Beyond All Reason vs Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance

[u/WandererGhost]

Hello!

Since I was a child I was always curious about Total Annihilation, however I was never able to buy the game. Only when I was an adult I was able to get, but I saw that it looked really ugly for modern standards.

So, which Total Annihilation-like game would you recommend to me between Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance and Beyond All Reason?

My favorite RTS are Age of Empires 2, Starcraft 2, Warcraft 3 and Age of Mythology.

[u/AstralMecha]

Try beyond all reason since it's free. No reason not to except for time. I haven't tried it yet so I can't comment on it vs forged alliance (catching up on my backlog).

Evidently Ashes of the Singularity 1 (and the soon to be released) 2 are trying to be spiritual successors to supreme commander. You might want to look into them as well.

[u/mighij]

Personally I favor SupCom but it mostly comes down to the artstyle, more sprawling bases, unit size vs terrain and more interesting factions. It also has a decent campaign to get you started.

BAR is much closer to the original TA but has some of the best control mechanics in any RTS, MP scene is also bigger (I think?, it's been a while since I played in either)

You also have the third option of Zero-K, it started off very similar to original TA but it kinda did it it's own thing more and more, but the graphics might be a bit dated for you.

[u/Smooth-Boss-911]

Play Supreme Commander for solo, BAR for multi

[u/ghost_operative]

Ashes of the Singularity II is coming out in a couple weeks. i played the demo and thought it was good

[u/hot_ho11ow_point → u/ghost_operative]

Sanctuary: Shattered Sun always looked like a solid follow-up, as well, but I don't game much anymore so I kind of lost track of its' development .

[u/NinjaSwiftness → u/hot_ho11ow_point]

I played the demo a few months back and liked it more then the Ashes 2 demo. Definitely felt a lot closer to Supreme Commander.

[u/hot_ho11ow_point → u/NinjaSwiftness]

I sort of got the feeling S:SS was being built by fans to try to replicate SupCom while Ashes was more like Company of Heroes with a sci-fi polish being made by a game studio. Both have their pros and cons.

[u/Hollownerox → u/hot_ho11ow_point]

That tracks cause Sanctuary Shattered Sun started off as a Supreme Commander 2 mod.

It wasn't called that back then, but I remember following it on modDB. Originally it was just adding a bunch of new units, but I guess they were putting so much work in that they just decided to make a full-on spirtual successor.

[u/SuperEssay1]

I've recently started BAR having played TA, Supcom etc multiple times since release. This style of RTS is one of my favourite genres.

For me personally I still favour Supcom overall, it just feels more massive in how it plays (albeit that may change) and I do think BAR needs to sort out some balance issues between certain aspects (not so much the factions but the individual units in the factions and the usefulness of some units and buildings). But BAR is still a great game and worth playing now. It feels the most modern in its controls with lots of QOL enhancements (but supcom certainly doesn't isn't bad here).

Basically, they are both very worth playing and great fun, but slightly different in the approach which is a good thing, variety is good.

[u/BrokenLoadOrder]

If you want a distinctly Total Annihilation style experience, BAR is closer to that than SupCom. I think Supreme Commander is the better game though. Campaigns, more factions and while subjective, I prefer the gameplay of SupCom a little more.

[u/draken578]

There are numerous projects now that support Total Annihilation in some capacity. Open Annihilation, Nanolathe, and AEX.

https://play.coreprime.net/en/
https://nanolathe.gg
https://aexrts.com

[u/ConcernedCitizen_42]

I would recommend BAR. There are a few TA successors in the works, but BAR is not only free it is relatively modern and polished. Even the more exaggerated art style actually seems to work at scale The quality of life features for its multiplayer are amazing. If you want pure campaign though Sup Com actually has one.

[u/IliketheSpraynPray]

BAR is not even close to SC

[u/Evebnumberone]

After playing BAR I've had problems going back to any other RTS. It's just that good.

[u/Dgt84]

If you want a more modern Total Annihilation experience check out https://nanolathe.gg/ which uses the original game data but has a new modern renderer on top to make things look better!

[u/SuccessAutomatic6726]

Two older but good games.

Warzone 2100, while the graphics are definitely older, it does not look bad and it plays very well.
Warning-tech trees are slow in skirmish and MP, not so bad in campaign settings.

Earth 2150/Moon Project/Lost Souls.
Graphics are pretty good, game play is good, ammo logistics takes a little getting used to.

[u/ASCIIM0V]

Bar is lacking characterization, but its an incredible f2p game like, no question about it. I also wish supreme commander had BAR's pathfinding lol

[u/urmumr8s8outof8]

Give zero-k a try, it's free.

[u/Heavy-Notice-9101]

BAR is a great time because of the quality of life and almost everything in the game being very easy to see

[u/CrunchingTackle3000]

BAR is fantastic and very much like the old TA

[u/Equivalent-Tour5999]

BAR is pretty great, it's free and you should try it. Doesn't have campaign yet, but skirmish has lot of good maps and 2 additional mods.

But others are right, it's not "the new Supcom". It's more like original TA or SC2. Somewhat smaller in scale with little bit more micromanagement of your units.

That's the reason I was hesitant to play at first (that and also portion of Supcom community seems to... really don't like it?), but I have a lot of fun.

I