Supreme commander Forged Alliance is a game that can easily dominate the large scale RTS genre.
Gameplay & Design:
As the original Supreme Commander, Forged alliance features the same Strategic zoom ability that really changes the way most RTS games are played. It gives you the feeling of being able to control massive armies in massive maps, both Macroscopically, and Micro, or better Meso-scopically. The interface has been changed in a really nice way, so that now the screen is not covered with the overlay that the original game had. The basics remain the same. Economy is still tricky, but here is where a player will really prove his abilities in combat, and when you start becoming good, the game feels quite rewarding. Apart from that, a new Faction has been introduced known as the "Seraphim". It features a unique design and units, as well as many other goodies. There are many new units introduced to each faction, ranging from Tech 1 to Experimentals. The new campaign has 6 missions, which might sound little, but each one has multiple objectives and each will last from 2 to 4 hours at least. One of the negative aspects of FA is the fact that the Storyline is not that amusing. And in addition to that, voice acting is terrible, and especially in missions, having your supposed general repeating your objective every 2 minutes or so, is somewhat annoying.
Where Forged Alliance really IS exhilirating though, is in its multiplayer. To access online play, you have to create an account in GPGnet, and then once you log in you are able to create/join both ranked and unranked games, in which you will come against players which might range from complete newbies to pros, that will leave you wondering how exactly you lost, before you even say "Hey". Maps are ranging from 5X5 to 81X81 (Kms) and the game supports up to 8 players, and there are many new maps as well.
Graphics & Performance:
It is a fact that Forged alliance has many visual improvenets ranging from Heat effects to textures and explosions, and it does look overall better with more attention to small details. Though, this comes with an equivalent impact on your CPU mostly (if you have a good CPU and a middle range GPU you are fine , but if vice versa, expect slowdowns). Especially in large battles with many players and hundreds if not thousands of units it can become annoying after a while.
Misc:
Forged alliance also offers great Modding capabilities as well as hundreds of mods, (some add units, others improve AI) and of course there are countless map packs which come in handy if you are bored of the game's maps.
Conclusion:
Pros: Great Scale. Strategic Zoom, Nukes, Hundreds of new units, a New faction, It Makes other RTS games seem incomparably small, Great Multiplayer, Imrpoved graphics, Great Variery, Rewarding, Unique, Controlling massive armies.
Cons:
Economy can be Tricky and the learning curve is quite steep.
Storyline and Voice acting are not noteworthy.
You need a good PC to play it at its full glory.
It might make you waste days or several hours playing it.
SCORES:
Graphics: 9/10
Gameplay: 9,6/10
Story: 5/10
Design: 9.7/10
Variety: 9,6/10
Performance: 6/10
OVERALL:
9,5/10