Supreme Commander is set in the future where mankind has conquered space and wiped out some of the annoying lesser alien races. In doing so, however, mankind cannot shake of his fractured past and has broken into to three distinct races as the species has proceeded on its evolutionary path. There are the UEF who remain true to Earth, and there is the two breakaway factions - the Aeons and the Cybran. The game has a distinct campaign for each of the three races and these serve to give an insight into their motivation and character.

As a commander of one of these factions, you pilot a ACU (armoured command unit) which most players would recognise as a mech'. This unit serves both as a primary construction unit and also a heavy combat unit. The ultimate challenge within a game is to take out the opposing force's ACU (that go nuclear once killed).

Each mission starts with a briefing sequence which details some immediate goals, and then you are landed into the hostile planet to commence the mission. Your immediate goal is to set up a healthy economy which is not particularly hard to do; there are only two resources to farm.

There is mass, which is the key building resource, and there is power needed to keep everything going. The latter can be sourced by building power stations while the former requires a mass extractor on a specific node. Old hands at RTS games will immediately recognise the importance of these nodes and the influence they can have on game strategies.

Once you get the raw materials coming in, you can then build one of the three factory buildings to churn out aircraft, land or sea units. Each of these buildings has three tech levels. Sadly this is a big weakness in the game, with very little meat to the technology tree. Upgrading the three buildings means they now produce stronger units. There is no special armour or weapon upgrades to research or differentiate your units.

The units themselves, although differing in design from faction to faction, are very much all vanilla flavoured. Each has its bomber, its fighter, its light and heavy tank etc. The only real difference is each faction has the ability to build an uber unit that can devastate the opposition. These take considerable resources to build and are a risky strategy. There is no system of experience for the units which is another surprising omission.

You would be forgiven for thinking at this point then the game is quite lacklustre. These issues, however, pale when you start to play the game. The real gem in the game is its vast expanse and its very capable AI. Campaign maps generally start with a small playing area and as you start completing aspects of the mission more of the map is revealed.

Eventually you will find yourself controlling huge armies (yes more than one) as you are forced to lift your thinking from a tactical level to a wider strategic level of play.

Most RTS games of today are mere tabletop battles, however in Supreme Commander you will be creating defensive positions, air defence units, blocking positions and large attacking armies. Keeping this all under control is relatively easy, though, as the user interface is intuitive and there is a robust waypoint system.

The missions themselves can become quite complex. You may find yourself tasked with flanking an enemy to get at his air defence systems; this lets your interceptors in to take care of the covering fighters. Once that is complete you can then send your bomber squadrons in to take care of the ground forces.

Just when you think you are done, more of the map is revealed and you are greeted with more challenges. Missions are therefore no short affairs and you need to save often (there is no auto save option). The sheer size of the battles and the amount of units involved will have you racing units all over the game area as no sooner than you gain superiority in one area your enemy is probing areas you left unguarded. The AI is no slug and presents a real challenge for even the most hardened of RTS players.

Tactically this game is also filled with options. You are not restricted to scripted events and pretty much there is no wrong or right way to complete a mission. There is no restrictions on where you can build so one tactic is to create forward bases that can dominate choke points or to create an anti aircraft screen close to main air routes. Ranges are quite long and often you will taking out units before you fully see what they are and part of the skill in the game is understanding what the blips are on the radar portion of the map and responding with the appropriate force.

The game's graphics are not much to write home about. They are functional and really just serve as a backdrop for the fireworks of the battles. The combat effects are great - rockets course through the skies, units explode with a healthy radiation glow, and lasers and shots streak across the battlefield, seeking out their opposition.

All these units and the AI control of so many enemy units means there is a large computer overhead to play this game effectively. Our mid-range gaming PC (P4 3400) really struggled with the game. Even with the graphics and effects wound down to a minimum the game stuttered and slowed, making it largely unplayable. It was fine on our dual core unit with a good graphics card although at times even this started to choke a bit.

We can fully understand the amount of grunt required to run Supreme Commander, however as a result the game has been placed out of reach from most of its would-be fans. This is a shame as this truly is an expansive game that deserves to be played by a lot of people.