Supreme Commander

Ben Mansill discovers how the RTS genre has been saved from stagnation... with a vengeance.

Superstar developer Chris Taylor is as excitable as a kid at Christmas. Atomic is at Supreme Commander’s international unveiling and Taylor is busting at the seams.

‘This is a game for hardcore gamers. It is a simulation!’ He’s not talking it up because that’s his job, but because after three years in development, one of gaming’s most ambitious projects ever is nearing completion.

Taylor’s Gas Powered Games is one of the few remaining independent developers that’s had enough successful games under its belt to now be able to take risks. Supreme Commander is a generational leap ahead of any previous or planned (that we’re aware of) RTS.

Why it matters
Supreme Commander (SC) forges new ground in three key areas:

PC gaming technology
Combine multi-core CPU support, with dual monitor support, with a graphics engine that lets you zoom all the way out for the first time in RTS history, and a physics-driven game world swarming with evolved AI, and you have a PC gaming showcase that makes us proud again to be PC gamers.

The user interface
Completely customisable interface empowering the player with unprecedented control over a vast 3D world that could so easily have slipped into being a convoluted unplayable mess, but instead is a masterpiece of time and motion perfection.

Real strategy
‘This is not a rock-paper-scissors game,’ says Taylor. And how. The emphasis on insane pace and pure action over the years has driven many away from RTS. SC will bring them all back. The only way to win in SC is by being a clever bugger.



Zoom zoom zoom
The zoom feature creates two wonderful benefits. First and most obviously, it gives you an easy ‘quick take’ on the scope of the battle zone. Even if you run dual monitors, with one permanently set as the strategic view while playing you’ll constantly be flicking in and out with the mousewheel to get just the right perspective for the moment. It’s a bit like changing gears while driving or riding, after playing for a while you intuitively swing up and down to meet the needs of that particular moment in your game.

Needless to say, the strategic benefit of being able to see every unit on the field simultaneously, or whatever tighter degree of view you choose, classes this as a true strategic simulation. Any other fixed-view RTS had better be pretty damn hot to make playing bearable, for once you’ve experienced SC’s zoom you’ll only muster anger at lazy developers with primitive technology if they force you to see a handful of buildings and units at once.

The second benefit is that by zooming out you are enlarging the space of the gameplay. It multiplies the active area you are playing in, which can in effect multiply the game’s difficulty, but conversely can also multiply the satisfaction.

In particular, it leads to greater appreciation of the role of air units. In every other RTS, air units are not so much ‘air’ units, but units that cast a shadow and can travel over things. In SC, zooming out gives you a sense of the ‘simulation’ feel of the game. For once you can feel the true size of the battle zone, and that it is indeed a 3D space. Air units are now proper flying objects, missiles soar up to impressive altitudes before arcing back to ground.
You never appreciate that more than when nukes fly. Now, you can track their ballistic arc, and pray to the Gods that your interceptor missiles (if indeed you have any prepared) do their job.