Universal Combat

Rating:
Summary: This game is not worth even $1
Review: 1,000 words are not enough to describe everything wrong with this terrible game. If you can actually get it to run on your PC, which 90% of gamers will not accomplish, you'll be pulling out your hair in frustration wondering why you bought it.

To say Universal Combat has technical problems is a HUGE understatement. It's the most bug filled game I have ever played and prone to random crashes. Looking at it funny will make this game crash. If you want to download the patches you are FORCED to register your game at the "official" website. It's just another hassle associated with Universal Combat. I couldn't even get the patches to work.

Let's say you actually get the game to work. The interface is horribly designed and extremely difficult to learn. It feels like it was released 5 years too early. This game requires a real PhD to figure out how to play it not the fake one Derek Smart has. Prepare to spend the rest of your life learning how to play this game to enjoy all the features.

The game just feels terrible when you're playing it. The graphics are way outdated and look like you're playing something made for the PSone. The controls are bad and really sluggish. I honestly don't see how anyone can give this game a 5 and recommend people buy it. There are a ton of better games out there released before and after Universal Combat. I suggest finding them and staying FAR away from this one and Derek Smart.

Rating:
Summary: A complex blend of simulation, strategy, & imagination
Review: Despite the political problems between the developer and publisher of this title 3000AD has managed to produce a well polished product.

My personal feelings towards this type of title is that it divides the game playing audience into two categories:

1) Those who like flashy graphics and a lot of action and want to sit and be entertained for a couple hours.

2) Those who enjoy a more long term and strategic experience and who want drawn out gameplay.

UC delivers both oddly enough. You can enjoy the instant action scenarios as a marine or fighter pilot and get a quick adrenaline fix. Or if you decide that you want to engage in a larger scale game than you can pursue careers as a ship commander for example. Either way you going to be entertained proportionally to the time you spend playing. To me this is the correct formulae for a successful game.

Graphics and sound in this game are very good and it is refreshing to be able to max out the graphics settings on a new title and still achieve a great framerate. Another nice change is that space feels roomy personally I found X2: The Threat actually gave me a sense of claustrophobia, which is an emotion one should not feel in SPACE.

There is a learning curve associated with this title but there are a few caveats to this. First if you want to play the FPS part the controls are no more difficult than any other FPS. Second, the Battlecruiser part of the game from a perspective of controlling your ship is no more difficult than X2:Threat. The real challenge comes in terms of managing your ship from a tactical and economic standpoint. This is what separates a novice that has played this title for a few hours from an expert that has really spent some time digging into the details.

The manual for this game is actually printed and over 10 pages in length ļ The trend these days has been to save publishing costs by making PDFs of the manual. A practice that drives me insane because I need a manual in front of me while I try playing. I am sick of buying a $50 dollar game and a $40 inkjet cartridge to print the manual. There is plenty of online documentation that details all of the objects that are represented in the game. PC career choices, manual revisions, story, and control details are also included as a set of easily printed hyperlinked webpages.

I have owned this game for 2 days and have played it more than X2 & Freelancer combined. For $20 the value per dollar of this game is very high. From a moral point of view I feel the developer did a better than $20 dollar job.

I will leave it to others to do a more technical review.

In summary this is a niche title and like an independent film you are going to either love or hate this game. One thing I can guarantee you is that as an "indie" game the developer has made design choices that are unorthodox when compared to a mainstream title. Like an "indie" film director these choices reflect a more risky and artistic statement rather something that a marketing firm has deemed safe and appealing.

Rating:
Summary: Universal Waste of Time
Review: Having played (and really having come close to liking) every game in the Battlecruiser series and having followed the development of Battlecruiser Generations, I thought perhaps this time around Derek Smart and company might get it right. But, alas, it was not to be.

Being a devoted grognard, traditional wargamer, and military studies aficionado, I can tolerate a steep learning curve and less than obvious interface, all plastered over a hardcore simulation. But Universal Combat failed to live up to any of the developers' promises or my expectations. Thank god the publisher had the presence of mind to realise this was a budget title. If Derek Smart had his way, I'd be about $29.95 more ticked that I bought this game.

Right from the rocky start just trying to get the program installed, to the option controls that don't respond or revert to previous settings, I realised I had been promised a ship and a star to sail her by but had chugged off in a lemon once again. And then the game continued to perform like a "champ" throughout, frequently crashing, misplacing interface elements, and otherwise dying in its own misery.

The game manual is as convoluted as all the other battlecruiser titles, riddled with acronyms whose definitions are buried in pages and pages of small type. There is some semblance of organization to the thing, but the biggest problem is that there is no connection between using the bogglingly complex interface and actually accomplishing something with the systems simulated in the game.

As in the more poorly executed Battlecruiser Millenium, the ground, sea, and air combat modes seem to be included as pure gloss. None of these modes function well or gave me any reason to come back for more. Most annoying was the complete absence of any sense of physics, especially on the ground. I've seen graphics driver demos with more realism.

To Dreamcatcher's credit, the graphics are far superior to any other game in the Battlecruiser series. However, the problem is that Dreamcatcher seems to be developing all the graphics for games in the series with a 2-4 year shift back in time. While occasionally pretty, I couldn't help feel that I was playing an old game, even though the brand new box was sitting right on my desk.

The ultimate flaw in the game itself was the total absense of any sense of progress. After many crushing engagements where my ship (pick any class, type, or purpose) was routinely destroyed before having built up enough resources to repair it or refit, I began to succeed in ship to ship combat. But beyond that, there was absolutely no sense of having any kind of impact on the game world. It seems the game developer expects one to gain a sense of accomplishment from figuring out the game interface and pretending one is involved in some kind of greater conflict. The convoluted campaigns seem to have no ultimate point. While you can, as promised, go anywhere you like and do whatever you want within the large scope of the game, what you do matters little and has no identifiable outcome. There is nothing to draw one in on any side or measure effect; playing one ship, exploring a planet, or fighting any one battle is pretty much like another, and none of these gives any sense of having accomplished anything.

The final straw for me was the developer's support. Let's get this out right now: Derek Smart is mad at the publisher for cutting the price of his game, so his development team is not going to support it. The site is filled with Derek's diatribes talking this game up as being the biggest masterpiece of mixed gameplay, massive scope, and rewards for everyone, and explains how angry he is that his work of art is not universally loved and appreciated except by his fans who understand him and what he is trying to do. In place of support, he condescendingly criticizes those who say anything different or can't solve their own problems. The theme here is that it is not the game or the developer who have failed; it is everyone else - the players, the publisher, the market. Don't expect to find a solution to Universal Combat's myriad problems here.

Bottom line: This game could have filled a niche that is empty in the industry - a game with huge scope, complexity, and challenge extending beyond mere shoot-em up. Instead, this game is a barely functional shell that promises everything but delivers little.

Rating:
Summary: My honest opinion about UC...
Review: I bought this game a few days ago. It was a classic story that just made me want to buy the game: Game developer with a great deal of pride fighting his greedy publisher. the developer was a complete underdog in my eyes. Heck, I was about to send him directly a 20 dollar money order to make up for the way his publisher treated him.

Then I loaded the game.

UC loaded fine, but when I went to run it the problems began. I received a codec not found error, then after I continued through I received an error stating I had a debugger running? Well, I went to the developer's website and forums for aid only to find new registrations were closed and I could not post for support. I did read through the posts, and what I found was a bit disturbing. Everyone walked on eggshells in how they worded their posts, and the developer would routinely insult and berate his customers. He seemed to not like people who couldn't figure out problems themselves. I did not feel comfortable at all and left.

I resolved the problem myself, as it was a conflict with the DIVX 5.1 codec. (thanks to google.com. ;) ) I entered the game, and I was very dissapointed with what I saw. The game has a *very* steep learning curve if you didn't play a previous battlecruiser game. The manual seems to be organized well, but it is laid out in a manner that requires a more in-depth study to figure things out. Anacronyms fill the game, and rudamentary definitions are provided for them. There are NO IN-GAME TUTORIALS. Up until recently there weren't any out of game tutorials until the developer rushed to create a PDF file along with the demo. The graphics aren't bad, but they are far from current technology. I would gladly accept the graphics as is if gameplay wasn't so awkward. The user interface is horrible. it is not intuitive, there are graphic glitches with the GUI(flashing poly's, misplaced indicators), and there are layers upon layers of awkward menus that take you away from the main screen. This would all be fixed with a customizable user interface similar to a lot of the online MMO games where windows could be positioned and layered. The game crashes to desktop regularly. The feedback system from your crew in commander career mode is poor. It took me a few hours for everything to sink in as to who was telling me what. Allied crafts don't always do as they are told. sure it may be a touch of realism, but there isn't any feedback as to whether it's "as designed" or a glitch. This game is rife with glitches. This game touts air-sea-land-space combat. the physics engine for land is based on the space engine. flying a craft in the amosphere feels like flying in Zero-g. It's not a flight sim, it's not a true first person shooter. The shared engine for all combat modes needs a better physics engine to make each mode enjoyable and realistic. I found no entertainment in any profesion besides commander. Perhaps multiplayer is a different story, but I didn't try MP.

Some die-hards out there will really love this game as I suspect there is a redeeming value underneath the very rough appearance. However many will not stay long enough to find it. I am still playing the game, or attempting to... it crashes to desktop a lot. in a two hour session, about 4 times.

Oh, and this all was verified with the new patch. the latest 2/10/04 patch did little to help the game stablity.

This is a niche app, and a budget category game. There are lofty dreams by the developer for this game, but in my opinion it has a very far way to go. Casual gamers looking for a fun story driven space game, do not buy this. Hardcore space combat fans might love it if they are willing to wait on the fixes for the glaring errors, crashes, and glitches. But I'm not rating this from the perspective of a die-hard, but from a casual gamer and consumer. I think dreamcatcher did right by making this a 20 dollar game, and even at that I don't think it's right to release a game with so many bugs and stability issues.

Needless to say, I no longer feel as if I should send the extra 20 dollars. Infact I'm seriously considering contacting my state attorney general to see about getting my money back on this game, as it does not deliver as advertized.

Rating:
Summary: They don't get much worse
Review: I bought this game, hoping that it would provide me with something fun to do whenever I had free time. Yes, the prospect of engaging enemies in major battles for control of numerous spaceports and bases on 4 different theatres of combat appealed to me. So, between this and spending $39.95 on Joint Operations, I chose this.

What was I thinking?

This game freezes often, and I can't even find the "Quit" option. Apparently, the developers wanted to make it a puzzle just trying to figure out how to move your ship or fire your guns. You can't do anything in this game, it crashes, freezes, you can't control it, and in the campaign you dont even know what to do. The best part is that you can't even save or load or go to an options screen. This waste of a CD should be taken out of every store in the world. Trust me, I enjoy all sorts of games from Hearts of Iron to Raven Shield to Battlefield 1942 and Starfleet Command III - DO NOT BUY THIS GAME OR ANY OTHER GAME MADE BY DEREK SMART.

Rating:
Summary: They don't get much worse
Review: I bought this game, hoping that it would provide me with something fun to do whenever I had free time. Yes, the prospect of engaging enemies in major battles for control of numerous spaceports and bases on 4 different theatres of combat appealed to me. So, between this and spending $39.95 on Joint Operations, I chose this.

What was I thinking?

This game freezes often, and I can't even find the "Quit" option. Apparently, the developers wanted to make it a puzzle just trying to figure out how to move your ship or fire your guns. You can't do anything in this game, it crashes, freezes, you can't control it, and in the campaign you dont even know what to do. The best part is that you can't even save or load or go to an options screen. This waste of a CD should be taken out of every store in the world. Trust me, I enjoy all sorts of games from Hearts of Iron to Raven Shield to Battlefield 1942 and Starfleet Command III - DO NOT BUY THIS GAME OR ANY OTHER GAME MADE BY DEREK SMART.

Rating:
Summary: Unlike Anything Else
Review: I give it 5 stars despite the fact that it's less than perfect because a few flaws do not reduce this to a 4 star simulation.

It's a game with a mission structure, but you can also play in free roving mode. The graphics are good but not state of the art simply because this game renders so so many planets, all with cities and military bases, mountains etc. We are talking about dozens and dozens of planets and even more moons. It's an insane experience. You fly in space, maybe dock at a station to resupply or buy things, maybe encounter adversaries to combat, then you fly down to a planet combat in the air, or land, exit your craft, and combat on foot with a hand weapon, maybe take a land vehicle and drive it around. Maybe go out to a navy ship.

You can also command, not just a small fighter, but a huge starship that has fighters which you can launch and give commands to, a starship that also has shuttles for deploying marines on planets whom you can also give commands to. Of course as commander of a starship you can also leave it, click a few buttons to put yourself in a fighter or shuttle. The starship itself has large beam weapons and missiles.

But this only scratches the surface because there are many different type of starships and fighters, and many different types of careers and races you can play through a campaign in.

It's a simulation with lots of things to think about and command and deal with. It is NOT a game for the faint of heart. If thinking bothers you, if you have a collection of WWF games on your shelf, then stay away. It will take some time to get a grip on it, but it's well worth it if you want a game with depth because it's scope is breathtaking. It is a game you can play forever.

Check in with bc3000ad.com frequently because the developer himself personally makes and uploads patches to all of his games.

You might also download his game BattleCruiser 3000AD version 2.9 for free from his website. It's similar, though not as good because it's an earlier incarnation, but it's free and it's excellent, though its graphics aren't as good and if I remember right you cannot walk around first person on planets in BC 3000 AD 2.9. I might be wrong about that but it's free so try it. You have to download 2.7 first and then the 2.9 patch. AND DOWNLOAD THE MANUAL TOO. You will be lost without it. Universal Combat is much more user friendly than this free game.

Rating:
Summary: I want my $16.95 back!!!
Review: I have never been motivated enough to review a game before this one. Good or bad, I pretty much just played until I got bored and figured I had my money's worth.

All of that changed with Universal Combat.

To put it simply, the game is absolutely AWFUL! Everything that has been written about it - the lack of stability, the graphics straight out of the 1980's, the incredibly complex interface, the myriad array of choices that really don't impact the gameplay in the slightest - are all true. This game truly is a piece of garbage.

The only good thing I can say about this game - and I am stretching here - is that the box art is cool.

I can't even sell the game to someone else... I'd feel too guilty about it.

Rating:
Summary: Yikes!
Review: I played and enjoyed Smart's Battlecruiser Millennium Gold, and hoped this would be a solid update in the series. Boy, was I wrong. This game is a mess - incredibly buggy, the graphics are a little better than BMG but not by much, and it lacks the stately, thoughful pace of previous games that allowed the player to immerse himself (or herself) in the Battlecruiser universe.

Please, save your money. If you want to play a game where the concept worked much better, buy a copy of Battlecruiser Millennium Gold. It's a bit dated, but thoroughly enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: When Good Ideas are done shoty
Review: I've been watching the progress of Universal Combat for a long time. Now that i finally have it i can say this. If you are looking for a stable well put together game that mixes planetside and freelancer, you will be thourghly sadened.

No one will like this game. Those that like the slower pace of the BattleCrusier Games, you will find that this game is unplayable. The game is buggy and terrible.

I know the amazon blerb says physics engine but this is not true. There are animations for the deaths, not physics based, and more importanly, the game has no way for you to go into bases. There is no crash ditection! your character can "go through" bases, trees, vehicles, its terrible.

The graphics are way past dated. They resemble Quake 2. The information that you see long distance about objects ubstructs the screen. The text has a background so you can't see verywell.

The learning curve is off the roof, this is hampered by the fact that alot of things don't work properly. When colliding with anything your character lays down. And if you go through something, you start to sink into the floor.

This is the shottiest game i have ever seen.

Idea wise its great, but the steap learning curve and gameplay issues kill this game.

Alot of the originally proposed ideas from Battle Cruiser Generations never made it in. The half assed job done by 3000AD is evident when you start the game and the startup image is of Battle Cruiser Generations, not universal Combat.

Please do not get this game, your throwing your money away!! Get the demo from 3000ad.com and try that, if for somereason you like it then get the game. But for those looking for a tribes/planetside/freelancer crossover game don't get this!!