Customer Reviews

Universe At War: Earth Assault

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I learned about this game late in the development cycle. I am a huge fan of real-time strategy games, having played all of the major ones (Warcraft, Age of Empires, Dawn of War, Command & Conquer, Battle for Middle Earth 2, etc.). I usually try all of the games that release a demo first and was impressed with the demo for Universe at War (UaW), even though it didn't include a sample skirmish mode. I decided to get this game and certainly do not regret it. While quite good, it still needs a few tweaks, which is to be expected with a new release. But it's a welcome addition to a genre that has had too many duds as of late.

Gameplay: This game features the three most diverse races that I have ever seen in a game. The Hierarchy fields massive, ominous walkers that double as both assault units and production buildings. The Novus are a robotic race that is highly mobile, thanks to the ability to construct "flow" networks. The Masari--supposedly the inspiration behind human civilizations--feels a bit more convention in RTS terms, though they are still quite unique with light-dark fighting modes, no resource-collecting, and the best-looking buildings (besides the walkers) in the game. This is not like your typical RTS game, where if you can master one race then you can play them all. Each race offers a very different gameplay experience, which should add a lot of shelf-life to UaW.

The game comes with a few different gameplay modes. For single-player, there is the campaign, a Risk-style global scenarios mode, and skirmish. The campaign allows you to play all three races, in addition to the beleaguered humans whose planet has become a battlefield for aliens. It's a good story with decent missions, though the missions are fairly conventional for an RTS game (i.e., build a base, destroy enemy base, kill enemy leader, escort this VIP, etc.). There are 20+ missions in all, which will introduce the basic gaming concepts. Additionally, there is the global scenarios mode, which is well done. This is similar to the strategic layer of games like Rise of Nations, W40K: Dark Crusade, and the Total War series, where you can move armies around a global map and initiate real-time battles when you invade a territory occupied by an opponent (or vice versa). Finally, there is skirmish mode, which can be customized in a number of ways. There are about 20 maps, with the usual overabundance of 2-player maps. Any battle that lasts any amount of time can become epic in proportions, much like the end-game of Dawn of War or Battle for Middle Earth 2 where super-units and devastating special powers come into play. At that point, you might end up witnessing upgraded Hierarchy Walkers stomping around the map, or a fully functioning and expanded Novus flow network zooming Novus forces all over the place, or strategic use of the Masari light & dark modes that can suddenly turn a battle. That's in addition to special abilities for nearly every unit, flexible research trees, superweapons, 3 distinctive heroes for each race, and so forth. It all comes together really well to offer some exhilarating gameplay.

The game has only a few minor flaws that should be mentioned. In my opinion, most of these issues do not affect gameplay, but some might be annoyed by them. The interface works pretty well and does not obstruct the view, but it will take some getting use to regarding knowing how to do certain things quickly. There are hotkeys that are helpful and can be customized. The camera perspective is pretty typical for most RTS games, but the huge size of the walkers can make things a bit claustrophobic occasionally. Also, there is no way to set unit formations (though some units like Ohm bots automatically line up). I don't really miss these options, but some might. The game can require a good amount of micromanagement at very competitive levels, since every unit has special abilities, research choices can be changed on the fly, Heroes require attention to get the most out of them, and so on. If you are serious about playing online or beating the computer (the AI is pretty decent) on the hard setting, I suggest that you master one race at a time.

A word about online play. I don't typically play online, and UaW will probably not be any different. There is enough single-player content here to justify buying the game, and the modding tools should be out soon. However, for online gamers, it should be known that this game operates through the Games for Windows Live (GFWL) system. You can sign up for a silver membership and play custom skirmishes for free, but you'll need a $50/yr gold membership to play ranked matches, stat keeping, etc. In 2-3 years from now when many games will probably be using GFWL, the fee may be justifiable assuming that the service is good. However, for now, I would settle for the silver account and see what happens. It's too bad that this otherwise great game had to be a test case for GFWL. I really hope that the decision to go with GFWL is not a fatal blow to the game's online potential, which is huge.

Graphics: Beautiful game, period. It looks as good as any modern RTS game. It doesn't have the fantastic unit animation of Dawn of War or the moody, artistic maps of Battle for Middle Earth 2, but it's a visually appealing game. I think the Hierarchy has the best-looking units, the Masari has the best-looking stationary structures, and the Novus have the most fascinating transportation system to watch. Special effects such as explosions, superweapon launches, hero special abilities, and so forth are well done.

Sound: Some good voice acting, distinctive music for each side, and appropriate sound effects. Each hero has personality, thanks to both the campaign story and their acknowledgment soundbites.

Documentation/Technical Issues: The manual, while functional, leaves out a lot of information. For example, there is no specific information on research trees, Novus patches, Hero abilities, and the like. Fortunately, you can find all of this at the Petroglyph website, and the in-game tool tips are useful. But this really should have been at your fingertips in a manual, or at least a .pdf file on the game dvd. I have had no technical issues with this game. No crashes, freezes, black screens, nothing. The delayed release date apparently allowed Petroglyph to polish the game pretty well.

Value/Recommendation: In my view, this is the best RTS game to hit the market this year. The developer took a lot of chances by making the 3 races so vastly different, but it really works well. Actually, the game is quite balanced for a new release, though I suppose there will be some tweaks in forthcoming patches. If you like getting into the single-player content of a RTS game, there is a lot to like in this package. A gold membership with GFWL is a bit more difficult to recommend at this point. It all depends on how big GFWL becomes over the next couple of years and how well the gold membership can be justified (I got a one-month free trial of gold membership with the game, which I suppose is standard). Anyhow, I highly recommend this game to anyone into RTS games (you might want to try the demo first, though).

Pros:
+Three very diverse and fun races
+Great graphics and sound
+Well-done global scenarios mode
+Competent skirmish AI
+Hero Units

Cons:
-Decent but unimaginative campaign
-Camera perspective may take some getting used to
-Inability to set unit formations
-GFWL may hamper multiplayer appeal
-inadequate manual

Overall Score: 4.25 stars (out of 5)

Wow, theres never been an RTS Like this since Starcraft 2!

Such diversity in units, Interesting storyline and the graphics are to die for! Very enjoyable to play. My only complaint is that i wish the camera was more adjustable to zoom out further.
Giant walkers that trample through cities like War of the Worlds! I had a blast playing this game and i recommend it to everyone.

Not too graphic or violent either- so older kids can play it too. I think this game is perfect for anyone that likes pc games and theyre between 12-40 years old.

I am a avid RTS fan ever since the father of all, the original DUNE by WESTWOOD. And I have played most of them, from the COMMAND & CONQUER and AGE OF EMPIRE series to the SUPREME COMMANDER and WORLD AT CONFLICT action-oriented approaches.
Under this light, UNIVERSE AT WAR was weighted and measured - and found wanting.

Graphically it is comparable to C&C-TIBERIUM WARS, with the explosions, and toxic clouds more impressive than the units. The later are a bit cartoonist - but, one could argue that this adds to clarity. Zooming-in is adequate, whereas, contrary to SUPREME COMMANDER (where zooming out turns the game to a combat of ...colored tiles), UaW retains its battlefield feeling even if all zoomed out.
Later into the campaign game (and similar to EMPIRE EARTH 3 and RISK) there is also a tactical overview map in which troops get moved, territories claimed and super-weapons get launched.

RTS games are sensitive to faulty faction balancing: UaW suffers no such problems. There are three factions: the Hierarchy, the Novus and the Masari - all alien (yeah, the humans are toast). Every faction has its unique units (with their own strengths and weaknesses) and research bonuses. There are 12 technologies available (across three tech-trees), but one can have...only six of those available at a time (luckily these options are editable).

Where the game looses its first rating star is its buggy gameplay: units are slow to get assigned into groups, they seem reluctant to follow orders and there is no way to set up patrol paths for sentries. All very annoying during a fast-paced Real-Time strategy game!
On this note, one cannot help but mention (once...more) the AI cheating: no matter where one decides to hide his base and how stealthy his units are, the AI opponent will find them out and pound them with a disproportionate number of firepower.

Multiplayer is through Microsoft-LIVE - a more than spectral manifestation of the usual corporate greed: in order for all the game features to be available online, one has to pay for a Gold...subscription. In effect, buying a game that is advertised to include a multiplayer will only get you far LESS than a complete onLine game. Thus, justifiably, the second rating star was withheld for the lack of half the multiplayer game.

I should had waited for STARCRAFT II...

What's fantastic about Universe at War? Well lets start with the separate races...they're GREAT!!!

Ok, first up is the alien invaders. They drop down Fortress-Pods that DESTROY every major capital on Earth. What's cool about it is that you feel like it is actually happening. The White House gets wrecked! Scary stuff. But once you start USING these Huge Fortress-Pods you understand why they are warlike. They're SO fun to use. Secondly, your resource gathering is SUPER fun! Your robots go out and basically recycle old cars, houses, EVERY PIECE of human stuff they can find, even rail-road tracks! OH! And their eye beam is a Disintegrator beam!! And their other tech is even BETTER!!!

Second race is the Alien Robot dudes. Unlike ANY game I have ever played, they travel by setting up a series of wireless power-lines or nodes. Then when you send them somewhere, they turn themselves into LIGHT and travel through the nodes! Faster than light travel ACROSS THE BATTLEFIELD! Their units are really weird and futuristic too, and though they are somewhat fragile, once you learn how to mass and attack you can take out any enemy, even the fortress-pods.

The third race, the humans, are very weak until the alien robots equip them with their tech and they build better tanks. Even after you get advanced tech though your casualty rate is alarmingly high. You'll decimate a fortress-pod, but at the cost of an entire regime of troops, hundreds if not thousands of soldiers. I didn't use the human faction much, so I don't have much to write about them, though some players focus solely on them.

In short, this game is like Starcraft if Starcraft had MUCH better Writers than it does. I am saddened they have not come out with a 2nd.

I got this game for free when I p reordered Alien vs. Predator, and was extremely surprised at how good it is. It is right up there with the Command and Conquer games in terms of gameplay. The graphics are also great, and hold up even today. For the price you really can't go wrong.

I've tried playing the game on my Windows XP x64 edition machine, but it was sluggish and crashed constantly. Even after I installed three patches, it was still unplayable. However, on my Windows Vista Home Premium, it works fine. And no it's not a hardware issue, since my XP machine has a better graphics card and processor than my Vista machine (it's a laptop).

So do not buy this if you are planning to play it on a Windows XP x64 OS!!!

While some people would go on and on about the aspects of the game you probably aren't interested in, I'm getting straight down to the fact of the matter... this is a 3 star game... and is perfectly average for a real-time strategy.

Like most console rts games, Universe at War has been dumbed down for the casual gamer to play. Group control is only for unit type, and therefore doesn't allow you to play around with squads with multiple unit types. You can make your own squads but you can't save a group and it to another area of the map on command. The strategy is very basic. The game is almost 100% macroing because even when you play the campaign on hard, the enemy AI will never be as agressive (however very smart) yes both the enemy AI and your AI can almost handle skirmishes on thier own. All you have to do is simply send them to thier destination. I felt that that unless directed, both your units and enemy AI will automatically attack thier counter unit for an example, your infantry will fire at low altitude air units while your tank or tank equivelants attack infantry, manking for a very balanced and coordinated attack that you don't even have to worry about. This means that its a rush for resources and how fast you can deploy your forces. This isn't nessecarily a bad thing. For one it mimicks real combat more than other RTS where units will just attack the first thing they see that is attackable. This makes this game a great game for beginner strategists because the game ends up beoing almost 100% logistics rather than the usual mix of about 60% logistics and 40 percent tactics.

Overall-great beginners strategy game but if you were an ex starcraft playore or something along those lines, you'll find this game painfully easy and dull.

it's a fun game...but you can only play the first part offline...the other half is online. so i only can review half of it... because i have dial-up.

it's like spellforce with a whole end of the world twist. now i like rts's and rpg's so for me this was a great game... but many people say it's bad... but that's probably because they never played a good rts.

the graphics are great, the music is kinda cool, the gameplay is super easy, and the story is pretty good.

overall a really cool game... if you like waiting forever to play it online.

i recommend the spellforce series if you don't have the fastest internet known to man!

I own 70 video/computer games. Of those that I do own, this game is one of the very few that will not even run on my computer, (and I own a very powerful computer). When on those rare occasions I did manage to get the game to run, it ran VERY SLOWLY, and eventually crashed. I'm very disappointed that companies are allowed to bring trash like this to market, because that exactly where my copy will end up . . . . 'in the trash'.

I like all genres of games. The only things I don't like are the scum of the genre (I mean the REALLY bad stuff). Universe at War doesn't fall into the category of the scum or the highlights of each genre like Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, Halo, and Unreal Tournament. To stand out today, a game needs originality, an interesting plot (if any), and a trully unique gameplay expirence. Universe at War has none of these.

On the the review...

Graphics. This game doesn't have much in the way of graphics, only some nice effects, yet the walkers (big machines thingies, example: the thing on the cover) are nicely detailed. But this game does run fairly well.

Sound. Not a lot really stands out here.

Gameplay. It tries to be the next gen replacement for Starcraft 2, but unfortunately, it falls painfully short. The real exitement in this game is in the three factions; Novus, Hierarchy, and the Masari. The Novus are machines that have the ability to move extremely quickly allong the battlefield (It takes the literally four seconds). The Hierarchy reily on heavily armed walkers instead of stable buildings, the are very slow though. The Masari have the ability to switch between a offense and defensive stile of play (Light and Dark Mode). This offers a little refreshment from the almost identical factions you see in other games. But when it comes down to the actual battles, the game just falls short.

Plot. Boring and Confusing, it doesn't really help that some of the plot is given away in the manual.

Multiplay. This is the highlight of the game, playing multiplayer is the ONLY thing that will keep you from erasing this game permanently from your hardrive. The artificial intelligence is good for training, but never will be able to substitute a real player.

Replay. If you have the patience to finish all the campaigns, then you will certainly move on to multiplayer and the game will last you a fairly decient time.

In conclusion, Universe at War is definately not a substitution for Starcraft 2. It tried to bring the Starcraft mechanics into the new generation of games before Blizzard, but it just did not make it.

Graphics 6/10
Sound 5/10
Gameplay 7/10
Story 5/10
Multipaly 7/10
Replay 6/10
Stability: Some bugs, smooth performance

Overall: 6/10 - Passable