14 DAY TRIAL // 
There are games like Universe at War: Earth Assault that almost manage to do the trick and convince me not to care about the storyline so much, as there are other things that really matter (gameplay, for instance) and if these are flawless you can say that you just had the experience of your life. No, Universe at War is not exactly the best real time strategy (RTS) game you have ever played, but it's definitely one of the best. Let's check it together and see why.
The Story
After your first five seconds into the game you will know the story: not because it's such a short one, but because you've heard or seen it so many times that you know there can't be something else. From the moment you'll see that big dude looking like the muscle man from Nitro Family, surrounded by explosions and terror, you will understand that, once again, the Earth is in danger.
And indeed it is since an alien race, called the Hierarchy, have just decided to wreck havoc amongst the humans and leave another planet in ruin. Actually, that's what they did for the past millennia - traveled from planet to planed and said: "Hello, bye bye!". Nothing spectacular - they come, you kill, you win.
The twist, if you want to call it like this, and the only thing I liked about the storyline was the fact that the humans are presented like some helpless little creatures and they are brushed aside pretty fast. Which means that you won't see again the endless survival war where humans fight against (and win, of course) everybody who dares to threaten their not-so-green-anymore planet. No, in Universe at War: Earth Assault, the humans are only playable at the beginning, as a very brief kind of tutorial mission, until the real big bad guys appear.
These are the bad aliens, the Hierarchy and the humanoid intelligent machines, the Novus. These guys of steel, literary speaking, are the alien race's biggest enemy, since their main goal is to hunt them down throughout the Universe and exterminate them. Apparently, they haven't succeeded yet. And, during the later stages of the game, out from nowhere, the Masari awaken - these are the guys that created the Hierarchy, tried to blast them off the Universe, but failed too. Now they're back to try again. Sounds a little bit complicated, but it isn't. It's your classic "fight for Earth" story with no humans involved.
Gameplay
This is where Universe at War exceeds all expectations: it has a great gamplay, with a huge potential that unfortunately isn't always a success. But we might see some more sequels and things will probably get better.
First of all, we have the three races. Except the fact that they are all beautiful and, at one point, you'll feel sorry that you have to kill such creatures, each is unique. Everything is so different and well done that, no matter how much you try, you will not be able to say that unit A from a race is the equivalent of unit B from another - something I don't think any game has ever managed to do so well.
Having said that, let's talk a little bit about the three factions. The Novus are the first playable race. They are a fragile, high-tech, too silver force that has speed as the main advantage. Actually, they might be the fastest race you have ever seen in a real time strategy game, since they could, basically, move from any given point on the map to another in a matter of seconds. All their units are very cheap and fast, but very fragile. Still, you will not get to upset, since this race is the best when it comes to collecting resources - they turn garbage into resources and we all know that the Earth is full of it.
The Hierarchy are everything the Novus are not. They are huge, slow and powerful but they don't really have a base. And that is their biggest advantage - their resource collecting units move around the map and have no need to return to the base and their huge walkers are basically some mobile bases that can act as siege weapons, defense walls and barracks at the same time. They are very expensive, but if you manage to infiltrate just one fully upgraded walker into an enemy base, it's going to cause a lot of trouble.
Finally, we have the Masari, the creators of the Hierarchy, who come with a completely different approach. They are what you could call the classic RTS nation: their resource collection is centered around their base, which means that you will play this faction as the other real time strategy games have taught you: collect resources, expand, build a huge army and attack. However, this race comes with a twist, too: their buildings can be targeted to other buildings in order to improve their functionality, which means that you can play around exactly as you wish and focus on different aspects simultaneously.
Unfortunately, many of the great options this game offers are not put to good use in the campaign. For example, there are three different kinds of research options available to each faction, and each can only "learn" six of them. This practically means that you can adjust the game to create units according to your style of play. Unfortunately, this option is not used in the campaign mode, so it is a big loss. Still, there are the heroes to compensate. These heroes are the driving force of each faction and usually when one dies it's game over. But that is really unlikely to happen since they regenerate their health, they have a lot of hit points and their special abilities can really turn them into true life savers.
But there are some other small problems, too. First of all, units tend to do things their own way and you will usually see them running around the map, hunting down enemies, even though you told them to hold ground. Well... you can't actually tell them to hold ground, since there is no such button, but you get the point. It's really frustrating especially when you have your hero on the red and want to "rest" it a little and he runs away, goes in the middle of a fight and eventually dies. Also, even if most of the time you will have no problems because of that, I really miss a formation button or two. Sometimes I get a big army of infantry who creates a loooong row. And that kind of sucks. But, as I said, that will not happen to often.
You also have a kind of low unit cap (at most 90 units, which is low for me), but at least this makes it a little easier for you to compensate the fact that group assignments don't always work as they should and it's easier to select the entire "squad" rather than having different specialized groups to play with. And this, unfortunately, has as a result another weak spot: the units are created following the rock-paper-scissors rule, but the AI doesn't seem to know that too well. I won a few missions by building an all infantry army and sending it to the enemy base where there were only anti air units and buildings. So I just had to right click on everything and wait to win. Kind of loses it's "strategy" status in this kind of situations.
But, if you ignore these flaws (which will not manage to completely ruin the gameplay) and the fact that you'll have no research tree in the campaign, you will be very pleased. The campaign comes with some varied missions, from the classic build your base, your army and attack to the Rambo-style ones where you will basically fight with your hero against everybody and, at the end, a Risk-like type of play where players compete in a three-way fight for control of the entire Earth.
Still, the biggest problem I have encountered while playing this game, and the fact that really managed to drive me crazy, was the computer AI that always knew where I, my hero or my base was. You can see that straight from the start, the second or the third mission, when you only have your Novus hero. I was trying to keep it away from the action for a while and ran (I know, I'm such a coward!) towards some neutral areas on the map but the almighty computer kept sending reinforcements exactly where I was hiding. And this is a really bad thing, since it makes the stealthy units unusable and ruins the fun of a sneak attack from the shadows.
Graphics
Universe at War: Earth Assault is one of those next-gen RTS games that looks incredibly well. The visuals are great, the textures blend together well and everything you will see will be a feast for the eye. The level of detail of the units is very high and you can see that if you zoom the camera to the maximum, the colors are really nice and neat: even though it is a really colored game, your eyes won't have nightmares.
The visual effects, such as explosions, unit special abilities and such are very well done, too and you will most definitely be really sorry that you can't use those special abilities much more often, since they look that good.
Still, even though the graphics are great, the fact that I couldn't zoom out more sometimes gave me some real headaches and there were moments when I was wondering if the mouse wheel is broken or not. It wasn't. You just can't zoom out more.
Sound
Usually the most annoying thing in real time strategy games is represented by the way your units respond to your orders. Strangely, even though you can't say there is much variety in Universe at War, I was never bothered and I never felt the need to make them shut up. The soundtrack fits the action, too and it seems natural, while the voice acting is surprisingly good for a real time strategy. Still, this doesn't mean that the voice acting doesn't manage to ruin the fun from time to time and turn the drama into a B rated comedy flick. But, since you won't feel the need to stop the music or the sounds, it's a win.
Multiplayer
The online mode is, of course, the most fun to play, having in mind that you can't talk anymore about an omniscient AI and you can play exactly as you can see fit and how you (should) play in the single player campaign. Still, the servers are not very populated and, having in mind that you need a Gold level in order to access the rankings or the global matchmaking system, you can understand why. Still, challenging your friends for a LAN skirmish will prove to be a really great way for you to waste your time.
Conclusion
Universe at War: Earth Assault will most likely make you remember the days when you were playing Starcraft. Still, it's better than Starcraft. The races are so varied and flexible that the game is highly replayable and each time you could try another tactic. Which is really good for a RTS game.
Unfortunately, the flaws the campaign comes with, as well as the story that brings nothing new for the genre, might not be something the hardcore RTS fans will appreciate. And that is sad, since this title we have here is not bad at all. It's quite good and I am sure it will be even better if Petroglyph decide to bring us the sequel.
