Release Date:10/30/2007 Platforms: Publisher:Sega Developer:Petroglyph Gamesite:Click here Genres:Real-Time, Strategy ESRB:T - Teen
Universe at War: Earth Assault is a completely new and innovative RTS game that brings a lot of new and interesting concepts and ideas. The setting is 2012, the year that the Mayan calendar ends, which is their predicted doomsday. The Hierarchy land on Earth, which causes mass panic among the humans. Shortly thereafter, the Novus arrive, and the Masari are awoken. A massive three-way war ensues, with the humans running around and screaming in the background. The humans will not be playable, except in the tutorial.
The Developer
Petroglyph Games is a team of developers located in Las Vegas, Nevada, and while this is their second RTS title, it is their first creative franchise made. In addition, the Petroglyph team has a few more titles under their belt, when they were known as Westwood Studios, the Command and Conquer series and Dune 2.
Features
UAW has some incredible ideas and concepts behind its gameplay, the most major being that anything – and everything – is a resource (including humans!) This means that with this new and interesting resource system, map control and resource denial come hand-in-hand, adding a new and exciting twist to gameplay. While this is the core system, each faction has their own resource system, with the Hierarchy gathering everything. The Novus are more sympathetic to the humans’ cause, and only gather inorganic material. The Masari have Matter Generators that can be placed anywhere on the map for an automatic, endless stream of resources, making them more powerful late-game, when the other factions' resource supplies run low. However, these Matter Generators are extremely combustible and will set off chain-reactions, so it is best not to place them near other structures. This also brings in resource denial, which you can do especially well as the Masari. By placing a Matter Generator in a crucial spot say, full of resources, it makes your enemy think twice before attacking it. If they leave it standing, it will continue to give you resources, but if they destroy it, the resulting reaction will destroy the resources nearby. You can also use resource denial tactics with the other factions, but it’s not quite as effective. This only brushes over the tip of the iceberg of the strategies in UAW’s complex resource system. More features of UAW include extremely diverse factions, a night and day cycle, modes like DEFCON and Conquer the World, and lots of customization through the three tech trees of each faction – so that the faction can be changed to fit your play style.
The Factions
The Masari are a slow building faction more apt for turtling than rushing out into the map and taking down the opponent quickly. They also have Light and Dark modes to choose from, drastically changing the way they play. The Hierarchy play with mobile bases which consist of massive walkers with fully customizable hardpoints that improve armor, weapons and production. The Novus can’t really take the other factions head-on, but are better at hit-and-run tactics, fully taking advantage of their “flow” system (think tunnels in Battle for Middle Earth 2, but not instant). Find our in-depth faction overview to the left.
