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Universe at War: Earth Assault

Universe at War: Earth Assault is a real-time strategy game originally to be namedInvasion: Earth, developed by Petroglyph and published by Sega. Universe at War: Earth Assault was intended to be the first game in a planned series of games to be called the Universe at War series.

On May 10, 2007, Sega announced that the title was also in development for the Xbox 360, which was released in 2008. Further, on June 27, 2007, Sega announced that the title would allow cross platform multiplayer through Xbox Live and Games for Windows - LIVE services.

Plot

Universe at War: Earth Assault, begins in the year 2012 when an alien race known as the Hierarchy lands on Earth to strip-mine the planet. Before their landing, observatories and scientists on Earth gave warning of aliens but the human race, as a whole, is not able to organize a unified military front against the alien forces. Because the Hierarchy has vast military experience from invading and destroying other planets in the universe, the human race is not able to withstand their forces.

Novus (machines who fight the Hierarchy to avenge their fallen creators) arrives just in time to save Washington, DC, where the U.S. military made its last stand. Then they start establishing bases, using guerrilla tactics to harass the Hierarchy. When Novus arrive on Earth, they expect humanity to be extinct and earth's surface strip-mined, in accordance with Hierarchy standard operating procedure. However, Novus found Earth mostly intact and the human military not yet entirely wiped out. Humanity owes its continued survival to the fact that Kamal Re'x the Abductor, the overseer in charge of the Hierarchy's Earth invasion, has held back the bulk of his forces to lure Novus into a trap. Kamal Re'x hopes to earn a promotion by wiping out the Novus expeditionary force. Mirabel,a clone of the Novus' creators/field commander, tried to board a command ship, but the ship is scuttled once they learn she is on it. She manages to escape, however, and tells the Founder (the Novus leader) about Kamal's trap. In the end, Novus proves unable to stop the Hierarchy, suffering a major defeat when the command base on Earth is destroyed, along with the portal they intended to use to return to their planet. The Founder also dies, because the portal was at the verge of detonating and destroying both Earth and the Novus's base planet, so he sacrificed himself to save both worlds. Kamal feels that he's beaten Novus and orders the Hierarchy super weapon, The Purifier, which can destroy large areas of the planet in one blast, to be prepared to destroy the Earth.

However, while the Hierarchy commander Orlok was diverting Novus so The Purifier can be deployed, he unwittingly tripped an ancient alarm in the Egyptian pyramids, and the Masari, asleep beneath the Earth's oceans, begin to waken. Though the Masari mothership initially creates a signal that prevents the Purifier from being used, the Hierarchy bomb the ship, board it, and prepare to use the Purifier.

Orlok, who has been questioning Kamal's intentions prepares to separate with others who follow him. Nufai, a spy working for Kamal, used to be part of a species that the Hierarchy has since eliminated. He tells Orlok that he would be happy to overthrow Kamal's regime, so Nufai is sent to secure the Purifier while Orlok tries to make an alliance with the Masari queen, but instead finds her son, Prince Zessus. The prince and his forces join Orlok as he tries to capture a communication center to contact the others who want to separate from the Hierarchy. But Kamal Re'x appears with a massive force of troops, and Orlok almost defeats him, but Nufai shows up and helps Kamal destroy Orlok, revealing that he was working for Kamal the entire time. Nufai is appointed commander and they begin to use the Purifier to destroy the Earth. Prince Zessus is captured but is freed by a soldier who managed to escape. They find more humans captured in other encampments and join forces with them.

Meanwhile, the Masari Queen is concerned about her son and the fate of the planet. The Masari are furious when they awoke only to find their enemy, the Hierarchy, present on Earth and their mothership destroyed. As such, the Masari have no allegiance and are prepared to destroy any and all of the other factions to reap revenge on those who destroyed their civilization and their adopted home. Then, Novus approaches the queen and offers another allegiance, which the queen accepts. The two armies then assault all the Hierarchy bases on Earth. When they arrive in South America, they find Zessus, who announces that he has befriended the humans. Finally, the combined armies of the Masari, Novus and the humans attack and destroy the Purifier. Kamal Re'x is outraged and attempts to destroy them by himself, which instantly fails.

The armies argue over what to do with him, with the humans and Novus wanting to kill him for the damage he caused to the galaxy and Earth. But the Masari queen says that death is not the answer. She then apparently gives Kamal the power of a god which he uses to destroy them all, at least in his eyes. The queen is revealed to have actually trapped Kamal inside his own mind where he visualizes someone conquering the galaxy, but is never able to accomplish it himself. He was locked in the prison of his own mind, forever.

Gameplay

Gameplay is split between three modes, two of which are further divided into different game types.

The first mode is single player. These are games that are played exclusively by one human player against AI controlled opponents. This mode contains the campaign and scenario game types. In Campaign, the player controls one of the four factions, depending on which part of campaign is being played, and plays through various battles, accomplishing predetermined objectives to progress along the storyline and eventually "beat" the game.

Scenario mode gives the player a choice of one of the three main factions (Novus, the Hierarchy or the Masari) and then allows the player to choose a global situation and then take over the world. This mode is split between global strategy, which involves attacking neutral or enemy territories, constructing global structures and collecting resources; and tactical combat, in which the player must attack an enemy in an occupied territory in order to gain control of it, or defend one of their territories from an attempted invasion.Game factions

The game has a total of three factions, each faction has unique play elements but share the basic RTS format. Each Faction has a total of 3 "hero" units. These units fall into the classes of "Assault", "Tactical", and "Stealth".

Hierarchy

The Hierarchy is an alien faction with a history of invading other planets in the universe, and has landed on Earth with the intent tostrip-mine the entire planet of valuable resources. The Hierarchy does not consider resources to be only minerals but also organic life, including human life. By employing highly customizable walkers which are dropped onto any location of the planet's surface from space, the Hierarchy has a huge technological advantage over the human race.

Novus

Novus are a race of sentient machines existing only to destroy the Hierarchy. Their creators were wiped out by the mighty machines of war that their nemesis possessed and the only thing left of them were a few machines scattered across the galaxy.

Masari

An ancient and advanced race that millennia ago became saviours of the Hierarchy, the Masari were betrayed by their charges and forced to flee to Earth. They began instructing mankind for their own inscrutable purposes, in the process inspiring many ancient cultures and mythologies until they went into stasis and their city-ship Atlatea sank under the waves.Humans

Humans are not a proper faction unto themselves, but they are still the side used in the tutorial and prologue portions of the game. They also occasionally assist the player during the Novus and Masari campaigns, and are enemies of the player during the Hierarchy campaign. While humans have a number of different units and are not helpless, they are hopelessly outmatched in firepower and technology, taking disproportionate casualties against even the weakest of enemies. Outside of the campaign, their role is similar to civilians in Star Wars: Empire At War (another game by Petroglyph). They have a Motor Pool, Infantry Barracks and an Airbase as unit production structures and were removed from taking a large part in the game because of balancing issues. Unlike other factions the human infantry come in squads.

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