Universe at War: Earth Assault

It may not be a full-scale invasion yet, but real-time strategy games are slowly and purposefully migrating from PC to Xbox 360. The latest to cater to a gamepad-and-TV masses is Universe at War: Earth Assault, an entertaining sci-fi themed PC port from Sega and Las Vegas developer Petroglyph Games.

The game’s storyline follows three disparate alien factions throwing down on planet Earth for global dominance. Although the odious Hierarchy initiates the conflict, the sentient Novus robot race and snooty Masari soon step in to stop them (both with self-promoting agendas). The dialogue and plot are often comic-book corny, but the single-player campaign — while cookie-cutter repetitive at times — is refreshingly deep. And unlike the PC game, the upgraded single-player Xbox 360 campaign supports an in-game research tree.

You begin playing as the Novus (following a brief opening stint as some woefully outgunned American Marines) before switching over to the Hierarchy forces and eventually the Masari. Each faction has its own strengths and weaknesses, and this diversity gives the game a unique heterogeneous twist. The Novus’ robotic combat troops and rapid deployment flow technology contrast sharply with the Hierarchy’s death-dealing Walker platforms and the Masari’s advanced Light and Dark Energy tricks.   

Petroglyph did a great job with Universe at War’s control scheme, and you can quickly select and move units with the A button or use the game’s “snap-to” button combo to select all units of one type. Melding air and ground units into new groups is similarly effortless, as are the building queue, resource gathering, and research tree controls. This intuitive control scheme is necessary in the single-player campaign, however, because you constantly have to jump in and micromanage the game’s myopic and oftentimes suicidal AI.

Fortunately, Universe at War’s multiplayer game — which supports cross-platform play with PC gamers through Xbox and Windows Live — eventually makes forget the dodgy single-player A.I. With 29 detailed maps supporting up to four players in custom or ranked games, an accelerated DefCon Mode (where an automated research tree delivers advanced weapons more quickly), and an ambitious Risk-style Conquer the World Mode, there’s enough hiccup-free online diversion here to keep you going for months.

If Petroglyph can fix the single-player AI, smooth out some of the game’s graphics slowdowns, and provide a camera that zooms back more than a few inches, chapter two of Universe at War could well challenge Battle for Middle-earth II for overall Xbox 360 RTS honors.