Gas Powered Games reworks their formula, adds more robots.
If you missed Gas Powered Games' Supreme Commander when it released in February, the new expansion offers quite a few changes. We were big fans of the game when it first came out, but there's no doubt it was one of the most complex, time-consuming RTSes in quite a while, and had an unapologetically steep learning curve. Many lamented that the three factions in the original, the Cybran, Aeon, and UEF, looked and behaved too similarly. And on the surface they do resemble each other, but after hours of playtime, you learn to appreciate the differences and understand how to capitalize and manipulate them to your advantage.
GPG seems to have two main goals with the standalone Forged Alliance expansion: faster action and more diversity. Diversity is inserted primarily with the addition of a fourth faction, the more visually distinct Seraphim. Though they, like the other three, possess similar lower tier units, higher tiers possess more individuality, particularly those of the experimental variety. Accessing these differences between factions, meaning teching up to tier three (T3), requires a different kind of resource production strategy since GPG moved mass fabricators from tier one (T1) to tier two (T2). You have to be much more aware of your extractors this time around, making sure to expand your base of operations across the map until you can start churning out T3 fabricators and power plants, since extractors seem to play a much more vital role in maintaining reasonable resource rates in the early game.
Once you've stabilized your economy, which is still a significant part of the game, you can crank out some of the experimental units much more quickly in Forged Alliance. If you played SupCom when it first came out, you'll likely remember checking the build timer on your Cybran spiderbot (which no longer tramples friendly units) or Aeon colossus and realizing you could go make a sandwich and watch an episode of 30 Rock before the thing would be ready. With more rapid build times on some of the experimental units, you can now (again, assuming your resource rates are well-managed) have six or so spiderbots up and running within a relatively brief period of time. This lets you access the distinct characteristics built into each faction more easily, which is a welcome change.
The Seraphim get some interesting experimental units, including a mammoth bomber plane that, in groups, will utterly annihilate any base with devastating explosive charges. But it's not just in the experimental tier that make the Seraphim stand out. Their T3 land unit selection includes a mobile shield generator, something the UEF and Aeon get a lesser version of at T2, and the Cybran don't get at all, as they have a T2 mobile stealth field system in its place. Along with many unit types, static defensive capabilities differ across factions, like the T3 torpedo ambush system unique to the Cybran Nation, or the T3 point defense only accessible by the UEF. Units have been added in as well, including the Aeon's T3 rapid-fire artillery structure, a T1 gunship and auto-assist engineering suite for the Cybran, and a UEF T3 air transport. Returning units have been tweaked too, the most notable change we saw being the increased movement speed of the Cybran T2 destroyers. Compared to their lethargic locomotion in the first SupCom, these things have been sped up to the point where they rival some of the heavier land units. While that's certainly useful if you're playing as Cybran, we can't imagine it being very enjoyable for the opposition. Destroyers are amphibious, capable of sprouting legs and taking off across land. They also have far greater armor, offensive power and range than most other land units, making them a much more formidable unit, perhaps too much so.
Unit pathing seems to have been greatly improved as well. Before, when issuing formation-move order to groups of units, particularly naval units, they'd veer off in all sorts of odd directions. Only after a laborious, blatantly indirect journey would the units arrive at their destination. Now, as soon as the order is issued, the units turn and move more or less directly to their destination. With naval units, the change makes a noticeable difference in the flow of gameplay. Instead of having to baby-sit boats while battle rages on five different fronts, you can divert your attention to critical areas of the map with less of a nagging itch to double-check your orders are properly being carried out.
Just to be clear, such changes in no way makes the game more accessible. If you couldn't stand Supreme Commander, nothing about Forged Alliance's gameplay is going to change your mind. It has a different feel to it, but it still turns a frigid shoulder to the uninitiated, warming only after a significant donation of time. The interface, however, will make acclimating yourself to the dense RTS mechanics more manageable. If you remember, the interface took up nearly a third of the screen in SupCom's first release. Sure it kept all the necessary functions within easy reach, but there was an abundance of unused black space. The reworked interface takes up far less of the battlefield and is much less of a distraction.
Let's not forget to mention the single-player campaign, which has also gone through some restructuring. The largely disposable story kicks off with the UEF, Cybran, and Aeon banded together to fight off the menace of the Seraphim. Narrative plays out in StarCraft-like talking head sequences between missions, and during missions you'll get brief cutscenes and voiced pop-up messages from characters important to the plot. This time around, characters thankfully pop far less often to remind you of the task at hand. Though most of the characters woven into the game's narrative are derivative throwaways, the Cybran's Brackman consistently made us laugh with his insistence on pronouncing his catch phrase "Oh yes" in a cadence similar to this guy.
Six new missions are built into Forged Alliance, which you can play through as Aeon, Cybran or UEF. The same kind of tiered mission structure is retained here, though the transitions between objectives are far more abrupt and, ultimately, irritating. While you'll likely appreciate the greater challenge of this campaign versus that of the original and the ability to use high-level units throughout, the instances where the map increases in size, which happens about two or three times per mission, are trial and error affairs. Once an objective is completed and the map expands in scope, you're assaulted almost immediately with a massive wave of incoming air, land, or sea units. More often than not, you're totally unprepared for the assault, meaning you have to go back and reload a previous save to rebuild your forces using the knowledge of what's eventually to come. Just be sure to save your game right before you complete a main objective.
Then, of course, come the AI skirmish modes and online play through GPGnet. You'll find a few new AI settings in Forged Alliance, including an Adaptive AI that alternates between offense and defense as it sees fit, and tougher cheating version. Naturally the cheating AI is the most difficult to compete against because, well, it cheats. Along with a host of new maps, the online components, including the community features built into GPGnet, will keep you busy for a long while to come.
Graphical improvements are included as well, from the fancy-looking fires on damaged buildings to the overall luster of the units. If you detested the blocky robotic designs from the first game, the Seraphim's curvilinear unit and structure designs may be more to your liking. Once you get toward the later stages of a game, however, you don't spend all that much time staring at units anyway as you have to manage the action through icons with a zoomed out view. It's not a readily accessible system since you have to identify what all the icons' shapes and symbols represent. But eventually you will, and then it'll become clear how useful they really are.
Closing Comments
Booting up Supreme Commander again feels like trying to simultaneously play three games of Risk without being completely sure of the rules. Even with the changes, Forged Alliance doesn't alter Supreme Commander's niche appeal. It's not a game for every gamer, not even for every RTS fan, and, quite frankly, you might be turned off even once you get to know it. It's a sprawling RTS experience that requires your constant, undivided attention, an ability to react swiftly and intelligently to the shifting tide of battle, and the patience to plan and execute long-term strategies and manage a complex resource system. It's most rewarding only when you've learned all the back-and-forths, attacks and defenses, tech tree lines and strategies, which takes quite a while, but which we were more than willing to do. If you'd rather avoid being embroiled in the augmented intensity of online play, the scalable difficulty of the skirmish and campaign modes provide plenty of opportunity to find your comfort zone. Don't expect much personality out of the narrative's characters, any memorable plot developments, or this game to hold your hand in any way, but you can be sure an excellent RTS experience lies underneath the faults.
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