Supreme Commander is a product made by THQ and Gas Powered Games. THQ is known for the games Saints Row and the Dawn of War series and Gas Powered Games (GPG) for Dungeon Siege and demigod.
The game has been the idea of Chris Taylor, who was also the developer of the first RTS game that used 3D environments and units, Total Annihilation. He also is the founder of GPG.
The game has been the idea of Chris Taylor, who was also the developer of the first RTS game that used 3D environments and units, Total Annihilation. He also is the founder of GPG.
The game came out on PC and Xbox 360. This is the PC review
The history of the game goes back to the 21st century, when man discovered a new technology, The Quantum Gate. Using this Gate, great amounts of people and goods could be moved over huge distances in a short amount of time. Eventually man, build its first Quantum Gate in space and a time of exploration and colonization started. Man descended into a Golden Age of prosperity and wealth and the Earth Empire was born.
During that Golden Age a doctor named Brackman, successfully connected an AI to a human brain. Seeing great opportunity, the Earth Empire began using the symbions, as they are called, to process large amounts of data. And behind the back of Brackman, they developed a secret loyalty program, so they wont betray them or join forces with other groups. Eventually Dr. brackman found out and fled with his most loyal symbions to far away systems and founded the Cybran Nation.
Next to the discovery of Dr. Brackman, an alien race was discovered on an alien planet called the Seraphim. They wanted to introduce the humans to The Way, a spiritual movement the alien race followed. But the humans destroyed the alien race on the planet and only a handful of human followers remained. After the destruction the Earth Empire sent multiple exploration teams to the surface of the planet. But because the teams never reported back and were gone missing the EE made a quarantine zone.
After a good amount of time, the EE started to lose contact with a number of systems around in and around the quarantine zone. Every day the EE lost more and more systems. It became clear to the EE that a new faction was attacking them, the Aeon Illuminate. At the same time the EE was attacked by the Cybran Nation too. Eventually the EE collapsed. But out of the ashes rised a new faction, the United Earth Federation or UEF.
The Infinite War had begun.
The factions in SC are the UEF, the Cybrans and the Aeon, and have they’re own agenda. The UEF’s goal is to restore the Earth Empire to it’s former glory, the Cybrans want to liberate all symbions that are ’imprisoned’ by the UEF and the Aeon want to spread The Way through the entire universe.
They each have there own campaign, but with the end on Earth.
The UEF campaign is nothing else but to hold the enemy back until their super weapon, Project Black Sun, is completed.
The Cybrans want to liberate their brothers, with the use of the UEF super weapon.
The Aeon want to defeat the UEF and spread The Way through out the universe, again with the UEF super weapon.
Quick tech info why they all want to use Black Sun. Black Sun can not only fire of charged particles, but can also fire particles that contain data and someone’s conscience ( don’t ask me how, but it can).
The missions in SC are BIG. It’s not a game that you can complete in a few minutes, it can take you up to an hour to only complete 1 mission ( there are 7 missions per factions) so expect long hours of playing.
You have 2 resources that you will have to gather, mass and energy. Mass is gathered by building mass extractors on top of mass deposits. Another way of getting mass is the use of mass fabricators, which turn energy into mass. Energy is obtained by building energy generators/power plants.
In the start if a match the only unit you have is your APU, the Armoured Personal Unit. This is a big mech, which can build, repair, capture, salvage and attack buildings and units. The APU can be upgraded by upgrading the mech’s hard points. This can vary from a rocket/nuclear missle launcher to a tech upgrade.
It’s always advised to keep your APU alive as it’s a good builder and can be very powerful in the offensive. But most disturbingly is when your APU dies, as it causes a big meltdown. Not good when its right in the middle of your base.
You have 3 kinds of factories to pump out units, land, air and naval factories. These buildings are upgradable too a max of lvl 3, each lvl granting you units that are more expensive but also more powerful.
The different techs are lvl 1 to 4. The only difference between lvl 3 and 4 is the fact that only your APU, engineers (buildable in the factories that can build, repair, capture and salvage) and support commanders can build lvl 4 units, the experimental units.
Next to factories, you can build defences, that’s seems pretty obvious. As with the units, defences have different tech lvl’s (1 to 3).
The units in SC are pretty standard and most unit types can be found in all the factions. So you have anti-air, tanks artillery, fighter-bombers, bombers, fighters, frigates, subs, cruisers, battleships, carriers and destroyers . Now the most awesome units are, of course, the experimental units. These units are massive and not all of them are units, the UEF has an experimental cannon, that can fire rounds from a huge distance.
These experimental’s can tear a whole army apart if used correctly.
However these units are extremely expensive and you will have to make sure that you have a good economy.
The gameplay of the game is very good. The AI of the game is pretty good. depending on how you set the AI, it will keep on rushing, getting his tech lvl up before attacking or it will use a mix of those two. Also on easy and normal the AI doesn’t use air units, what’s kinda lame. One thing that’s special in SC, is that every shot that’s fired from let’s say artillery is all calculated, so every shot is different, and will never land in the same place. That also counts for planes. If you shoot down a fighter, there may be one a crash you’ll never see again.
The maps in SC are absolutely huge. You have the ability to zoom out so you can see the entire map. Of course you can’t see your units from that distance so icons are used so you can identify your units and types and the enemies. However sometimes when you try to zoom in to a major battle the game, you get some lag or huge lag. But overall the zooming works well.
The multiplayer in SC is almost the same in the campaign and skirmish. You can play with up to 7 other people that you can battle in free for all or in teams ( I suggest the last option). All in all it comes to this, build a base, construct lots and lots of units, and rush your enemy with experimental and normal units. But like the singleplayer be sure to reserve some hours of your day.
The overall graphics of SC are good, but it needs a big, strong CPU to run smoothly. The biggest thing in SC that sucks the performance out of your PC is the ground. Really, if you put your fidelity high, be sure to prepare yourself for optimal lag in a big ground-battle. But even if you put the graphics down at its lowest, the game still looks good.
So overall score, pretty good. Way lot better than Stormrise. Good gameplay, huge maps and massive battles. However not everything in the game is good, all factories and structures may look different but at the end they all do the same, with little variations in unit types and abilities. Still a very solid game.
The history of the game goes back to the 21st century, when man discovered a new technology, The Quantum Gate. Using this Gate, great amounts of people and goods could be moved over huge distances in a short amount of time. Eventually man, build its first Quantum Gate in space and a time of exploration and colonization started. Man descended into a Golden Age of prosperity and wealth and the Earth Empire was born.
During that Golden Age a doctor named Brackman, successfully connected an AI to a human brain. Seeing great opportunity, the Earth Empire began using the symbions, as they are called, to process large amounts of data. And behind the back of Brackman, they developed a secret loyalty program, so they wont betray them or join forces with other groups. Eventually Dr. brackman found out and fled with his most loyal symbions to far away systems and founded the Cybran Nation.
Next to the discovery of Dr. Brackman, an alien race was discovered on an alien planet called the Seraphim. They wanted to introduce the humans to The Way, a spiritual movement the alien race followed. But the humans destroyed the alien race on the planet and only a handful of human followers remained. After the destruction the Earth Empire sent multiple exploration teams to the surface of the planet. But because the teams never reported back and were gone missing the EE made a quarantine zone.
After a good amount of time, the EE started to lose contact with a number of systems around in and around the quarantine zone. Every day the EE lost more and more systems. It became clear to the EE that a new faction was attacking them, the Aeon Illuminate. At the same time the EE was attacked by the Cybran Nation too. Eventually the EE collapsed. But out of the ashes rised a new faction, the United Earth Federation or UEF.
The Infinite War had begun.
The factions in SC are the UEF, the Cybrans and the Aeon, and have they’re own agenda. The UEF’s goal is to restore the Earth Empire to it’s former glory, the Cybrans want to liberate all symbions that are ’imprisoned’ by the UEF and the Aeon want to spread The Way through the entire universe.
They each have there own campaign, but with the end on Earth.
The UEF campaign is nothing else but to hold the enemy back until their super weapon, Project Black Sun, is completed.
The Cybrans want to liberate their brothers, with the use of the UEF super weapon.
The Aeon want to defeat the UEF and spread The Way through out the universe, again with the UEF super weapon.
Quick tech info why they all want to use Black Sun. Black Sun can not only fire of charged particles, but can also fire particles that contain data and someone’s conscience ( don’t ask me how, but it can).
The missions in SC are BIG. It’s not a game that you can complete in a few minutes, it can take you up to an hour to only complete 1 mission ( there are 7 missions per factions) so expect long hours of playing.
You have 2 resources that you will have to gather, mass and energy. Mass is gathered by building mass extractors on top of mass deposits. Another way of getting mass is the use of mass fabricators, which turn energy into mass. Energy is obtained by building energy generators/power plants.
In the start if a match the only unit you have is your APU, the Armoured Personal Unit. This is a big mech, which can build, repair, capture, salvage and attack buildings and units. The APU can be upgraded by upgrading the mech’s hard points. This can vary from a rocket/nuclear missle launcher to a tech upgrade.
It’s always advised to keep your APU alive as it’s a good builder and can be very powerful in the offensive. But most disturbingly is when your APU dies, as it causes a big meltdown. Not good when its right in the middle of your base.
You have 3 kinds of factories to pump out units, land, air and naval factories. These buildings are upgradable too a max of lvl 3, each lvl granting you units that are more expensive but also more powerful.
The different techs are lvl 1 to 4. The only difference between lvl 3 and 4 is the fact that only your APU, engineers (buildable in the factories that can build, repair, capture and salvage) and support commanders can build lvl 4 units, the experimental units.
Next to factories, you can build defences, that’s seems pretty obvious. As with the units, defences have different tech lvl’s (1 to 3).
The units in SC are pretty standard and most unit types can be found in all the factions. So you have anti-air, tanks artillery, fighter-bombers, bombers, fighters, frigates, subs, cruisers, battleships, carriers and destroyers . Now the most awesome units are, of course, the experimental units. These units are massive and not all of them are units, the UEF has an experimental cannon, that can fire rounds from a huge distance.
These experimental’s can tear a whole army apart if used correctly.
However these units are extremely expensive and you will have to make sure that you have a good economy.
The gameplay of the game is very good. The AI of the game is pretty good. depending on how you set the AI, it will keep on rushing, getting his tech lvl up before attacking or it will use a mix of those two. Also on easy and normal the AI doesn’t use air units, what’s kinda lame. One thing that’s special in SC, is that every shot that’s fired from let’s say artillery is all calculated, so every shot is different, and will never land in the same place. That also counts for planes. If you shoot down a fighter, there may be one a crash you’ll never see again.
The maps in SC are absolutely huge. You have the ability to zoom out so you can see the entire map. Of course you can’t see your units from that distance so icons are used so you can identify your units and types and the enemies. However sometimes when you try to zoom in to a major battle the game, you get some lag or huge lag. But overall the zooming works well.
The multiplayer in SC is almost the same in the campaign and skirmish. You can play with up to 7 other people that you can battle in free for all or in teams ( I suggest the last option). All in all it comes to this, build a base, construct lots and lots of units, and rush your enemy with experimental and normal units. But like the singleplayer be sure to reserve some hours of your day.
The overall graphics of SC are good, but it needs a big, strong CPU to run smoothly. The biggest thing in SC that sucks the performance out of your PC is the ground. Really, if you put your fidelity high, be sure to prepare yourself for optimal lag in a big ground-battle. But even if you put the graphics down at its lowest, the game still looks good.
So overall score, pretty good. Way lot better than Stormrise. Good gameplay, huge maps and massive battles. However not everything in the game is good, all factories and structures may look different but at the end they all do the same, with little variations in unit types and abilities. Still a very solid game.
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