Expansion packs are like dessert—a sweet treat following the main course of a hearty full meal, expansions are a great way of extending the experience of a full game while at the same time giving gamers a taste of something new. Before getting any dessert, though, you have to eat all of your dinner. Standalone expansion packs like Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance throw that rule out the window, giving anybody with an appetite for a nibble an opportunity to play. Scarfing down dessert before dinner is likely to spoil your appetite and with Forged Alliance it's no different. Newcomers may spoil their impression of this wonderfully complex strategy game by jumping into its expansion clearly geared toward those who have completed the base game. In short, the game is sweet but tailored to a hardcore audience.
Forged Alliance is aptly titled, bringing together the three warring factions of the original game for a campaign against a greater threat. The tenuous coalition between the United Earth Federation (UEF), Cybran Nation, and Aeon Illuminate arises only out of a desperate push to prevent Seraphim domination. Six massive battlefields broken down into smaller missions chronicle the conflict, which can be played from the perspective of any of the three human factions. Dialogue changes respective to the faction you select, although the story and mission objectives remain identical across all three. Of course, available units vary among the factions with unique experimental armaments distinguishing each race's strategic style.
Complementing the single player campaign is a standard skirmish mode, as well as LAN and online multiplayer. Little has changed in the multiplayer game between this and the original, which is a good thing given its how well it plays. The updated heads-up display employed in the campaign transfers into multiplayer and a large slate of new maps top a short list of changes made to the multiplayer game. Additionally, the game introduces a fourth playable faction into the mix: the Seraphim. Granting access to dozens of powerful, yet expensive and slow to build units, the Seraphim provide a deliberate strategic counter to the quicker human factions. It is worth noting that without a copy of the base game, they're the only race available for use in skirmish and multiplayer modes.
As an expansion, Forged Alliance does nothing to toy with the fundamental gameplay of Supreme Commander. Faithfully following in the path of its predecessor, dramatic battles are a dime a dozen ranging from huge naval clashes and air raids to hordes of ground troops rushing into combat. The new campaign adds much needed narrative dimension to the rich science-fiction world Gas Powered Games has created, not to mention highlights the scope of both its creativity and gameplay. It's an exciting, action-packed real-time strategy game that serves as a by-the-books extension of the original title.
The addition of new units and a retooled interface do nothing to change the gameplay. Certainly new experimental units expand the already increasingly complex strategic balance of the game--which wisely retains a focus on strategy instead of tactics--but they're far from rocking the gameplay boat. Forged Alliance emphasizes battlefield-level strategies over on-the-ground tactics in the same way the first game did. An impressive zoom range and the ability to split your screen into two views of the battlefield encourage high-level strategy. Specific to Forged Alliance, improvements to the heads-up display allow for a better view and easier navigation of maps which in turn translates to more time spent contriving strategies.
Like the original game the immense scope of the add on is overwhelming, especially if the expansion is your introduction to its gigantic breed of real-time strategy. Each faction possesses dozens upon dozens of units that are summoned onto gargantuan maps. Figuring out how the myriad of units work and setting up a base of operations is challenging enough without being thrust into the middle of a fierce battle. Forged Alliance puts you immediately into the fray, which is perfect if you've already run through the first game. To counter an onslaught of advanced enemy forces access is granted to nearly all of each faction's units from the get-go, which is a nice change from the first game's slow ramp up.
Having not touched it, however, it's like trying to learn how to drive a manual—there's entirely too much to think about to make learning easy. From working the gas and brake pedals to timing shifts correctly with the clutch to simply paying attention to the road, it's an exercise in multitasking that can rattle newcomers. Similarly, Forged Alliance throws too much at you from the beginning to make it friendly to all aside from dedicated strategy gamers. A tutorial guides you through the basics of establishing a base and recruiting units, but it does nothing to really prepare you for the frenzy of the game's battles.
