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IGN Review of Universe at War: Earth Assault
There are console gamers out there who love real-time strategy games so dearly, so blindly, that they welcome with open (and probably extremely hairy) arms any attempt to bring examples of the PC-centric genre to their television screens.
I am not one of those people. To me, traditional real-time strategy games, which came into their own nearly 20 years ago specifically with the PC's mouse-and-keyboard system in mind, are largely incompatible with typical console controls (and no, Herzog Zwei doesn't count). So far, that hasn't stopped developers from trying to bridge the input gap, and with mixed results.
The most recent developer to take that risk is Petroglyph Games, which, along with publisher SEGA, recently released the PC real-time strategy game Universe at War: Earth Assault for the Xbox 360. I've spent several days with Universe, and I've found it a mixed intergalactic bag of amazing unit/structure design, tepid storylines, smart controls and unfortunate technical problems. Like the universe it portrays, it's a game at war with itself, and the end result is a confusing mix of ups and downs.
If you're reading this review, I'm probably preaching to the choir when I say that it can be a real chore to manage units, resources, production schedules and tactical operations in a traditional RTS using a console controller. Petroglyph has tried to alleviate some of that burden by re-thinking three of the RTS genre's old standbys: resource gathering, mini-map navigation and asset selection.
Many real-time strategy games require you to micro-manage resource collection to fund your war-making operation -- gold and wood in Age of Empires and tiberium in Command and Conquer spring to mind -- but the PC version of Universe at War simplified the process, making it a prime candidate for console conversion. Each of the three playable races -- Novus, Hierarchy and Masari -- have different approaches to resource gathering, but all three are fairly thumbs-off, allowing you to focus your efforts on creating units and structures and ordering them to do your bidding.
In some console real-time strategy games, after you've sent your minions out into the world to kill and destroy, they can be damn-near impossible to keep track of because there's no efficient way to zip the camera around the map. Universe at War largely erases that problem with a quick-pan function that instantly enlarges the mini-map with a press of the controller's right trigger and allows you to scroll anywhere on the map. It's a useful function, but it is counterbalanced by a barely-existent zoom feature that doesn't allow you to pull back far enough above the battlefield for a birds-eye view of the action.
With resource management relegated to almost automatic status and map control handled reasonably well, asset management is the third leg of the stool, and Petroglyph did right by this RTS bastion, too. Universe at War uses a wheel/ring mechanism for unit selection, structure production, special attacks and just about everything else. It's a solid system that takes some getting used to, namely because there are so many options for each faction that you'll basically have to memorize the function of each icon in each menu in order to truly compete.
Despite these innovations, however, Universe at War has a few minor annoyances and two major issues that prevent it from being a great experience.
First, the quibbles. Although Universe largely does away with the micro-management of resource gathering, it still requires detailed attention to individual units like heroes and other specialty forces which are extremely frustrating to select and maneuver with the Xbox 360 controls. Yes, there is a magnetism slider that allows you to fiddle with the stickiness of your reticule, a la Command & Conquer 3, but I didn't find it very helpful, especially where Walkers were concerned.
Petroglyph designed some truly knockout units and structures for Universe at War, including the giant, lumbering Walkers unique to the Hierarchy faction. These massive red spider-like masses of destruction are capable of either wreaking devastating havoc on your opponents, serving as mobile troop production centers or a cruel combination of both. They're a blast to create and deploy, but they can be a pain in the universal ass to fight, and not just because of their firepower.
Each Walker has a series of "hardpoints" that are individually upgradeable, allowing for a nearly infinite number of offensive and defensive possibilities. When fighting a Walker, your goals will change depending on what it's sporting and where it's headed. If it's outfitted with a superweapon and stomping toward your Masari Citadel, you'll want to focus all your attention on said BFG, right? Good luck.
Here, a few quibbles come together to form a big annoyance. Because controlling the reticule is so imprecise compared to a mouse, targeting Walker hardpoints becomes a frustrating exercise in, well, frustration. The Walker is moving, you're rotating the camera, your units are swarming and your pointer just won't stick to that hardpoint that is fixing to blow your base to kingdom come.
One good way to take down a Walker, if playing as the Novus race, is to infect its hardpoints with viruses using Corruptor ships and then use Hackers to deploy viral bombs on said points one after another.
Unfortunately, it's very difficult to select individual units in Universe at War, making it nearly impossible to use the Novus Hacker units for their intended purpose.
Instead I found myself using a hammer and anvil approach (making far more units than I needed to and throwing them at my opponent) rather than a more efficient method. It's a prime example of the RTS PC-to-console conversion problem and one that Universe has failed to completely solve.
These problems would be somewhat forgivable if not experienced in conjunction with one of Universe at War's most glaring problems: serious technical issues. During my time with Universe at War, I experienced significant framerate drops, game slowdown and general sluggishness that made my overall experience extremely frustrating.
At times during all three stages of the campaign, the game stuttered so badly that I could not adequately control my targeting reticule, raising the aforementioned targeting problems by a factor of ten. Imagine one of those monstrous Walkers, bristling with weapons, closing in on your compound, only to find that you suddenly can't accurately select units, structures or even the enemy himself. It's a controller-throwing moment, and I had more than a few playing Universe at War.
While reviewing Universe, I received an email from SEGA acknowledging that they had received "isolated reports" of framerate drops and suggested a number of possible causes. It may only be a problem on Xbox 360s of older vintage, they said (I've tested the game on machines from 2005 and 2007 with similar results), and suggested I clear my hard drive cache and adjust the tactical game speed in Universe's options menu.
I tried both and did not notice a change. Would you have similar technical issues if you bought Universe at War today and ran it on your machine? I can't say for certain. But the beauty of consoles is that games work out of the box without all the tinkering and fiddling PC gamers are so fond of.
I experienced stutter and slowdown during campaign play, 1v1 skirmish play against computer AI and during the few multiplayer online matches I was able to complete (more on that later). But I also saw slowdown and skipping during two campaign cutscenes, including what was supposed to be an important storytelling moment near the end of the game. But by that time, I really didn't care.
Universe at War puts Earth at the center of an intergalactic struggle between three races with different goals and approaches. Humans are quickly relegated to also-ran status, leaving the Novus, Masari and Hierarchy to duke it out over our big blue marble instead. I was initially intrigued by the idea of humans taking a backseat to their own survival, but before long I was tuning out the B-movie machinations of the machines quarreling over Earth. By the time the vaguely elfin Masari showed up, I was just ready for the end.
I've read somewhere that the storyline in Universe is supposed to be a bit campy and reminiscent of old-school sci-fi flicks. To me, it came across as neither serious high science-fiction nor tongue-in-cheek and self-aware. Instead, it was just a boring trudge through a series of puzzle missions punctuated by dialogue like this:
Novus hero: "Who are you?"
Hierarchy bad guy: "A name that will go down in your history as the overseer of your destruction."
With writing like that, it didn't take long for me to seek the silent, discrete narrative of Universe at War's online multiplayer modes. There are three -- Ranked, Player and Conquer the World -- and they are all fairly straightforward. Interestingly, I didn't notice many framerate problems when playing online, but I did receive a few synchronization errors when trying to join matches. And, of course, most of the people I joined up with online left the matches once I started to win. That's not a Universe at War problem, just a universal RTS problem.
But in the handful of good, solid matches I played, I found Universe at War to be exciting, rewarding and often a supremely fun experience. Universe is supposed to support PC vs. 360 cross-platform online play, but that feature isn't enabled in the game yet (although that information isn't included in the box). After scratching my head and wondering why I couldn't find anyone at all in the Conquer the World online map, let alone the bored engineers that are surely playing on their PCs as I write this, I dug into the Petroglyph forums and found out why.
Apparently, there's some sort of
mysterious patch on the way for Universe that will eventually enable cross-platform play. There's no word yet on when it will be released or if it will also include any technical fixes or tweaks as well.
There's a lot of depth to Universe at War, but it's buried beneath some of the issues I've mentioned above. If you can forgive its technical problems, control imperfections and washed-out story, you'll probably find Universe at War: Earth Assault to be a perfectly fine console RTS. For me, it fell short of its goal of world domination.
©2008-04-01, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
I am not one of those people. To me, traditional real-time strategy games, which came into their own nearly 20 years ago specifically with the PC's mouse-and-keyboard system in mind, are largely incompatible with typical console controls (and no, Herzog Zwei doesn't count). So far, that hasn't stopped developers from trying to bridge the input gap, and with mixed results.
The most recent developer to take that risk is Petroglyph Games, which, along with publisher SEGA, recently released the PC real-time strategy game Universe at War: Earth Assault for the Xbox 360. I've spent several days with Universe, and I've found it a mixed intergalactic bag of amazing unit/structure design, tepid storylines, smart controls and unfortunate technical problems. Like the universe it portrays, it's a game at war with itself, and the end result is a confusing mix of ups and downs.
If you're reading this review, I'm probably preaching to the choir when I say that it can be a real chore to manage units, resources, production schedules and tactical operations in a traditional RTS using a console controller. Petroglyph has tried to alleviate some of that burden by re-thinking three of the RTS genre's old standbys: resource gathering, mini-map navigation and asset selection.
Many real-time strategy games require you to micro-manage resource collection to fund your war-making operation -- gold and wood in Age of Empires and tiberium in Command and Conquer spring to mind -- but the PC version of Universe at War simplified the process, making it a prime candidate for console conversion. Each of the three playable races -- Novus, Hierarchy and Masari -- have different approaches to resource gathering, but all three are fairly thumbs-off, allowing you to focus your efforts on creating units and structures and ordering them to do your bidding.
In some console real-time strategy games, after you've sent your minions out into the world to kill and destroy, they can be damn-near impossible to keep track of because there's no efficient way to zip the camera around the map. Universe at War largely erases that problem with a quick-pan function that instantly enlarges the mini-map with a press of the controller's right trigger and allows you to scroll anywhere on the map. It's a useful function, but it is counterbalanced by a barely-existent zoom feature that doesn't allow you to pull back far enough above the battlefield for a birds-eye view of the action.
With resource management relegated to almost automatic status and map control handled reasonably well, asset management is the third leg of the stool, and Petroglyph did right by this RTS bastion, too. Universe at War uses a wheel/ring mechanism for unit selection, structure production, special attacks and just about everything else. It's a solid system that takes some getting used to, namely because there are so many options for each faction that you'll basically have to memorize the function of each icon in each menu in order to truly compete.
Despite these innovations, however, Universe at War has a few minor annoyances and two major issues that prevent it from being a great experience.
First, the quibbles. Although Universe largely does away with the micro-management of resource gathering, it still requires detailed attention to individual units like heroes and other specialty forces which are extremely frustrating to select and maneuver with the Xbox 360 controls. Yes, there is a magnetism slider that allows you to fiddle with the stickiness of your reticule, a la Command & Conquer 3, but I didn't find it very helpful, especially where Walkers were concerned.
Petroglyph designed some truly knockout units and structures for Universe at War, including the giant, lumbering Walkers unique to the Hierarchy faction. These massive red spider-like masses of destruction are capable of either wreaking devastating havoc on your opponents, serving as mobile troop production centers or a cruel combination of both. They're a blast to create and deploy, but they can be a pain in the universal ass to fight, and not just because of their firepower.
Each Walker has a series of "hardpoints" that are individually upgradeable, allowing for a nearly infinite number of offensive and defensive possibilities. When fighting a Walker, your goals will change depending on what it's sporting and where it's headed. If it's outfitted with a superweapon and stomping toward your Masari Citadel, you'll want to focus all your attention on said BFG, right? Good luck.
Here, a few quibbles come together to form a big annoyance. Because controlling the reticule is so imprecise compared to a mouse, targeting Walker hardpoints becomes a frustrating exercise in, well, frustration. The Walker is moving, you're rotating the camera, your units are swarming and your pointer just won't stick to that hardpoint that is fixing to blow your base to kingdom come.
One good way to take down a Walker, if playing as the Novus race, is to infect its hardpoints with viruses using Corruptor ships and then use Hackers to deploy viral bombs on said points one after another.
Unfortunately, it's very difficult to select individual units in Universe at War, making it nearly impossible to use the Novus Hacker units for their intended purpose.
Instead I found myself using a hammer and anvil approach (making far more units than I needed to and throwing them at my opponent) rather than a more efficient method. It's a prime example of the RTS PC-to-console conversion problem and one that Universe has failed to completely solve.
These problems would be somewhat forgivable if not experienced in conjunction with one of Universe at War's most glaring problems: serious technical issues. During my time with Universe at War, I experienced significant framerate drops, game slowdown and general sluggishness that made my overall experience extremely frustrating.
At times during all three stages of the campaign, the game stuttered so badly that I could not adequately control my targeting reticule, raising the aforementioned targeting problems by a factor of ten. Imagine one of those monstrous Walkers, bristling with weapons, closing in on your compound, only to find that you suddenly can't accurately select units, structures or even the enemy himself. It's a controller-throwing moment, and I had more than a few playing Universe at War.
While reviewing Universe, I received an email from SEGA acknowledging that they had received "isolated reports" of framerate drops and suggested a number of possible causes. It may only be a problem on Xbox 360s of older vintage, they said (I've tested the game on machines from 2005 and 2007 with similar results), and suggested I clear my hard drive cache and adjust the tactical game speed in Universe's options menu.
I tried both and did not notice a change. Would you have similar technical issues if you bought Universe at War today and ran it on your machine? I can't say for certain. But the beauty of consoles is that games work out of the box without all the tinkering and fiddling PC gamers are so fond of.
I experienced stutter and slowdown during campaign play, 1v1 skirmish play against computer AI and during the few multiplayer online matches I was able to complete (more on that later). But I also saw slowdown and skipping during two campaign cutscenes, including what was supposed to be an important storytelling moment near the end of the game. But by that time, I really didn't care.
Universe at War puts Earth at the center of an intergalactic struggle between three races with different goals and approaches. Humans are quickly relegated to also-ran status, leaving the Novus, Masari and Hierarchy to duke it out over our big blue marble instead. I was initially intrigued by the idea of humans taking a backseat to their own survival, but before long I was tuning out the B-movie machinations of the machines quarreling over Earth. By the time the vaguely elfin Masari showed up, I was just ready for the end.
I've read somewhere that the storyline in Universe is supposed to be a bit campy and reminiscent of old-school sci-fi flicks. To me, it came across as neither serious high science-fiction nor tongue-in-cheek and self-aware. Instead, it was just a boring trudge through a series of puzzle missions punctuated by dialogue like this:
Novus hero: "Who are you?"
Hierarchy bad guy: "A name that will go down in your history as the overseer of your destruction."
With writing like that, it didn't take long for me to seek the silent, discrete narrative of Universe at War's online multiplayer modes. There are three -- Ranked, Player and Conquer the World -- and they are all fairly straightforward. Interestingly, I didn't notice many framerate problems when playing online, but I did receive a few synchronization errors when trying to join matches. And, of course, most of the people I joined up with online left the matches once I started to win. That's not a Universe at War problem, just a universal RTS problem.
But in the handful of good, solid matches I played, I found Universe at War to be exciting, rewarding and often a supremely fun experience. Universe is supposed to support PC vs. 360 cross-platform online play, but that feature isn't enabled in the game yet (although that information isn't included in the box). After scratching my head and wondering why I couldn't find anyone at all in the Conquer the World online map, let alone the bored engineers that are surely playing on their PCs as I write this, I dug into the Petroglyph forums and found out why.
Apparently, there's some sort of
mysterious patch on the way for Universe that will eventually enable cross-platform play. There's no word yet on when it will be released or if it will also include any technical fixes or tweaks as well.
There's a lot of depth to Universe at War, but it's buried beneath some of the issues I've mentioned above. If you can forgive its technical problems, control imperfections and washed-out story, you'll probably find Universe at War: Earth Assault to be a perfectly fine console RTS. For me, it fell short of its goal of world domination.
©2008-04-01, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved