The PC demo for the spiritual
successor to Total Annihilation came out this week, and Chris Taylor's new RTS
(real-time strategy) game Supreme Commander looks and plays just like you'd
expect a Total Annihilation sequel to play. If you're unfamiliar with Total Annihilation, then you missed
one of the legendary RTS games. TA
was released in 1997 from Chris Taylor and Cavedog Entertainment and was the
first RTS to feature 3D versions of its all-robot armies. It wasn't the graphics or the story that made it a
fantastic game, though, it was the carnage. TA games were heavy on action and the ruined husks of dead
robots would literally cover the ground as the game went on (they were
recoverable as resources).
The original unit count was modest, but Cavedog released
downloadable units on their site that could be installed into the game. The eventual list of available units
became almost ridiculous. Since the
economic model was set up with infinite resources (meaning the resource points
on the map could never run out), games between seasoned players would usually
degrade into a stalemate, but they were still a lot of fun.
From what I can see in the Supreme Commander demo so far, Taylor and Gas Powered Games have taken all the ideas from Total Annihilation (big maps, lots of robots, production queues) and upgraded them with a new graphics engine, which brings me to the downside. Supreme Commander will crush lesser systems. Maybe not while playing the demo, but the maps in the full version are enormous and each side can have up to about 500 units each. Having a dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM, and lots of video memory may become necessary for gamers who want to experience all Supreme Commander has to offer. Players with big displays and high resolutions have a tactical advantage because they can see more of the map without scrolling (not to mention the dual-screen support if you have two monitors). The game does allow you to zoom out to an overall map reducing your units to strategic icons while still allowing full control, but when you scroll into the big battles the user-interface really gets in the way. I wish that Gas Powered Games took a cue from The Battle for Middle-Earth series and gone the way of reducing the user-interface to context sensitive pop-up menus. This giant bar at the bottom of the screen in Supreme Commander is really intrusive. Despite this complaint, it could turn out to be the Total Annihilation sequel we've all been demanding for the past ten years. It is scheduled for release on February 20th.
