops, multiple enemy bases, and multiple home bases, and multiple battles. Rather than say in C&C where you can have the intimacy of focusing on individual troops and individual battles, you wont go far if you adopt that kind of approach here.

If you are a micro manager you will positively hate this game. You will find its controls frustratingly awkward, especially when compared to the slick and fluid approach of C&C. You'll miss the reassuring "acknowledged" from your troops, and the far from intuitive controls, you will feel more like a spectator than a commander. Its just too frustrating not being able to follow all the action, and the frustration makes you hate the lush graphics, the fluid animation, you will hate everything Supreme Commander throws at you. War will become a totally pointless and frustrating exercise in futility.

Then I enabled the secondary display...

Suddenly the battles became more engaging and it opens up a whole new dimension to the game. One monitor tracking your troops on one mission, the second watching the enemy movements or anything else for that matter. You need to send in an air strike, one monitor is tracking your planes, the other is focused on the target. There are times when you need to see the entire battlefield, times when you need to focus on individual battles, all the while focusing on the overall objectives. Yes, suddenly it became just like the advert and the controls made sense. This time I noticed the hugely varied weaponry on show, began to appreciate the fact that my troops know how to defend themselves without me having to explicityly tell them to, loved the way huge artillery explosions caused the screen to judder and shake when I was zoomed in close enough. The whole experience became far more engaging. War was fun again, best expressed by a mushroom cloud rising from a shockwave racing across the boiling remains of the enemy forces.

The bottom line?

A single monitor setup really doesn't do Supreme Commander ANY justice at all, its just too frustrating to follow the action and I hated the experience. For me, Supreme Commander comes into its own ONLY when played on a multi-monitor system. In fact I wonder whether it was actually designed to be played that way because only then does it live up to expectation.

Sadly, the reality is that dual monitors arent an option for many. Because of this it is hard to imagine Supreme Commander achieving the wide appeal or acclaim of C&C. If on the other hand you have the monitors, and a capable system, then Supreme Commander would easily merit that acclaim.

Single monitor experince: 1 star
Dual monitor experience : 4 stars

If You Love RTS Get This Game!
I cant see what the other reviewers are missing this is a superb game were using just one form of attack be it by Land,Sea or Air just isn't enough like other RTS's. Having the difficulty setting above "Easy" will coax the enemy AI out of its base and give you a challenge.

The multitude of different units and structures you can build is a refreshing change with this RTS. As is the ability to instruct your engineers to build a queue of structures while you get on with preparing your attack. Or select your units and move them to a new location in "Formation" using the mobile shield generators to best effect, unlike Red Alert (bless its cotton socks) where units would mill about and clump together waiting for you to tell them exactly how you wanted them placed.

Unlike other RTS games you cant win every map with sheer weight of numbers as I found out with horror sending 60 bombers to the enemy base thinking "That'll sort em" to find only 12 came out the other end feeling worse for wear.

In the end if your looking for a decent RTS go for this game, plenty to do, strategy's to plan, hours of addictive gameplay and a breath of fresh to the RTS genre.

Im still using a single core CPU and AGP system to run this game and it runs fine. You may need a higher spec machine but to say you need a dual core is abit over the top.

Hope this helped