Universe at War: Earth Assault
- February 14, 2008 08:53 AM PST
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The fate of Earth is not up to the humans this time as Universe at War: Earth Assault for Xbox 360 features three truly engaging alien races that use our planet as the battlegrounds for universal supremacy.
At first glance, Universe at War: Earth Assault simply looks like another cliche alien Earth invasion story. It's almost like someone just decided that it would be a good idea to wait two and a half years after War of the Worlds was released, let people forget about it, and then put out a video game just like it.
But there's one major difference: Tom Cruise wouldn't be worthy of licking the space dust off the boots of these aliens. In fact, he'd be better off finding a dark, bat-infested cave and hiding in it until the big boys were done fighting.
This is the Universe at War.
And this is where the most impressive feature of Earth Assault comes in; its original storyline and factions. (Well, at least two out of three of them are pretty original.) The story centers on a dominant group of space invaders called the Hierarchy who, looking like the walkers from the previously mentioned War of the Worlds movie, invade Earth for resources and beat the crap out of the humans. However, another robotic space race called the Novus arrive to stop the Hierarchy since they're sworn enemies. In their ensuing battle, another faction called the Masari, which look like dragons, angels, and other mythical creatures, are awaken from the depths of the ocean and the battle lines are drawn.
Much of the real-time strategy gameplay is focused on the abilities of the unique races. The Hierarchy's main units are the walkers, although grunts and brutes can be researched and created. These antagonists of the game rely on power, strength, and mobility to win battles. The Novus are a group of fast moving robots who use electronic networking and guerilla war tactics to defeat their enemies. The Masari are few in numbers but are good at constructing defenses and bases in addition to the fact that their hero units are very powerful. All the races have heroes, but the Masari's are exceptionally heroic.
The Masari can switch between light and dark powers.
The developing studio, Petroglyph, has incorporated many traditional RTS elements into the game. Having their hands in the original Command & Conquer games, Petroglyph has done little to deviate from the old school. It's pretty much the same click, control, and command units style you'd expect.
The campaign mode is somewhat traditional but the online mode is trend setting. Earth Assault wouldn't be a real-time strategy game without a campaign mode. And this one is kind of uniform, however, you do change control of races as you advance which breaks the mold a bit. But the real draw might be the online play which allows 360 owners and PC players (the game is already out on computer) to link up against each other. It also showcases a conquer-the-world mode where you face off against other players to systematically take over the world. You'll need Xbox Live Gold for this though so make sure you have it. If not, you have plenty of time until the March 25th release date to get it.
The Hierarchy my be mobile, but they are very slow.
