Supreme Commander, the spiritual successor to 1997's Total Annihilation (the first game to bring 3-D graphics to real-time strategy), redefines the genre with its immense size. While Total Annihilation fit hundreds of units onto the screen a decade ago, Supreme Commander gives soldiers a much bigger battleground to play with. Most campaign missions start small and gradually expand with each new objective. Small islands quickly turn into archipelagos, demanding attacks from land, air and sea in order to succeed.

In the future, humanity reaches a golden age with space exploration. After colonizing countless worlds, all connected by a network of quantum gates, intergalactic civilization crumbles into three distinct factions. The United Earth Federation (UEF) seeks to reunite the fractured worlds into a single empire using brute strength. The Cyban, people who melded their brains with computer artificial intelligences, use guerrilla tactics to gain independence and free their brethren, enslaved by a UEF loyalty program. Lastly, the Aeon Illuminate, disciples of an extinct alien race, seeks to cleanse the universe of non-believers so that their religion (called The Way) flourishes. All three have been battling for a thousand years in the Infinite War. As a commander, the player chooses a faction and ends the conflict.

All units within each faction, with the exception of the experimental ones, serve the same purpose, although the statistics differ accordingly. The UEF, for example, believe in the "might makes right" philosophy, requiring extra time and resources to build up to their forces. When left to build up for too long, they become almost unstoppable. Alternatively, the Cybran rely mainly on hit-and-run and stealth tactics using advanced technology, although most missions require direct confrontation. The Aeon has fast-moving naval units, and builds faster than the other two factions, allowing them to use sheer numbers to overwhelm opponents.

Supreme Commander's key feature comes from the ability to zoom out into a strategic view, where players see the entire continent and tiny icons represent each unit. For the first time, players launch planned, concerted attacks instead of focusing exclusively on the traditional real-time strategy (RTS) game offering when they force players into a comparatively small section of land. Multitasking also comes into play, as gamers enter split-screen mode or stretch the game across two monitors.

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