Universe at War Review, Continued
Beyond the progression of missions, the single-player campaign is a bit of what I like to call a "gimped" experience. Universe at War is a game where you not only have to build up your bases like in most RTS games, but there are also tech trees available that provide various boosts and bonuses to your units, buildings or even your economy. For some odd reason, Petroglyph decided to eliminate the majority of the tech tree research options for the Novus and the Hierarchy in the single player game, with research only available to the Masari campaign if the player chooses to go through the effort of building appropriate base buildings on various world sectors. Also missing are some of the units, which are available in multiplayer but not in single player, some of which would have been useful. The exclusion of the tech trees in the campaigns really does not make much sense, especially when you should really understand them before diving into multiplayer.
The overall balance of the game falls apart at the end of the single-player campaign, as I was able to use one sole unit even in the first moments of the start of a mission to completely overwhelm and destroy my opponent, even before they could tech up any sort of defense. I actually had to stop myself from using the unit because I was concerned I would miss something important by destroying the Hierarchy so quickly. Alas, I came to find out that in the end I did not miss a thing since every single mission is just random skirmish-style filler until you reach the final two missions.
Universe at War has some very good visuals at times, but overall the game doesn't offer graphics that are beyond what other recent RTS titles have displayed.
If you haven't already, you'll have a chance to experience each side in their entirety once you get past the single-player campaign. With the tech trees available along with all units and competitive maps, the final stretch of Universe at War's learning curve is reached. This is assuming that you're willing to put additional time into the game to see what's left to be seen, especially after the lackluster final campaign. As the Novus advance their technology, they gain the unique access to a variety of "patches" with choices depending on the research trees they choose. The choice of patches range from resource collection boosters to damage and shield amplifiers. To keep things different, the Hierarchy lack a patching system but instead gain benefit from most of their research, which typically applies globally and without any sort of management needed. The meat and potatoes of the Hierarchy player's micromanagement is primarily going to fall on their decisions on walker upgrades.
The Masari twist things up even more with their Light and Dark energy modes instead of patches or global upgrades. Switching from Light mode to Dark energy modes has an effect on all units across the map and even affects how the Masari super-weapon behaves. Unfortunately, I felt that the Masari energy modes were not fully thought out or designed, as even with a fully researched Dark energy tree, the Dark mode gives very little benefit. The real difference is that Light mode boosts offensive capabilities, while Dark mode boosts defensive capabilities. You would think that units with a defensive boost would be able to last longer, but when Dark energy mode is active, units do so little damage that they almost become useless. After countless games, I could not once find a situation where Dark mode was useful, even in the single-player campaign.
Unfortunately, Universe at War has a lackluster single player campaign and very little online multiplayer activity.
Like most things, harvesting resources is done a bit differently in Universe at War. Depending on which side you play, you'll either harvest resources in a traditional fashion by sending collector type units to them or you'll have the ability to throw collectors out of the window and rely primarily on resources generating structures. To further complicate things, Petroglyph designed the actual resource gathering methods, on which the Novus and Masari rely to harvest from the actual map structures and objects themselves. Warehouses, trees, lamp posts, even cars, are all resources waiting to be collected by the Hierarchy and Novus. While this works in most situations, some maps are really just not balanced well in multiplayer, especially when a Masari can sit back game and collect infinitely while the other sides have to go out and hunt finite resources.
Each side has at least one super-weapon technology to pursue that is highly destructive if used against enemy units or buildings. I felt a bit like I had been there and done that though, especially with so many other sci-fi RTS games featuring practically all of the super-weapons offered in Universe at War. The strength of the super-weapons depends on what's being used, but they're not necessarily game enders if bases are built right or you have the ability to recover units lost. Hierarchy walkers can almost be a super-weapon in themselves, although pushing your walkers into the frontline can potentially cost you the game if lost.
