Controls

The Silence is Deafening

Most RTS games don't need an explanation of the controls, but this game managed to give the player three levels of tutorial to learn how to play the game using all the commands. Those levels were pretty helpful in learning the control system; but one thought kept repeating in my head to the point of idiocy. Is all this necessary? As far as I could tell, the camera provided no benefit whatsoever. I found myself constantly wishing for a comprehensive view of the battlefield, a la overhead view. Instead, I was forced to rotate the camera around large buildings to select units effectively. Having to rotate around an AT-AT to find my little trooper, all the while trying to fight a battle, seems terribly unnecessary. The camera movement did work decently though, from a technical standpoint. Movement was not too jittery, and controls were adequate. Overall the camera interface wasn't a joy, but it got the job done and battlefield control wasn't to greatly diminished in comparison to an overhead RTS.

One glitch I did notice was that the camera tended to just take off by itself every now and then. I would be playing and all of a sudden the camera would just veer off to some corner of the map. This tended to happen around regions of high elevation every so often. This is generally not a good way to command an army, I would guess.

Zoom Zoom!

The zooming feature is more of a toy than an essential part of the game. To play the game in semi-zoomed modes simply denies you a better view of the battlefield. I haven't found an instance in which the zooming has proved to be of any value. Aside from the camera controls, the rest of the game is pretty much played the same as any RTS. Click on your units, and tell them to kill other units. Waypointing was added and a peculiar postures setting was included too. Postures? Is this to make sure your units aren't slouching? I think demeanor or behavior would have been a better term. This controlled how your units reacted to an enemy presence. Settings for complete passivity all the way to hunt down and destroy were included. The in between settings were essentially various guard modes.

Another very annoying problem was the double-click method of unit selection. If you have played an RTS this is a blessing, as it allows you to select all the units of a single type by double-clicking on only one of them. The problem with this in Force Commander was that it selected units from beyond the field of vision. Normally it is only supposed to select units that are visible on the screen at the moment.

Tank Butt

Resource Bunker

Explosion in the distance

My fleet

Two Timing

One thing that is difficult to do is manage two different actions at the same time in a RTS game. Things such as ordering more units while in the middle of a battle are essential functions to winning games. While this is hard in games like Starcraft, Force Commander makes it exceedingly difficult to accomplish. Something as simple as ordering units requires more effort than should be needed. Placing buildings and finding suitable landing spots is something that really needs to be worked on. I don't know how much time I lost trying to drop a turret or trying to find a suitable deployment area for troops. The sweet spots were made far too small. Regions where building placement was allowed seemed to be arbitrary. I would have a turret in one area and then in an attempt to place another next to it, I would be denied.

Zoomed Fleet

Nice Sky

Unhappy Trails

Pathing could also use a lot of work in this game. In one of the training missions, I recall sending out a unit across the map for some action. When I went to check up on the unit, I found out it hadn't even left the base. Sure this might be a problem with large and unwieldy bases, but I only had 3 other units and the main building there. I found my troop transport circling my building and units. Another problem I had was with attacking units. All the 3-D terrain was great, but the units still seemed to think they were in a 2-D world. I would have troopers try to attack another trooper that was on higher ground but they would just start firing straight forward and not move into a position where they could actually do any damage.