One of the greatest games of all time.
To put it simply, TA is one of the finest RTS games of all time, and in many ways is superior to any RTS created, even nearly seven years after it's release. It's interface, gameplay, and music are where it shines the most today, and where it is still superior to many, if not all, RTS games today.
INTERFACE
The interface of TA is simple to use, but it gives you a huge amount of control. One of the great things about it is that you can queue up a series of commands, ANY commands, by simply holding down the shift key. This may not seem like a huge thing, but it makes the game much easier to play. It is also an area where the game is superior to many games today. Most RTS games now allow you to queue up "move" commands by holding down the shift key, and maybe "attack" commands also, but not other commands. Take the Patrol command, for example.
In most games now, you can use that command to order a unit or group of units to move back and forth between two points. The unit/units will attack enemies they see, making this command useful for defending an area. But so often you might want to have your units patrol between more than just two points, but are unable to.
In TA, you can simply hold down the shift key and have your units patrol between multiple points. With this, you can easily have a group of aircraft circle around your entire base, rather than just patrol one side of it. You can also order repair units to patrol throughout your entire base, and they will automatically repair any damaged units they go near.
Another nice thing you could do is queue up build orders. This is very useful when building an outpost or base defenses, as you can simply queue up the structures you want built rather than have to constantly go back and forth between your construction unit and whatever else you are doing. Few other RTS games allow you to do this.
Queuing orders is just one example, to mention all of the advantages of the TA interface would take way too much time. To sum it all up, the interface of TA does what should be impossible: it not only gives you more control than just about any RTS game in existence, it is very simple and easy to use, often easier to use than those of games that give you less control.
GAMEPLAY
The game's interface and unit AI options allowed you to do things in TA you couldn't do in any RTS before, and even in many RTS's today. That, combined with it's huge breadth of units, allowed for tons of unique strategies. Adding the Core Contingency expansion pack gave you even more units; that expansion pack alone had more units in it than many complete games today.
Aircraft, hovercraft, mech-like robots, tanks, boats, submarines... No game before or since has such a variety of units. And almost all of these units were well designed. The boat combat in TA is probably the best boat combat in any RTS ever created. The same could be said for the way TA did air combat. And it's not as if the land combat was bad either.
TA had fully 3D terrain, in a time when that was very unusual. This affected not only line-of-sight, but combat as well. TA used real weapons trajectories, so having the high ground could have a definite effect on battle.
Again, there are to many things to mention in this review. I could tell how TA incorporated radar in a unique and cool way not seen in any other RTS game, how destroyed units left wreckages that not only looked good but could be harvested for the metal and serve as an obstacle to both units and weapons, how the Commander predated many "hero" units of today and helped stop early rushes... but this review is long enough as it is. Simply put, the gameplay is superb.
GRAPHICS
Even today, nearly seven years after the game was released, the graphics still don't look that bad. And at the time the game was released, they blew away most of the competition. The explosions were superb (the large one's shaking the entire map), the terrain was highly detailed, and overall the game looked spectacular.
SOUND
The game contains decent sound effects, with the units making suitable noises and the other effects sounding fine, though not particularly special. But the music, on the other hand... The music of TA is one of the best game soundtracks ever created, and changes depending on what is going on in the game. It really highlights and enhances the game.
VALUE
Two long campaigns, and a horde of skirmish and multiplayer maps gave TA great value. The game contained a huge amount of multiplayer options, and a massive variety of maps, ranging from close quarters maps to gigantic maps that dwarf anything found in other games. And the Core Contingency expansion pack added two more decent sized campaigns and a bunch more maps, as well as a bit complex but still useful map editor. But even before adding the expansion pack, the game had a huge amount of value.
FLAWS (Every game has a few)
As many fans of a certain RTS game released shortly after TA will tell you, TA did not have a particularly great storyline. Also, though the game's two sides, the Core and the Arm, were a lot more unique than they seemed at first glance, they weren't as varied as the factions in some other games, such as those in the afore-mentioned RTS. Still, these flaws were very minor when compared with all the things TA did well.
RECAP
While it may not be as well known as some games, TA's gameplay, graphics, music, and multiplayer/skirmish features makes it perhaps the closest to perfection for it's time the RTS genre has ever achieved. It is a game well deserving of the critical praise it has received, and one any RTS fan should consider checking out, even today.