RTS games suffer more than any other genre on their translation from mouse and keyboard to controller as the speed and precision you need to select units and move around the map is lacking compared to the PC counterparts. The precision is compensated by a snapping reticle technique (also used in First Person Shooters) but moving the camera around the battlefield is always a poor relation.

So what have Petroglyph brought to the table with Universe at War?

The game takes place on Planet Earth which has been invaded by aliens known as the Hierarchy. Hot on their heels is another alien race known as the Novus who as the story unfolds form an unlikely allience with the native species of Earth (i.e. us) to help fend off the Hierarchy.

Things didn't start out well as the game crashed during the training campaign - a quick restart and it worked this time and has done ever since.

The training campaign takes place on the Novus mothership as you begin to assemble your forces ready to jump through the portal and down onto Earth.

You learn how to move the camera, select units, move units, build and all the basic RTS commands.

Remember in my second paragraph I referred to the camera movement around the battlefield? Well UAW (as Universe at War will be referred to henceforth) uses an interesting techinque by magnifying the mini map when you pull the right trigger enabling the viewport window to be rapidly moved around the map using the right thumbstick.

It works well too - it's easily the best solution I've seen in a console RTS for the battlefield camera movement.

The whole interface is based around the triggers and bumper buttons to explode popup menus - the menu options are often on rotating strips with tooltips explaining what the option does.

Naturally, this isn't practical in the heat of battle so some time learning the icons that represent the actions and commands is quite a high priority if you're going to take UAW online.

The tidy way Petroglyph have assembled the user interface leads to less clutter and less complication.

Units are selected with the A button (a double-tap of A selects all units of the type you're hovering over on the screen) and you can select just mililitary units via the X button.

The left trigger pops up the available commands for the selected unit or building. If you have a group of units selected, the command list contains commands for all the units in your selection - a nice touch.

One thing I didn't find was the ability to add and subtract from a selection of units - I didn't have a manual with my review copy so I tracked one down on the Internet and could see anything in it about this.

Building takes place using builder units and is fairly standard stuff - you get a footprint for the building, place it, and that's it.

The single player campaign guides you through the user interface and commands and thanks to the prologue mission which takes place shortly before the Novus land, you get to see some some of the new elements UAW brings to the RTS genre as you square off against the massive Walker units the Hierarchy have.

The Walkers are like huge mechanical spiders but there are hotspots at various parts of the body known as Hardpoints. These are capable of having upgrades and weapons attached to them and they are also the places you, as their enemy, have to concentrate your firepower on to bring them down.

This requires a certain amount of precision which the controls aren't really up to - the Walkers, as their name suggests, walk - so if you're aiming for hardpoints on the legs, it's tricky to get the reticle in place as the legs are constantly in motion.

During the prologue the Novus arrive to save the day. The war for Earth has now begun.

As well we the nice zoom minimap, UAW also innovates with power system (if you're playing as Novus) as the power conduits also act as transportation rails. Novus forces can enter the power grid and quickly fly to another locations even if it's the opposite side of the battlefield providing there is a connection there.

In other games you position your power plants or equivalent and make sure you have enough to sustain your base but in UAW you must expand your conduit network to increase the size of your base - each conduit has an area of coverage and only buildings within one of these area will have power.

The battles take place on Earth but the units are all alien and come in all shapes and sizes. They are nicely drawn for the most part but the smaller ones can look too similar if you're zoomed out. Selecting them with the controller is frustrating but it does get easier once you're used to the snapping.

Graphically the game boasts great pyrotechnics and decent enough scenery but the units are a bit of a let down - some of them look okay but some look as though they're floating rather than walking (some units do float legitimately but I refer to the ground-based units here). There is actually a high percentage of air-based units and this leads to another problem in that they're so similarly coloured to the structures that they are accidentally camouflaged should the units be in front and above a structure at the current camera angle. Not game breaking by any means but annoying.

The sound is unexpectedly weak and the main robotic voice in the game is grating. The music is dull and the sound effects in the game are average.

Overall the presentation is functional but lacks the finesse of it's main rival Command and Conquer 3.

UAW does boast online play but I was unable to find a match to join when I tried so I was unable to test this out - I wasn't really too disappointed though - overall the game lacks any real charm.

I'll be up front here and admit I struggled to get motivated to play this game and write this review - the game lacks the character it's rivals have to begin with and I could myself not really caring less about the plight of the Earth and the destruction of the Hierarchy but I perservered with it being a fan of RTS games in general.

I think part of the problem for it is everything moves a little too fast - against the AI I felt as I was always reacting rather than planning.

As I get more used to the interface I am sure the game will get better and even in the few days I've been playing it, it did begin to improve as my understanding and prowess did.

However there are too many issues with the unit selection and at times, the framerate, to make this a candidate for the best RTS game on the 360

User Interface

Clean and tidy - nice use of pop-up menus and innovative zoom minimap for battlefield camera movement.

Graphics

Functional is the fairest way to decscribe them. The scenery and pyrotechnics are nice but the units are hit and miss.

Story

Ubiquitous alien invasion and liberation sci-fi storyline which was utterly ruined by the grating robot narrative and charisma-vacuum characters.

Gameplay

Fiddly selection mechanism mar an otherwise decent translation from mouse/keyboard to controller.

Multiplayer

Decent enough game modes and cross-platform gaming (pending a patch) enabling your dodgy controller setup to be utterly spanked by PC owners with their mouse and keyboards. I was unable to find a match online to try it out.

Online play enabled you to play one of three alien races (Hierarchy, Novus and Masari).