Tom's Games Reviews UaW

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While browsing Tom's Games, which might sound familiar from Tom's Hardware, has reviewed Universe at War. Ryan Lord wrote the review and seemed to criticized it pretty heavily. I ran into this review when making my daily rounds on the websites I visit (mostly hardware sites) and I was surprised by his review. I disagree with a good amount with what he had said but everyone has their own opinions.

 

Here's the overall impression he had:

 

Where I'm Coming From: As an RTS geek at heart and a fan of the original Westwood crew who went on to create Petroglyph, I was really excited about Universe at War. I tried to keep my expectations at reasonable levels though, after their sub-par Star Wars RTS, Empire at War.

 

What I Compared It To: Starcraft, Supreme Commander, Earth 2150 and Command and Conquer 3, primarily due to the sci-fi settings of each. Starcraft was an obvious influence in the Universe at War, so overall Starcraft was considered the most design-wise.

 

What I Liked: The story was actually better than I expected it to be, and had some intelligent design behind it. The graphics in some instances were at times as good as or better than what can currently be seen in other RTS games. Efforts were made to make each side as unique as possible, assuming that the learning curve can be dealt with.

 

What I Didn't Like: I experienced crashing when in DX10 mode, which was a pain to deal with until I figured it out. The online community is about as barren as a desert, which means waiting up to 30 minutes or more at times just to find a game. The final single-player campaign was obviously rushed and unfinished. Mirror matches between sides online can sometimes result in a drawn-out stalemate, especially with the Masari.

 

Value Meter: For fans of single-player RTS games that tell a good story, Universe at War may be worth a look when it drops in price. For online play, however, Universe at War is really lacking. Overall, there is not all that much value to be seen, especially with the other RTS offerings out there.

He rated Universe at War with a 5.5 out of 10. You can read the full review here.