This is a game of firsts for me. It is the first game in the Universe at War franchise I have played and also the very first proper RTS game I have played on the Xbox 360. So I guess you could call me something of a n00b when it comes to playing this. That aside, as always, I'm up for the challenge and ready to take on just about anything (gulp).
All jokes aside, one RTS game I am a huge fan of just happens to be StarCraft. Now, I don’t know very many gamers that haven’t played and enjoyed either StarCraft or WarCraft at some stage during their game-addicted lives. In fact, you’d have to be living under a rock as a gamer not to have played at least one of these two games. My point is that Universe at War: Earth Assault is similar in a lot of ways to StarCraft and this is both comforting and a little unnerving.
At its core, Universe at War is a game about races competing with each other for resources so they can eventually annihilate each other. Although the concept of the game sounds simple, the stratagems behind the game are anything but, and it would take a seasoned RTS gamer a while to get their head around how this game works on the Xbox 360.
Even for someone like myself who is well versed in how to use the Xbox 360 controller, I found it a challenge to progress in the game without playing the campaign through at least once (and checking out most of the tutorials). I highly recommend doing this if you're new to RTS games on the Xbox 360.
Once you become more accustomed to the basic movement controls over the troops and how they operate in the game you can slowly begin to see how Universe at War could be a lot of fun to play. However, I just couldn’t shake the fact that this game would probably play a lot better (and would be a lot easier to master) on the good old PC. (As a side note, Sega has released a version for the PC as well.)
The background behind the game is there are two warring factions (races) who are hell-bent on destroying each other: the Hierarchy who have come to Earth to destroy it and the Novus who are a race of highly intelligent sentient beings and sworn enemies of the Hierarchy.
The humans are somehow caught in the middle of this war. With two races fighting it out around them, both of whom are a lot more technologically advanced, the humans are suddenly faced with the reality that either race could turn on them and total annihilation would ensue. That is until the third faction, the Masari make their presence known and take part in the war to defend humanity from the invaders. Yes, it all sounds a little dreary but you’ll soon forget all of that trying to figure out your next move.
