Universe at War: Earth Assault
Universe at War: Earth Assault
Universe at War: Earth Assault, développé par Petroglyph Games et édité par Sega, est sorti le 10 décembre 2007 sur PC et Xbox 360. Ce jeu de stratégie en temps réel place le joueur à la tête de plusieurs factions disposant de pouvoirs et d'unités distinctes, lui permettant de sauver ou de détruire la Terre. Le titre propose de contrôler des machines de guerre alienes massives et personnalisables, avec une personnalisation tactique en plein combat permettant d'échanger des armes, de modifier l'arbre technologique et de réentraîner des unités, bouleversant ainsi l'équilibre traditionnel du modèle pierre-feuille-ciseaux.
L'accueil critique a été mitigé, avec une note moyenne agrégée de 70,46. ActionTrip a estimé que Petroglyph n'avait pas déçu mais sans proposer de véritable rupture, tandis que le New York Times a salué un jeu offrant continuellement de nouvelles idées de gameplay. Certains joueurs sur Metacritic ont apprécié la conception soignée des trois factions jouables aux styles propres, tout en relevant par ailleurs que l'invasion alienne de la Terre restait un thème déjà vu. La durée principale de la campagne est estimée à environ quatorze heures et demie, et le jeu repose sur le moteur Alamo avec la protection DRM SafeDisc 4.85.
Médias
Avis des critiques et joueurs
Critiques de la Presse (Metacritic)
« Once again, the gents and ladies at Petroglyph haven't disappointed. However, there's still nothing groundbreaking to be had here and due to the aforementioned slip ups, the game failed to achieve its full potential. But it comes very close. »
« Most video games use up all their gameplay ideas in the first few hours, but Universe is always offering something new. While all three races perform the basics of strategy games — gathering resources, building weapons and finding and destroying enemy bases — the way they approach these tasks is quite different. »
« Overall Universe at War can be a lot of fun for strategy fans. However, some annoyances and the lack of any real innovation may be enough to turn off the more casual player or those who are burned out on the standard strategy game paradigm. »
« It's far from perfect, but Universe of War accomplishes what few RTS games have dared to attempt--introducing three sides that have completely unique gameplay experiences. [Jan 2008, p.76] »
« Universe at War is a diamond that is a bit rough, a game with great potential, but it is sabotaged by the LIVE system and some elements which can be repaired in an ulterior patch (the bugs, the limited zoom and the path-finding). »
« Online play suffers from the Games For Windows Live disease while the single player game is a tad short and heavily scripted. »
« Playing through the single-player story-driven campaign or fighting a real-time global campaign is fun. Multiplayer is somewhat bare-bones, but the matches themselves are entertaining enough. »
« When a sleeper turns out to "only" be recommendable to hardcore fans, something must have gone wrong. In the case of UaW, it's the realization of the sensational ideas and hugely announced features, that, in the end, apparently didn't totally work out. Yet UaW offers RTS-gameplay at a very high level, that may help to overcome the waiting time for "StarCraft 2." [March 2008] »
Avis des Joueurs (Metacritic)
« RTS game set in future. There are 3 factions available and each of them has its own unique play style. The design of factions is on a really high level and can be compared to Starcraft. Multiplayer and graphics could have been done a lot better, though. »
« Aliens invade Earth, only seen that one done two or three times before... Saddly, I really do enjoy this game but find it hard to do it justice on paper, some units have trouble path finding, unit cloaking can be unreliable, and the air units are over powered as hell! But, I still love this game somehow.. The plot battles are generally fun with special missions more difficult and challenging then the skirmishes, but I really only ever do play this game for the skirmishes. This game's strength is in it's ability to allow the player to pick a map, team, enemy, and allies at will, and just, press, go. Never experienced any bugs that couldn't be fixed by just recommanding a unit to do an action it got caught up on. »
« All in all, the story line seems pretty good. However after playing for a dozen or so hours, I discovered that it randomly crashes, constantly sending me backwards, which is VERY frustrating. Along side some very... odd behavior from certain units. I had a walker take off on me, wandering through areas where nothing was supposed to be able to walk through, which confused the AI and made it's legs freeze and basically do circles. It had the potential to be a really good game, however the flaws within the game make it not worth the 20 price tag. Luckily I bought it on sale, so I don't feel completely ripped off. »
« [SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.] »
« Where is the story ? Is that a scenario ? The game is finished in one day - the movie is poor and character stuck - but well the badest thing is the story ... so quick ! Too bad - but this game become fastly boring with time. »
« While Universe at War could have been a glorious game, comparable to Starcraft in how different the factions are, there are some issues that make it considerably less than it could have been. First of all the most glaring example, units are too strong. Every fight lasts minutes because units have so much health and so little damage. Superweapons are a mere support power, in fact the only super weapon that is powerful is the Novus Gravity Bomb, a black-hole type power that **** all units into it. Oh, and it deals more damage than almost anything else. Another issue is the fact that two of the three factions are considerably more useful than the third. The 1st faction, Hierarchy, who is based around steamrolling, yet have the best scout (Monolith) and the have the ability to see the entire map at once. They are also the only faction to have an artillery unit, who is also debatable the most powerful Hero unit in the game. They also have structures who double as what is essentially an Epic/Super unit. The 2nd faction, Novus, is a swarming faction who also has the only notable Air units. The Dervish is a fast fighter that also has the ability to shoot lightning in every direction and kill just about anything. They are also supported by Vertigo, the only Air Hero. Vertigo is stealthed, fast, and has a deadly Railgun. The Novus also have Mirabel, who has more offensive capability than any other Novus unit. She has a powerful burst-fire Railgun, shoulder launched anti-ground missiles, and the ability to snipe a target from long distances. This Sniper ability is the only weapon that can instant kill another unit besides Superpowers. The final faction, the Masari, are supposedly Gods, yet are horribly outmatched. They supposedly are the turtling faction, yet the Novus have the only turret that can hit air and ground. The Novus turret also redirects enemy fire and increases in damage as more of them are made. The Hierarchy has an anti-ground turret that can mutate infantry into zombies and hold most vehicles at bay. The Hierarchy Anti-air turret can pull air units to the ground while it kills them when upgraded. The Air units cannot escape. Even Vertigo is not immune. The Hierarchy also has a stealth hero who can pull air units down, and then turn invincible as he drains their health. He can also drain vehicles health while invincible. His claws deal with infantry easily. Generally, this makes him a deadly force against all units. His one weakness: He has pathetic range. The game does have many more differences in the factions than games like Supreme Commander 2, but it is nowhere close to the differences between Starcraft's factions, and the differences are not exploited as much as in games like Command and Conquer 3. »
