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Supreme Commander, one of the best real-time strategy games to hit the PC recently, has finally arrived for the Xbox 360. Strangely, the port comes to us from Aspyr, not THQ. While the results are mixed, the overall package tries to provide the same exciting, massive scale real-time action as the PC version. Still, if you've already played the PC version, this is, by far, the lesser iteration.

The War Machine... Downsized

Admittedly, playing the PC version required an incredibly beefy machine, and now all you need is a 360, which is a huge pro for the console port. Watching the battlefield come to mechanized life on a big-screen HDTV and hearing it through surround sound can be a treat—when the game actually works right. Technical issues hound Supreme Commander. From top to bottom, glitches abound and bring the enjoyment factor down considerably.

The core of the game remains the same no matter the platform. There are three warring factions in the so-called infinite war. The straight-laced United Earth Federation wants to unite all the human colonies; the religious zealot Aeons want to convert everyone else to their way; and the cybran nation is a bunch of really cranky cyborgs who hate organic life. Each campaign has six missions, which seems like a small number until you actually play them. These missions start small and as you complete one objective, the map expands to task you with new tasks. One mission can take a two or three hours, giving the single player campaign plenty of bite.

Console-itis

The storyline is secondary here, and much like its "spiritual predecessor", Total Annihilation, while each side has a vast array of unit types, they are also mostly equivalent to each other. Indeed, the biggest differences between sides are color schemes and other bits of visual stylings. Granted, the visuals aren't nearly as impressive as the PC version. The textures have an undeniable blandness to them, and the units aren't as detailed. The game looks good overall, but compared to its console competition like Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, it just doesn't hit the same level of quality.

The audio quality is remarkably varying as well and at times broken. One of the big innovations in SC is the ability to zoom in and out to an unprecedented degree. On the 360, this means going to just above unit level to a primitive satellite map that looks like a simple game of Risk. When in the thick of battle with the camera close to the action, the surround sound is excellent and enveloping. When you zoom out, however, it's a muddled and annoying mess that doesn't seem to know what noise to make, so it just settles for obnoxious explosions and whirring noises from random directions.

Technical Difficulties

It seems that each new RTS game on the 360 tries to further refine and experiment with translating the traditionally PC-based controls to a console. Supreme Commander's control scheme works great in theory, relying on tech wheels to issue special commands, build, and group units. When a mission first starts and the action is usually slow, the controls work great. As the missions advance, your technology level grows and there are hundreds of units to consider, things just devolve. Using both analog sticks to clumsily negotiate build menus is annoying, and the game doesn't pause when using the wheels—which it really should.

All of these issues could have been relatively overlooked purely on the strength of the core game had it not been for all the glitches. Lock-ups hound the game—especially when saving, or reloading the game. Frame rates tank whenever the action heats up, and the AI often just feels broken. You'll find yourself issuing commands to units that dumbly sit there, often to their detriment, and there are too many lapses in response time at the worst times.

The zoom camera feels unrefined and is hard to focus in on anything but the two extreme views, and due to the huge maps, you'll usually play most of the game from the satellite map. Unfortunately, you'll have to zoom in to click on specific areas or units since the game has severe problems with fine aiming. Another problem is the mysterious lack of important unit information when selecting a unit. The game seems to have dropped the stats information of field units, and even the subtitling of the communications.

Commanding Multiplayer

Since the unit cap has been lowered from the PC version, it's not surprising that the multiplayer matches aren't quite as epic either. Up to four can battle it out on Live, and you can heavily customize the matches. The console developers added a king of the hill and command point mode. Command point requires players to capture specific areas of the map and is quite engaging. The large maps accompany four-way battles comfortably, but the technical glitches and frame rate issues that hounded the single player game don't get any better online.

Not So Supreme

For all the problems with this port, Supreme Commander is a very singular RTS game. The emphasis on huge battles and great action does manage to shine through, but this release still feels half-baked. There are too many bugs to earn it a whole-hearted recommendation, and while it is far from unplayable, the PC version is vastly superior.

Review by: Jason D'Aprile