So, how does it play?

Universe at War shows that the development team definitely has some experience in cooking up a proper RTS. The different factions, while notably different, are fairly well balanced. The UI is slightly console-y, but does its job well enough, and there are plenty of keyboard short-cuts available for the advanced players to keep the armies rolling around with minimal fuss. Performance problems are bit of an issue, and the path-finding code is finicky at times, occasionally leaving your units idling in odd spots when they fail to find a path to their target. Overall, these are minor problems, and the game feels very polished.

In some missions, resource gathering and building is skipped and you need to meet the objectives with the given units.

Super weapons go far beyond the usual nuclear missiles of "mundane" RTS games. Here, a Novus black hole generator tears up a Hierarchy walker.

A bigger flaw is the mission design: in single player campaign, the difficulty level swings around wildly, and the game feels very scripted. In some missions you are pretty much limited to doing exactly what the designer intended you to do, and there is no room for tactical innovations - the resources and the scripted enemy actions dictate what you must do to survive. In others, though, there are "loopholes" that can turn a difficult mission into a cakewalk once you figure how to "game" the heavily scripted opponent. In a way, it feels like the single player campaign is a game against a script instead of a true AI opponent. Storywise, it works for me, but on the other hand I doubt it'll win any awards for excellence in writing.

The single player campaign doesn't really prepare you for fighting on equal terms; almost every mission starts from vastly unequal starting positions, and the AI doesn't even try to "play to win" - it just goes on doing whatever the script says it should be doing. Due to this heavily scripted nature, the other available modes are a whole different ball game in comparison. Once you turn to skirmish games, the actual AI, starting from equal position, will immediately trounce you to tiny bits. Only after you readjust your tactics and start playing under the normal RTS mindset of maximizing your production and resources, and fully exploiting the different unit types to support each other, can you can expect to start pulling off wins.

Online Features

I tried the Gold-only Conquer the World mode, but nobody was home - there were literally zero players online.

When going online, Universe at War: Earth Assault uses Games for Windows Live. This translates to a "request" to pay Microsoft for the Live account to actually use all the features of the game. Free Silver accounts are limited to basic "custom matches" using a standard lobby system - effectively skirmish games online. Gold users on the other hand get the full treatment - ranked matches against opponents of similar skill level, and a special persistent "Conquer the World" online mode where the battles won affect a global map with a constant three-sided war going on. Achievements are also limited to Gold users.

Anyone who has just played the campaign storyline without trying skirmish games is in for a shock when they jump online. Campaign missions intentionally disable a lot of the tech tree and units, and it is highly recommended to play some training matches against the AI, outside of the storyline, to adjust to the different gameplay and to learn the bits that the single player game neglects to mention.

As the Xbox 360 version is not available yet, there is not much I can say about the cross-platform play - or any Gold-account Live play for that matter. All the players appear to be concentrated on the freely available custom matches, and the other online modes appeared devoid of any players. As far as the cross-platform support goes, the game claims to support it and it's pretty certain that only Gold Live account holders can take on Xbox 360 players, but that's all the information I have about it at this point. How well things will work head-to-head against a pad jockey is a big question mark - RTS games traditionally work best with a mouse, and I have my doubts if you can possibly have a fair match pad vs. mouse.