Whoa, I’ve been playing Supreme Commander for longer than I thought today. I forgot how much an RTS can suck away the hours while you’re busy building and coordinating attacks. This is what took me so long to grab the game, I figured it’d be consuming.

Even though it’s about a year and a half old, I’m going to include my newb early impressions.

Pros:

• It’s totally Total Annihilation in a lot of ways, with an updated engine and UI.
• I love the scope of the camera controls, with the insane zoom all the way out to a tactical display. Kinda reminds me of Homeworld, but less confusing, more natural and very intuitive.
• AI on the computer side is decent, it’s giving me a serious run. Doesn’t act like a player would, but that’s a good thing.
• Keyboard shortcuts for almost everything. Just like Total Annihilation. There’s a depth to the controls that enables complex strategy.
• Tons of units. This is the other half of the complexity. It’s not as balanced as a Blizzard or C&C style RTS, but that’s the point: It gets insane and that’s glorious.

Cons:

• Campaign missions feel too long.
• Tons of units means a fast PC is necessary. Fortunately I have one, but I do expect that (again, just like Total Annihilation) some multiplayer games may bring the slower PCs to their knees, making an uneven playing field.
• I wish the first handful of missions were slower, simpler, and more tutorial-like (the actual “tutorial” is a series of mind-numbing videos). It needs better pacing. The starter mission for instance, should have me building a couple units and destroying a small number of enemy units. Instead, I’m rescuing an outpost from an entrenched enemy, with objectives to capture tech, take out anti-aircraft guns and finally flank the enemy to get to his Commander. That sort of mission should have been about 5 deep into the story.
• Controls & Actions are similar to Total Annihilation, but again, they need a tutorial or better explanations. Anyone not already familiar with this style of RTS may have a steep learning curve. Even for me to refresh, I found a bit of a disconnect from wanting to do something and being able to do it.
• The surround sound system is very odd, with voice pushed to the center speaker. Most everything is too quiet. I had to switch from my 5.1 settings to 2 speakers just to hear things clearly. Lots of other people online bitching about this too.

This is definitely one of those games where my complaints are almost stronger because I like the game so damn much.