Universe at War is half the game for half the fun

A Universe at War Review

I am a avid RTS fan ever since the father of all, the original DUNE by WESTWOOD. And I have played most of them, from the COMMAND & CONQUER and AGE OF EMPIRE series to the SUPREME COMMANDER and WORLD AT CONFLICT action-oriented approaches.
Under this light, UNIVERSE AT WAR was weighted and measured - and found lacking.

Graphically it is comparable to C&C-TIBERIUM WARS, with the explosions, and toxic clouds more impressive than the units. The later are a bit cartoonist - but, one could argue that this adds to clarity. Zooming-in is adequate, whereas, contrary to SUPREME COMMANDER (where zooming out turns the game to a combat of ...colored tiles), UaW retains its battlefield feeling even if all zoomed out.
Later into the campaign game (and similar to EMPIRE EARTH 3 and RISK) there is also a tactical overview map in which troops get moved, territories claimed and super-weapons get launched.

RTS games are sensitive to faulty faction balancing: UaW suffers no such problems. There are three factions: the Hierarchy, the Novus and the Masari - all alien (yeah, the humans are toast). Every faction has its unique units (with their own strengths and weaknesses) and research bonuses. There are 12 technologies available (across three tech-trees), but one can have...only six of those available at a time (luckily these options are editable).

Where the game looses its first rating star is its buggy gameplay: units are slow to get assigned into groups, they seem reluctant to follow orders and there is no way to set up patrol paths for sentries. All very annoying during a fast-paced Real-Time strategy game!
On this note, one cannot help but mention (once...more) the AI cheating: no matter where one decides to hide his base and how stealthy his units are, the AI opponent will find them out and pound them with a disproportionate number of firepower.

Multiplayer is through Microsoft-LIVE - a more than spectral manifestation of the usual corporate greed: in order for all the game features to be available online, one has to pay for a Gold...subscription. In effect, buying a game that is advertised to include a multiplayer will only get you far LESS than a complete onLine game. Thus, justifiably, the second rating star was withheld for the lack of half the multiplayer game.

I should had waited for STARCRAFT II...
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Source / Author / Credit: Anonymous