Sega Nerds

Review: Universe at War: Earth Assault (PC)

by Ryan on January 26th, 2008

When Sega and Petroglyph games announced they were going to be making a real time strategy game together I must say I was very excited. Knowing full well the main developers within Petroglyph are Ex-Westwood studios, who (of course) worked on the original Command and Conquer games, which was one of my favourite PC game series growing up. So, did they deliver the game I was hoping for, or did they fall short of their previous greatness?

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~CGI Game opening~

One thing I should mention before I get started is when you first boot up the European version of Universe at War it asks you to download a patch right away, this is a patch that has been created between the release of the American game and the European game and fixes some minor bugs and problems that people on the Petroglyph forum had found after the release of the American version of the game. That to me is a good sign Petroglyph are dedicated to their work. So anyway, onto the review.When you read the name Universe at War: Earth Assault it doesn’t really conjure up the most exciting game in your head, in fact I will go as far as to say it sounds slightly generic. Which only goes to show you shouldn’t read a book (or game) by it’s cover. Universe at war features some of the most unique factions in any RTS game I have played in recent years, possibly ever.

You have the Hierarchy that seem to be the trademark race of Universe at War, the guys with the giant walkers who have come to stomp on and strip mine countless worlds just because they can, isn’t evil awesome!

Then you have the Novus, a Robot race that looks like they were designed by Apple. The Hierarchy wiped out the Novus’s creators and that made them a bit angry so they have taken it upon themselves to chase down the Hierarchy and grief them at every turn. The Novus use guerrilla warfare and can ‘flow’ around the map using beams of light to travel super fast.

Finally we have the Masari an ancient and very powerful race who have been living under the deepest parts of Earths seas since escaping the Hierarchy many years ago. When the Hierarchy arrive they are woken from their hyper sleep (it’s probably called that) and they come to the surface to fight off the Hierarchy once more. The Masari are the closest race to your usual RTS factions, you build a big base in one location and arm it to the teeth.

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~This video has been stolen from PetroGamers who stole it from GameVideos, lol~

All three races have an interesting background that you will learn more about in the story mode of Universe at War. I don’t want to give too much away.

Each race has roughly 10 units and 3 heroes which may not sound very much but this game does something very different to most RTS games. Each unit has a unique purpose and is important to the whole faction they all do a job that is necessary to your factions survival. In most other RTS games you just have a bunch of generic units that shoot different kinds of projectiles at different rates that aren’t vital to your survival and later in the game you’ll stop using the weaker ones, but with Universe at War you’ll be using all units right to the end. The game’s hero units are very well balanced too, they aren’t going to win the war for you, in fact they are more of a super support for your other units.

You also have a tech tree which you can upgrade multiple times in different tech paths with new skills that add a whole new level of depth to the game play. The key to winning is to use a tech tree path that counters your enemy and hits their weak spot so to speak. The Tech trees affect multiple things such as unit abilities, Heroes and learning how to use new Super Weapons. Oh did I mention super weapons? I don’t want to ruin the surprise but they are bad ass!

The single player campaign while fun you can really tell that they have made this game to appeal to those who are new to the RTS scene, most of the missions are simple search and destroy missions with not much variation. I’d have loved to see some more interesting missions that really make use of the power and uniqueness of the individual units available. That said, the campaign mode is very story driven and the story is pretty cool, although the dialogue can be a bit on the corny side.

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~A bit of single player ~

The online mode is where the game really shines and I suspect what the game was really built for. The uniqueness of the factions sets the online mode of this game higher than most RTS games I’ve played. Even playing matches against the same faction you’ll soon realise the game can play out vastly different from what you expect, like playing Novus vs. Novus; the enemy can use your flow generators to zip right into your base!

The down side to the online mode is Windows Live, yeah… Basically it’s just like Xbox Live, if you want the good stuff you have to pay for it. You can still play the game online for free, but if you want to play ranked matches or a mode called conquer the world where you slowly fight over territory on a world map a bit like the Total War games, you’re going to have to pay for it. Windows Live was a bad choice if you ask me. On the upside if you already have an Xbox Live account it’s basically the same thing and you can use your Xbox Live gold account on Windows live.

Graphically the game is a bit of a mixed bag, the units are pure awesome they have great detail as do the buildings and the weapon effects are nothing short of awesome. But the map doesn’t always look so great; some muddy textures on the ground, trees and other natural things are by far the worst. Also when you go into the cinematic cam mode where you can look at your troops up close the draw distance is a bit rubbish to say the least. While not perfect, the graphics do the job.

The music to this game is fantastic, and why wouldn’t it be? The composer is Frank Klepacki. For anyone who hasn’t heard of Mr Klepacki, he is like Americas answer to Richard Jacques, (Headhunter, some Jet Set Radio & Future, The Club and more more Sega classics). The music fits right in with what you would expect from the races for example Novus music is all Techno bleepy bloopy stuff while the Hierarchy is angry metal with rock guitars and everything!

Summary:

In the end, Universe at War is a great game with some small setbacks, that don’t ruin the game but hold it back from being truly brilliant. I hope the game gets a sequels and the developers work on fixing up the small issues.

8.5/10 – Great.

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POSTED IN: PC, Review, Ryan