The Hierarchy have arrived on Earth and destroyed all in its path, the human race is on its last legs, trying to fight but having no effect, thankfully, the Novus have followed the Hierarchy and intend to destroy them and save the Earth. Seems like a classic Sci-fi story, but is it enough to make this one of the better Real Time Strategy games for the 360?
Universe at War Earth Assault is spread over three campaigns, playing as different groups, the Novus, the Hierarchy and the Masari who appear later, each have their own distinctive looks and weapons at their disposal. Novus are a robotic race that had been created by organics years ago, all but wiped out, there is only one organic left who fights alongside them. The Hierarchy use monsters and imposing vehicles to strike fear into their prey and the Masari are elf-like in appearance. There is a good variety in the campaign mode, with the usual destroy the baddies scenario, along with others like escaping an enemy base to protecting a specific vehicle. You also have skirmishes to choose from which you can play against multiple computer controlled opponents over many maps and finally the online mode, which boasts PC cross platform gaming.
It is a classic problem that RTS games on consoles are inferior to their PC counterparts. To try and make Universe at War work, the Petroglyph team have made some changes that help console RTS work better. When collecting resources, all you need to do is make a recycling pant and the robots will do the rest for you, characters are able to flow through power lines and buildings, enabling fast travel to a hot spot rather than walking at a slow pace. To rectify the traditionally slow movement of the cursor you also have a minimap that you can bring up with the Right Trigger, this allows you to move to points very quickly, making it easier to organise mulitple units. The cursor will also stick to selected target, enabling you to concentrate on other commands whilst they move around. Petroglyph have managed to input a large amount of controls onto the 360 controller and thankfully its not too confusing, though it will take a while to get the hang of, the A button selects a target, LB and RB bring up in game menus like locating idle characters or selecting large groups, however there is also training missions at the beginning that takes you through the motions.
All RTS games require a sensible base of operations to command your troops, and thankfully the building options are very simple, select a building and you can scroll through what they have on offer, like vehicles, troops and upgrades. This is done with a clever slide option, like the Coverflow on an Ipod, allowing you to see what you are building, there will also be a small description of attributes on the screen to help make your selection.
Of course any RTS needs memorable units to build and deploy and Universe does this extremely well, one of my personal favourites is the Walker, The Hierarchy have a few versions of this on offer but they do the same thing, destroy on a massive scale. These huge lumbering machines have multiple attack points so you can dish out some serious pain. On the other hand, trying to take these beasts down is a real task, requiring quick button clicking to select the weak points, shield generators and weapons. This presents one of the first of a few problems with this title, when taking down these huge machines you will need a large team and to select a certain unit or group and command them to attack a certain point of the walker is very hard using a controller. There are also portable shield generators, these are like tanks, but use their alternative power and they will generate a huge shield that allows you to use as cover and attack from safety. Each troop and vehicle has an alternative weapon, some have rockets, others clone themselves or turn into bombs, this is a good touch but most of the time you will forget about these in the heat of battle, and when you have a large battle going on it will be hard to pinpoint a character to utilise their special.
The transition of RTS games from PC to console has always been a hit and miss affair, the great C&C always managed to get it right, however there are too many problems with this title to just ignore, the camera is set too close to the action, even when you pull right out there is the feeling of being too close, the ability to command you troops with custom groups is a good idea, but at points you cant choose all of the constructors, making you have to move each one at a time, which is not only boring, but will cost you the game on more than one occasion. The graphics are also not to the best standard, there are points that the camera will jump around to focus which is really off putting. The explosions and destruction of larger troops is also very disappointing and they all seem to be the same animation, not making for much variety.
The most unforgivable problem with this title is the skipping and slowdown, when playing the game it will suffer some bad spots of slowdown, even when nothing of importance is occurring, you will also feel the game loading itself at points, pausing the screen for a split second, of course you are playing in real time so when the game catches up you cursor is miles from where it was moments before. I even witnessed skipping in the cutscenes, which are quite bland to look at, I have no idea why that would happen there.
Universe at War is never going to challenge a quality game like Command & Conquer, this is because it has far too many flaws which are not only unacceptable but actually interfere with the gameplay, and although it does have some good points like the online mode, this may not be enough for people to part with their cash.
