Once again, the gents and ladies at Petroglyph haven't disappointed. However, there's still nothing groundbreaking to be had here and due to the aforementioned slip ups, the game failed to achieve its full potential. But it comes very close.
Universe At War: Earth Assault is a finely shaped game with some underlying issues to be sure, mainly UI related, but Petroglyph’s brand of cheesy action humour and the great diversity of strategy, especially when playing against other red blooded players, can make war a guilty pleasure again.
RTS game set in future. There are 3 factions available and each of them has its own unique play style. The design of factions is on a really high level and can be compared to Starcraft. Multiplayer and graphics could have been done a lot better, though.
If you like your strategy games with a sense of fun about them, while still offering some actual strategy, Universe at War: Earth Assault should speak to you.
For all its merits and imagination, all its potential and breathtaking battles, Universe at War is lacking an essential ingredient of real-time strategy games: strategy. [Mar 2008, p.72]
Takes great pride in its science-fiction absurdities and provides a genuinely entertaining skirmish game for those who still hanker for the base-building battles of old. [Feb 2008, p.94]
Aliens invade Earth, only seen that one done two or three times before... Saddly, I really do enjoy this game but find it hard to do it justice on paper, some units have trouble path finding, unit cloaking can be unreliable, and the air units are over powered as hell! But, I still love this game somehow.. The plot battles are generally fun with special missions more difficult and challenging then the skirmishes, but I really only ever do play this game for the skirmishes. This game's strength is in it's ability to allow the player to pick a map, team, enemy, and allies at will, and just, press, go. Never experienced any bugs that couldn't be fixed by just recommanding a unit to do an action it got caught up on.
While Universe at War could have been a glorious game, comparable to Starcraft in how different the factions are, there are some issues that make it considerably less than it could have been. First of all the most glaring example, units are too strong. Every fight lasts minutes because units have so much health and so little damage. Superweapons are a mere support power, in fact the only super weapon that is powerful is the Novus Gravity Bomb, a black-hole type power that **** all units into it. Oh, and it deals more damage than almost anything else. Another issue is the fact that two of the three factions are considerably more useful than the third. The 1st faction, Hierarchy, who is based around steamrolling, yet have the best scout (Monolith) and the have the ability to see the entire map at once. They are also the only faction to have an artillery unit, who is also debatable the most powerful Hero unit in the game. They also have structures who double as what is essentially an Epic/Super unit. The 2nd faction, Novus, is a swarming faction who also has the only notable Air units. The Dervish is a fast fighter that also has the ability to shoot lightning in every direction and kill just about anything. They are also supported by Vertigo, the only Air Hero. Vertigo is stealthed, fast, and has a deadly Railgun. The Novus also have Mirabel, who has more offensive capability than any other Novus unit. She has a powerful burst-fire Railgun, shoulder launched anti-ground missiles, and the ability to snipe a target from long distances. This Sniper ability is the only weapon that can instant kill another unit besides Superpowers. The final faction, the Masari, are supposedly Gods, yet are horribly outmatched. They supposedly are the turtling faction, yet the Novus have the only turret that can hit air and ground. The Novus turret also redirects enemy fire and increases in damage as more of them are made. The Hierarchy has an anti-ground turret that can mutate infantry into zombies and hold most vehicles at bay. The Hierarchy Anti-air turret can pull air units to the ground while it kills them when upgraded. The Air units cannot escape. Even Vertigo is not immune. The Hierarchy also has a stealth hero who can pull air units down, and then turn invincible as he drains their health. He can also drain vehicles health while invincible. His claws deal with infantry easily. Generally, this makes him a deadly force against all units. His one weakness: He has pathetic range. The game does have many more differences in the factions than games like Supreme Commander 2, but it is nowhere close to the differences between Starcraft's factions, and the differences are not exploited as much as in games like Command and Conquer 3.
All in all, the story line seems pretty good. However after playing for a dozen or so hours, I discovered that it randomly crashes, constantly sending me backwards, which is VERY frustrating. Along side some very... odd behavior from certain units. I had a walker take off on me, wandering through areas where nothing was supposed to be able to walk through, which confused the AI and made it's legs freeze and basically do circles. It had the potential to be a really good game, however the flaws within the game make it not worth the 20 price tag. Luckily I bought it on sale, so I don't feel completely ripped off.
Where is the story ? Is that a scenario ? The game is finished in one day - the movie is poor and character stuck - but well the badest thing is the story ... so quick ! Too bad - but this game become fastly boring with time.
SummaryDeveloped by Petroglyph, this combat-intensive real-time strategy game enlists players in an epic struggle to prevent total alien domination of planet Earth. Universe at War: Earth Assault is set in the near-future when multiple factions from across the galaxy have come to Earth to wage epic warfare. Containing numerous features and cust...