The Xbox 360 platform seems to be gaining some ground as of late as it broadens the genre of games in its portfolio. We steer away from the typical arcade racers and first person shooters for a moment as Sega have recently released their latest Real Time Strategy game, Universe at War: Earth Assault.
It seems that the basic story of the game revolves around a dominating and invading alien race, known as the Hierarchy. The opposer's of the Hierarchy and fighting the good side of the battle is the more mechanical and artificially intelligent fleet known simply as Novus. These essentially are an army of A.I. robots, whose fierce leader in the heat of battle is actually a human female, who goes by the name of Mirabel.
The war between the Hierarchy and Novus has been going on for some time and the epic final encounter finally leads them both to Earth. The Novus A.I. however have no regard for human life, as their mission is a simple one, to finally eradicate the Hierarchy existence from the universe. Mirabel, the front line Leader in the battles for Novus obviously takes exception to such disregard for her fellow humans, and she wishes to work with the human forces, who ultimately do have the same goal, to eradicate the Hierarchy and rid the this alien invading scum from Earth.

Gameplay:

You play as and control the Novus battle leader, Mirabel. You have full control over her in her mech like suit (think Zone of the Enders), as well as being able to use her special abilities and with some cash handy too, you are able to build your base to bring in more troops as you lead up to the final confrontation with the Hierarchy. Basically, it plays pretty much like what you would expect from an RTS game – much like the Command & Conquer series but with some more depth in choices and options, which really over complicates things instead of keeping it based on simple and fun battles.
As mentioned Constructors can be used to add new additions to your base to assist you in battle. These Constructor robots themselves are not of much use in battle, though they are key to succeeding as they are required to maintain and build additions to your base. They can build things such as Command Cores, Aircraft Assemblies and Robotic Assemblies, which are all required to bring in more troops to the battle.
Constructing the basics is fairly simple to pick up. It can become all a bit too much though, with varying options for each structure, as well as other items, this all adds up, as well as being able to keep track of and fully assess the battlefield and your varying other objectives. The basics as mentioned can abruptly be picked up, and you should be on your way to constructing new additions to your base as well as building your own army of troops as you prepare to charge into battle. The game also offers up some hints throughout the campaign, these are fairly obvious ones too but welcome non the less.
During the campaign, you get an opportunity to control a hovercraft which is known as Vertigo, this handy little robot is used to upload and download data. So, you may have to send him out across the map to upload data, then bring him back to the base to download the data and have it constructed in pieces in that way, going back and forth. This is where your multitasking skills will be required as you need to protect your base from being destroyed by the Hierarchy, and yet may need to assist Vertigo as he is guided into uncharted territory to collect data. The problem here is that there is only one Vertigo and one Leader, if either Mirabel or Vertigo are destroyed then it is game over. This can prove quite frustrating as Mirabel needs to stay back with some troops to defend the base and you're expected to quickly shift over the map to make sure everything is fine both at your base and with Vertigo's collection of data.
The only sense of relief from this comes in the way that the map works in the game. The mini map, which is in the top right corner of the HUD, can be made much larger on screen. This is particularly useful to quickly manoeuvre over the map to try and keep your eyes on the action at all times. This includes the likes of being able to monitor positions of nearby enemies, objectives and your squad, all of which is marked clearly on your map.
The camera can easily be adjusted to ensure you have the best view of the battlefield, you are able to both rotate and zoom the camera in and out. Though there is one issue, which is made a bit more bearable by the above mentioned mini map; this problem is being able to fully asses the battlefield. What could have helped to make this better for the larger scale battles at least, is to be able to have further freedom in regards to being able to zoom out. Not only would this have been useful in giving you a broader view of the battlefield, it would also have helped to hide the game's many imperfections.

Graphics:

Universe at War, at least when fully zoomed out can look fine at times. Though all areas in the game do appear very bland and everything appears to have been rendered with low resolution textures, it probably passes more as a last generation game than it does with the standard we have come to expect from the Xbox 360 today. However, there are some things which do look quite nice in Universe, these are mainly some of the alien-like monstrosities offered up by the Hierarchy (think Tripods in War of the Worlds), which look all the more impressive with greater numbers on screen.

Sound:

The audio is not up to much either unfortunately, there's plenty of dire voice-acting, which is almost bordering on laughable to tears and then finally to sleep. Perhaps this is just the three unofficial stages of the effects of bad voice-acting? However, this is nothing new, there are plenty of games available with poor voice-acting, though they do usually have another shining aspect to the game that makes up for it. The in-game music also occasionally abruptly stops, this however, is a good thing...

Longevity:

There will no doubt be a couple of hours of entertainment, though if you really do like the RTS genre so much, then you may get some added entertainment value from the online experience. Just make sure a friend has the game, as there is hardly anyone playing Universe at War online.
If you're having trouble finding matches online then the Skirmish Battle mode is certain to add a bit of replay value. This basically acts like multiplayer, where you can select several options before hand, including the map, and then go on to face the CPU to the death. This might also prove useful to familiarise yourself with the game, by getting a few skirmish games in before taking on the campaign.

Overall:

Universe at War at times feels too simplistic and yet overwhelming with confusion at other points in the game as you are trying to keep track of multiple things and constantly having to shift your view of the map. RTS fans may find some enjoyment with the online game modes, if they can find a match that is. What is more weird about this is that the game is supposed to support cross-platform play as well, so PC gamers can play against us Xbox 360 gamers. So you would expect a couple of more games to regularly be available to jump into. Another hindering point to the online is the game's frame rate, which can drop dramatically when there is a lot of action on the screen.
Universe at War in my opinion is not worth the cash, RTS fans should keep their eyes locked on the Command & Conquer series for now, with any luck we may even be able to still expect a port of the more intense looking RTS game, World in Conflict.