Universal Combat

by Dreamcatcher

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000A345M
• Item Weight: 5 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: February 9, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 1.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #42,450 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Universal Combat is a combat simulation of epic proportions. Unlike any game ever created, Universal Combat gives the player the freedom to go anywhere, be anyone, and do anything in an enormous, living, dynamic universe.

More than just a sim game, the player can command a massive starship with a full complement of officers and crew, pilot a shuttle down to a planet's surface, and lead a platoon of marines in a first-person assault on an enemy base. The possibilities are virtually endless!

Features:

• New pixel- and vertex-shaded based graphics engine with support for advanced lighting, shadows, reflections, glow, specular and detail maps, decals (for e.g. damage maps, water ripples, etc), volumetric fog, as well as progressive scene LOD (Level Of Detail).
• New physics engine for planetary vehicles and other units which require it. This also allows the introduction of friction, drag, and other dynamic enhancements.
• Mouse-supported flight control (in addition to keyboard and joystick support).
• LAN and internet multiplayer modes with support for up to 64 players depending on server config and connection type.
• Persistent server support on dedicated server. This allows server to save player and world state on that server.

Product Description

The biggest combat simulator of all time. Fight anything, anytime, anywhere by any means necessary! Battle your way through a massive game universe full of epic battles, massive first-person ground assaults, fierce naval engagements and tense dogfights above the planet's surface.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Universal Waste of Time, February 12, 2004

By 

Kenneth D. Lustig "Entertainment Connoisseur" (Holloman AFB, NM United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Universal Combat (CD-ROM)

Having played (and really having come close to liking) every game in the Battlecruiser series and having followed the development of Battlecruiser Generations, I thought perhaps this time around Derek Smart and company might get it right. But, alas, it was not to be.

Being a devoted grognard, traditional wargamer, and military studies aficionado, I can tolerate a steep learning curve and less than obvious interface, all plastered over a hardcore simulation. But Universal Combat failed to live up to any of the developers' promises or my expectations. Thank god the publisher had the presence of mind to realise this was a budget title. If Derek Smart had his way, I'd be about $29.95 more ticked that I bought this game.

Right from the rocky start just trying to get the program installed, to the option controls that don't respond or revert to previous settings, I realised I had been promised a ship and a star to sail her by but had chugged off in a lemon once again. And then the game continued to perform like a "champ" throughout, frequently crashing, misplacing interface elements, and otherwise dying in its own misery.

The game manual is as convoluted as all the other battlecruiser titles, riddled with acronyms whose definitions are buried in pages and pages of small type. There is some semblance of organization to the thing, but the biggest problem is that there is no connection between using the bogglingly complex interface and actually accomplishing something with the systems simulated in the game.

As in the more poorly executed Battlecruiser Millenium, the ground, sea, and air combat modes seem to be included as pure gloss. None of these modes function well or gave me any reason to come back for more. Most annoying was the complete absence of any sense of physics, especially on the ground. I've seen graphics driver demos with more realism.

To Dreamcatcher's credit, the graphics are far superior to any other game in the Battlecruiser series. However, the problem is that Dreamcatcher seems to be developing all the graphics for games in the series with a 2-4 year shift back in time. While occasionally pretty, I couldn't help feel that I was playing an old game, even though the brand new box was sitting right on my desk.

The ultimate flaw in the game itself was the total absense of any sense of progress. After many crushing engagements where my ship (pick any class, type, or purpose) was routinely destroyed before having built up enough resources to repair it or refit, I began to succeed in ship to ship combat. But beyond that, there was absolutely no sense of having any kind of impact on the game world. It seems the game developer expects one to gain a sense of accomplishment from figuring out the game interface and pretending one is involved in some kind of greater conflict. The convoluted campaigns seem to have no ultimate point. While you can, as promised, go anywhere you like and do whatever you want within the large scope of the game, what you do matters little and has no identifiable outcome. There is nothing to draw one in on any side or measure effect; playing one ship, exploring a planet, or fighting any one battle is pretty much like another, and none of these gives any sense of having accomplished anything.

The final straw for me was the developer's support. Let's get this out right now: Derek Smart is mad at the publisher for cutting the price of his game, so his development team is not going to support it. The site is filled with Derek's diatribes talking this game up as being the biggest masterpiece of mixed gameplay, massive scope, and rewards for everyone, and explains how angry he is that his work of art is not universally loved and appreciated except by his fans who understand him and what he is trying to do. In place of support, he condescendingly criticizes those who say anything different or can't solve their own problems. The theme here is that it is not the game or the developer who have failed; it is everyone else - the players, the publisher, the market. Don't expect to find a solution to Universal Combat's myriad problems here.

Bottom line: This game could have filled a niche that is empty in the industry - a game with huge scope, complexity, and challenge extending beyond mere shoot-em up. Instead, this game is a barely functional shell that promises everything but delivers little.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Yikes!, February 15, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Universal Combat (CD-ROM)

I played and enjoyed Smart's Battlecruiser Millennium Gold, and hoped this would be a solid update in the series. Boy, was I wrong. This game is a mess - incredibly buggy, the graphics are a little better than BMG but not by much, and it lacks the stately, thoughful pace of previous games that allowed the player to immerse himself (or herself) in the Battlecruiser universe.

Please, save your money. If you want to play a game where the concept worked much better, buy a copy of Battlecruiser Millennium Gold. It's a bit dated, but thoroughly enjoyable.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars When Good Ideas are done shoty, February 11, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Universal Combat (CD-ROM)

I've been watching the progress of Universal Combat for a long time. Now that i finally have it i can say this. If you are looking for a stable well put together game that mixes planetside and freelancer, you will be thourghly sadened.

No one will like this game. Those that like the slower pace of the BattleCrusier Games, you will find that this game is unplayable. The game is buggy and terrible.

I know the amazon blerb says physics engine but this is not true. There are animations for the deaths, not physics based, and more importanly, the game has no way for you to go into bases. There is no crash ditection! your character can "go through" bases, trees, vehicles, its terrible.

The graphics are way past dated. They resemble Quake 2. The information that you see long distance about objects ubstructs the screen. The text has a background so you can't see verywell.

The learning curve is off the roof, this is hampered by the fact that alot of things don't work properly. When colliding with anything your character lays down. And if you go through something, you start to sink into the floor.

This is the shottiest game i have ever seen.

Idea wise its great, but the steap learning curve and gameplay issues kill this game.

Alot of the originally proposed ideas from Battle Cruiser Generations never made it in. The half assed job done by 3000AD is evident when you start the game and the startup image is of Battle Cruiser Generations, not universal Combat.

Please do not get this game, your throwing your money away!! Get the demo from 3000ad.com and try that, if for somereason you like it then get the game. But for those looking for a tribes/planetside/freelancer crossover game don't get this!!