Name: Supreme Commander
Genre: Real Time Strategy
Platform: Xbox 360

When Supreme Commander was released last year for PCs it was hailed as a breath of fresh air in the otherwise bland market of RTS games. Since the original Red Alert, the genre hasn’t progressed too much in terms of gameplay when compared to other types, relying on competitive play, improved graphics, and player-created maps in order to succeed in the ever shrinking PC market. Supreme Commander looked to end that trend by adding an insanely high unit-cap, a focus on army management, and other successful innovations. Considering the recent trend of successful console ports of Real-Time-Strategy games, the title seemed perfect for an Xbox 360 translation.

All of the progress gained by RTS titles on consoles is reversed in Supreme Commander, proving that even a fantastic title can be destroyed by a sloppy port. Slowdowns, crashes, and one of the most unintuitive control schemes ever developed stop the game from being any more than a scorch mark on the battlefield of game design. The beautiful PC version was dubbed down for its console release, leaving barely passable visuals (that still just barely function). Running at what feels like ten frames-per-second, Supreme Commander feels much slower than it should. Even the opening tutorial chugs along without any units on screen, making me seriously doubt that the game can be considered a finished product.

The plot allows players to take up the reins of any of the three playable armies in the game, each with their own units and abilities. In terms of story, the game is less than breathtaking, and falls into the typical rut that RTS often do of being an assortment of loosely related missions that serve as excuses to prepare them for competitive multiplayer. Far from an involved experience like Civilization, the game’s characters, story, and races are forgettable. The actually single player campaign should be compelling enough to justify a play through if the mechanics entertain you enough, but as far as this port goes they will likely not.

The large-scale battles were maintained in the port, leading to engaging multiplayer matches, but the awful frame-rate stops even that from being too entertaining. Up to four players can battle each other over Xbox Live, and while the game’s slowdowns aren’t any worse online they are far from being any better. Whatever broken code is slowing the game down translates over to the multiplayer flawlessly, and the clumsy controls make the PC version’s hypnotic ballet of battle impossible, leaving multiplayer battles looking like a drunken mosh pit in comparison.

Using the Xbox 360 controller can never be as easy as a mouse and keyboard to control an RTS, but even by those standards the game features a lazy translation, with all of the buttons on the controller assigned to functions that are often context-sensitive, and controls that requires you to constantly have the instruction booklet out can never be too sensible. When compared to the control schemes of Battle for Middle Earth 2, Command & Conquer 3, and even the flawed Universe at War, Supreme Commander seems to have taken the wrong route, and landed itself somewhere between frustrating and unplayable.

I loved the PC version when I played it back in 2007 and thoroughly enjoyed some of the other Real-Time-Strategies I have played on the Xbox 360. Supreme Commander, however, is a fundamentally broken game. If you want to play this game that much I recommend picking up one of the better RTS on the system or building yourself a PC that can handle it, buying this version will just end in disappointment and regret.

 

 

 

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