Easily the most surprising title in Sega's fall line up, this vanilla-named strategy game from developer Petroglyph (Star Wars: Empire at War) shows enormous potential. Universe at War depicts a rather gloomy future with humanity caught in the middle of an intergalactic war. Alien factions from the far reaches of the universe have earmarked Earth in the year 2012 as its battlefield, hoping to harvest its resources to fuel their war machines. Humans actually aren’t even a playable race in the game – we’re basically there as Alien toys. Yeah for us!
You'll have the opportunity to play as each of the alien factions through the course of the story-driven campaign. Additionally, you can use one faction in the conquest campaign that tasks you with individual scenarios such as capturing the African continent or obliterating another faction. The hope is to provide both a layer of general strategy in selecting territories to wage war, as well as tactics in real-time on the battlefield.
Of the three factions playable in the game, two have been revealed: a race of sentient machines called the Novus and a crustacean-like evil alien race known as the Hierarchy. The differences among factions, as we noticed between the Novus and Hierarchy, are extraordinarily pronounced. Universe at War doesn't simply take a core faction and then re-skin it to form a new one; rather, there are distinctions among the factions that will affect how you play the game and what strategies you employ on the battlefield.
As a breed of artificial intelligence, the Novus wield advanced computer technology to build a literal network on the battlefield. Units can move about the environment by teleporting through the network. Their focus on technology makes the Novus less skilled in combat, but excellent in defense. For example, a Novus shield disruptor unit can raise a mobile defensive shield for allies to take cover under, as well as fire long range missiles. One of the coolest features of the Novus faction is the ability to infect an opponent with a virus, using their network to disable enemy units.
The Hierarchy differs significantly from the Novus, choosing to deploy massive mobile bases from their ships orbiting Earth rather than building structures on the planet's surface. Called walkers, these giant walking bases can be customized for unit production, offense, or even defensive measures. In fact all of the factions will be customizable on the fly. In addition to base units each faction also has access to multiple Hero units and the ability to build a super-weapon.
We watched one walker pump out a dozen units in rapid succession, utilizing its ability to produce large quantities of units at low resource cost. (The game does involve basic resource management but the idea is to make it as painless as possible with little to no micromanaging). In addition to being resourceful, walkers are difficult to engage in battle. Certain areas of a walker must be destroyed in order to bring it down, meaning an enemy can't simply barrage the base with attacks and hope it falls.
Taking the two factions and pitting them against each other in a multiplayer skirmish, we watched how their strengths can be leveraged in battle. In one scene, for example, powerful guided missiles fired from a Hierarchy walker were summarily deflected by a special Novus shield and redirected back to the walker. It was only by using lasers that the walker penetrated the shields and made short work of the small battalion of Novus forces sitting within the shield.
