Universe at War (X360) Review

Universe At War Review

Once upon a time Real Time Strategy games were something developers never considered putting onto consoles. Lately, many developers are changing their minds; atleast for Microsoft’s Xbox360. The newest addition to the RTS console market, Universe at War, has some confused on how the game will work on the console. The computer version, though generally good, has not been as praised as much as some of the game’s counterparts have; such as Sins of the Solar Empire. However, developer’s petroglyph, creators of Star Wars spin off Empire at War, decided to port their PC gem to Microsoft’s home console. How well did it fare?

Graphics – 6/10

In the current generation of gaming there is this thing know as “High definition.” In layman’s terms, high definition means good looking, or atleast better looking than standard definition. Universe falls short to other current generation titles. It does however, look somewhat ok. Command and Conquer 3 looks definitely better but Universe at War is graphically superior to Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2, the two premier Real Time Strategy games currently calling the Xbox 360 home.

Environments look good for a real time strategy game but only good, it seems that the game could have looked much better based on the PC version. Units and structures also appear somewhat detailed. The overall look of the game just looks to be, for lack of better works, half-assed. For an RTS however, the game looks about benchmarked. So even though Universe at War does not really stun anyone, it just barely misses the bar.

Sound – 6/10

When aliens come to mind two types come along with it. There’s either the Zerg / Flood parasite looking kind and then there’s the high tech advanced civilization kind. In Universe at War, the ladder is pretty much who the player will be playing as and against, expect for the minor instances the player takes the human faction for a spin. The futuristic alien invaders, and defenders, sound like their stereotypes should. From the deep voiced commanders, to the computer generated vocals, it sounds pretty believable.

The only reason Universe at War did not receive a high score is mostly due to the fact that that most of the voice acting, and background music, are really annoying. The American’s the comprise the human faction are again very stereotypical based on other Japanese games. These stereotypes in games are becoming a reality more and more. The high advanced race going toe-to-toe against John Wayne. It’s also, becoming something really annoying.

The looped background music sounds exactly the same throughout the entire game. A little more variety would have been a much needed relief from time to time, like maybe when action picked up, but every time I hoped that would happen I was fall on my face.

Gameplay – 4/10

There are two things that all successful Xbox 360 console Real Time Strategy games have; easy resource management and virtually no micro-management. However, Universe at War succeeds in one of the two areas. Luckily, Petrograph made one resource type and named it ‘resources.’ Also, they made it quite easy to gather and gather quickly. Check one. Unfortunately, Universe at War forces its players to Micro-management their units and upgrades, at times. Mostly due to the fact that it’s extremely hard to remember the controls and use them effectively, micro-management cannot be done in this game.

One other thing the title falls short at is excitement. I could say that the only exciting moment I personally had while playing the game occurred every early on in the campaign when Novus forces flood through their wormhole and make their portal to Earth complete. At that same moment the forces are swarmed into a fight with a large Hierarchy, the bad guys, walking behemoth. This fight proved challenging and really exciting; too bad it did not last very long. In fact, the only fun I found in the game was squashed in the very next level where players quickly learn about “Super Weapons.” Think of it as the faction’s equivalence to nuclear bombs. Of course using the aforementioned super weapon is more effective than massing units so I suppose that smart moves beat out excitement.

The control scheme used in Universe at War is pretty much the worst control scheme I have ever seen to date on the Xbox 360. It would be easier to play halo 3 with the rockband drum set, than to attempt to learn Universe at War’s buggy control layout. It makes no sense why certain things move periodically in the control system and then return to the way they used to be once the player gets accustomed to the new changes.

One aspect that Universe at War does seem to come up with despite its many failures is the games general story. It may have been played out as well as it could have been but for what became of it was not bad. It is understandable and runs smoothly; its just that it would seem to fit better as a first person shooter rather than a Real Time Strategy game. So, the IP is good but nothing really else about the story can have such rave tidings.

Multiplayer – 2/10

Lets think back to StarCraft N64. There was one thing lacking from the game that made it better multiplayer. This would have also been the case for Universe at War. To think that a developer would put this into their title without play testing it as much as possible it unthinkable to me. Controls are even harder to remember, when playing against CPU’s its practically impossible to win and when there are two people playing against each other its so long and drawn out that most people quit before the ending.

Conclusion

For everything that Battle For Middle Earth 2 did good for the future of Real Time Strategy games on home consoles, Universe at War did ten times of the opposite effect. I would suggest this title to everyone who is looking forward to a game that draws up well then completely shoots itself in the foot. Honestly, in hind sight I think I would have given the game a better review before playing the game. I felt a little betrayed after playing through Universe at War for a good bit. After Command and Conquer 3 and Lord of the Ring: Battle for Middle Earth 2; I was hoping that more Good Real Time Strategy games would be in the wake. However, my dreams have become a sorrowful nightmare in its realization. Lets hope Halo Wars fairs much better than Universe at War; or a lot of us here at Podtacular might start rethinking the Halo name.

Scores:
Graphics: 6/10
Sound: 6/10
Gameplay: 4/10
Multiplayer: 2/10
Overall: 4.