Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this is a war game that takes place in the future and involves all kinds of wild machines. Players will instruct units to shoot guns, launch missiles, drop bombs, and even cause a nuclear explosion. However, there is no blood shown or close-up scenes of violence, just plenty of fighting and explosions. The game has a so-so tutorial, so children under age 12 are likely to find it too tough to play. It's challenging to win because you are up against a smart A.I. and have a huge number of units, weapons, structures, and vehicles to control. The game has an online component, but Common Sense doesn't recommend online play for anyone under 12. Parents also need to know that this game requires a high-end machine, so check the system requirements before buying.
Families can talk about this futuristic, over-the-top premise of war. Do you think future war might be like this? What does playing this game teach you about the use of violence to solve problems?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Marc Saltzman
SUPREME COMMANDER takes place in the 37th century -- the year 3844 -- as three rival factions continue their centuries-long fight, an intergalactic war that has claimed billions of lives and turned once-thriving planets into rubble. In the single-player campaign, your goal is to end this Infinite War by choosing one of the sides -- the United Earth Federation (UEF), Aeon Illuminate, or Cybran Nation -- and destroying its foes so there can finally be peace.
As with most other "real-time strategy" (RTS) games, you must establish a base camp, build structures, create fighting units and vehicles, and collect resources from the environment to fuel this growth. Then you use the map to find your enemies and fight them. Over time, you will have access to better buildings, personnel (such as engineers), vehicles, and weapons as you climb up the "tech tree" to keep up with the escalating conflict.
But Supreme Commander differs from other RTS games in a few respects. For one, all three sides have access to Armored Command Units (ACUs), which are giant armored mechs piloted by a skilled person inside. The ACU that you control is responsible for building the armies and giving them orders. Throughout missions you can choose to enhance your ACU with a handful of upgrades that vary depending on which side you're on. For example, the Cybran ACU may be upgraded with a cooling augmentation that increases the rate of fire, while an Aeon ACU upgrade may be a shield generator to better protect the unit. Some upgrades are available to all three, such as a teleporter to quickly access new areas of the enormous battlefields.
Supreme Commander also gives you access to land, sea, and air-based fighting units -- from tanks to submarines to bombers. In fact, more so than any other RTS in recent memory, this game offers an extreme military experience with dozens of insanely powerful weapons in your arsenal. The visual reward for launching this kind of virtual firepower is, in a word, gratifying. Sometimes winning a skirmish or an entire mission takes a bit of trial and error as you figure out which units and weapons work the best, and how to best approach a conflict.
Along with the lengthy and intense single-player campaign is a skirmish mode, in which you play against the game's artificial intelligence in a variety of multiplayer maps. There are also online head-to-head modes via the game's built-in matchmaking service.
For those new to this genre, the game provides a so-so tutorial; many will find that it doesn't provide enough guidance. Another issue with the game is steep system requirements. Minimum specs are at least a 1.8GHz processor, 512 megabytes of system memory, and 128MB of video memory -- but for it to run smoothly, it's more like a 3GHz processor or better, 1GB of system memory, and 256MB of video memory with vertex and pixel shader support (if you have to ask what this is, chances are you don't have it on your video card). The game also suffers from some technical bugs, most of which are addressed with a free, downloadable patch.
But serious RTS fans with a powerful PC will be more than satisfied with Supreme Commander. The game delivers an intense and deep, strategic futuristic war experience with plenty of replayability.
Other recommended RTS games for the PC include Age of Empires III and for teens, Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends.
Rate It!
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ViolenceA futuristic war fought on land, sea, and air -- and with plenty of over-the-top explosions. |
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LanguageThe odd mention of the words "damn," "dammit," and "hell." |
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Social BehaviorIt's purely fictional, but this futuristic war game teaches that violence begets violence. |
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Educational ValueIt's a thinking person's war game as you must climb the "tech tree" and strategize. |
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