Universe at War: Earth Assault

Everything Else

When the singleplayer campaigns and the graphics are done and dusted with, it’s fortunate that Universe at War: Earth Assault still has a lot to offer.

First and foremost is the ubiquitous skirmish mode which lets players go head to head against either bots or each other, though apparently the Microsoft Games for Windows Live Network is the only way to play online. Thankfully, unlike other titles using Games for Windows Live, this doesn't require Windows Vista.

The best thing about the skirmish mode though is the sheer number of maps – easily twenty or so which cater to matches of all sizes and compositions. The interface for setting up Skirmish matches is easy to get to grips with too and players have full control over which team they want to play in and so forth.

Inventively, players can also use medals to upgrade their armies. By accessing the trophy chest before a match and decorating themselves with up to three medals from it, it’s possible to give small but useful advantages – improve build speeds by five percent, all units have two percent extra health and so on.

While a small array of medals are available from the offset for each faction, even more are unlockable as players progress through the game and it’s strangely rewarding to be able to wear trophies and medals that you feel you’ve actually earned as you march into battle.


The bots for the skirmish mode fulfil the basic necessities which they need to, but obviously never feel like they are using a human cunning to outwit players. Still, the difficulty settings for automated opponents are well put together and players can handicap themselves or their opponents as much as they wish in order to get the game experience they want.

However, fun as skirmish is, the major attraction for me in Universe at War: Earth Assault was the scenario mode. Scenarios are fantastic, quick ways of setting up custom campaigns – so, not just a custom battle as in skirmish, but a fully customised war.

There aren’t a whole lot of scenarios available, but each of them has a tremendous amount of replayability and longevity in them so it balances out well. Each scenario is played both on the global and regional level as well, with players choosing which territories to expand into and where to position forces on a worldwide scale.

This global-level of gameplay is fun, though is does feel very shallow when compared to the territorial side of the game, but it serves as an excellent framework for organising longer matches against the computer. The scenarios immediately available cover a range of different starting positions too so players can choose to start on either the offensive or defensive, with their territories either free to expand or limited by the enemies on all sides.


Either way, it’s in the scenario and multiplayer modes that a tactical mind is given chance to truly shine and where the excellent balance of factions and overall gameplay becomes fully apparent in a more chaotic and less-scripted form of warfare.

Conclusions

Universe at War: Earth Assault isn’t going to be to the liking of all RTS buffs and those who prefer historically themed or more serious flavours of strategy games will most likely have already found the way out.

However, Universe at War does have some excellently balanced gameplay going for it and the interface is beautifully set out, proving always helpful and never a hindrance.

Does the game have problems? Certainly. The graphics in cutscenes are a bit lacklustre, the game did prove to be very CPU intensive when we gathered a lot of units together on screen and at times even our new mighty gaming rig had to suffer a bit of slow down and the field of view is quite limited too. In fact, the FOV is probably the biggest problem – not being able to zoom out very far really limits the tactical options available to players when the larger robots or Habitat Walkers lumber on-screen.

That said though, Universe at War has a lot going for it, so if you can look past the campy B-movie plot and stomach some semi-awful voice acting then you may be pleasantly surprised at what you find beneath the rubble.