Supreme Commander (Xbox 360)

Too big for TV.
7/3/2008 4:27 PM | 1 Comments | Page 2 of 2

But when it doesn't work, it really doesn't work. One problem with radial menus that have a dozen options is that, when you are in a hurry, a slip of the thumb can cost you valuable time. I was seriously stalled in one mission because I was too slow to realize I had queued up four aircraft factories when I wanted four mass extractors. The air transport mechanic is fussier here than in the PC version, even though airlifts are central to quick victories on many maps.

The artificial intelligence is very weak, too. You can probably excuse the "easy" computer opponent for not putting up any challenge whatsoever, but on "medium" you will face swarms of level 1 mechs long after you've upgraded to level 2 tanks and bombers, and your opponent won't do much to defend its resource collectors. The AI is skittish about using air power in any capacity, except on the highest difficulty levels, and beating the computer here is more a matter of mastering the controller than of fine-tuning your energy/mass matrix. And good luck if you want to find a quick multiplayer game. The lobbies aren't exactly swarming with warm bodies. Only the campaign provides any real sense of urgency or challenge.

A lot of the issues can be traced to Supreme Commander being too faithful a translation of the PC game. Just as novels moved to film must change their focus in order to work in the new medium, the first great console RTS will have to have the demands of the console environment foremost in mind. Like Dr. Johnson's dog, it would be easy to be astonished that Supreme Commander works at all on the 360, considering what a sophisticated and nuanced strategy game it is. But I am not certain that it works particularly well.

The 360 version of Supreme Commander is, in the final analysis, a good game that is constrained by the new platform. There is a glimmer of hope for the future in the way that Gas Powered Games has adapted the controller to standard RTS mechanics, but the game is just too large and asks too much of the gamer. Switching between tech tiers, upgrading resource collectors, co-coordinating strikes along multiple fronts ... more than any other RTS, Supreme Commander is a big-picture juggling act that approximates real war planning better than most other games in the genre. And your television just can't handle that.

This review was based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.