Universe At War: Earth Assault

if games were like horses you would shoot this one before the race began.

Utter rubbish.

I wont even bother saying anything else.

DONT BOTHER!

Universe at War: Earth Assault looks like it might be a console RTS on par with the likes of Supreme Commander with large maps, huge units and a large unit-cap.

However UaW:EA completely lacks any of the stratergy SupCom possesses as well as lacking that special 'epic' feeling of watching huge units smash their way through the enemy base. Rather in UaW:EA the large units move extremely slowly and are very easy to take down completely removing any sort of epic feeling associated with them.

Add to this terrible performance issues and you end up with a poorly balanced, slow paced game with boring units and a jerky frame rate.

I didnt actually receive this title, instead was given something else.

It's been a while since I played this since i'm a little behind with my reviews. So i'll just write what i remember.

The plot involves 2malien races coming to Earth to have a war, and we're stuck in the middle crying a bit. But the plot is by far ther least important thing here. UAW iis by all means a standard RTS. Soldiers, tanks, click-here and go-there and attck-that. While it handles the difficulties of being caged by the 360 controller better than, say, Command and Conquer, there are still gaping holes that make organising complex assaults and defensive strategies difficult and sometimes impossible. This sort of control issue is not a prolbem in something like Halo Wars, as that game never makes you work out ambushes and dodgy defence routes. it either does it for you or leaves it out altogether. UAW makes using your head a necessity for survival, then makes it hard to do. It's like someone forcing you to do a Rubiks cube, then tieing one hand behing your back. Or both hands.

Granted, the game has some perks. The machine race has a nifty habit of digitising themselves and flying along a node network thing to get places, which helps with troop movements and the like. The humans are largely useless bar their tanks, but fun to use. THe problem is, this is all offset with awkward stats that make winning battles harder than it should be. How should we know that you have to use air units to take out that kind of enemy walker? Oh, yeh, we're supposed to lose 100 times before we accidentally figure it out.

Typical scenario. The enemy has a battery of anti-troop turrets behind a battery of anti-air. very clever. the troop turrets must be destroyed with air units, and the air turrets must be taken down by troops. but the range of the turrets make it almost impossible. troops move in, get slaughtered. air units screech overhead, shot down in seconds. Winning is blind luck, or it seems that way.

If you're an RTS veteran or enthusiast, you might get a lot of enjoyment from this game. If not, I suggest you go for something better made and more fun.

5/10

Alternatives: Halo Wars, Tom Clancy's Endwar