Imagine the year is 2012. The Hierarchy, a warring alien race, begins to kill all the inhabitants of Earth and strip the planet of its resources. Playing as the humans, you'll fight the good fight until you are forced to retreat due to vastly technologically superior invaders.

While the humans are fighting - and dying - a race of sentient machines, called Novus, arrive on the Earth and declare themselves to be the immune system of the Universe. The Hierarchy is a cancer and the Novus has arrived to eradicate them.

As the plot thickens you'll play the Novus. The Novus give it their all but find themselves hard pressed to eliminate the Hierarchy and save the humans. Just as the Novus determine that Earth is a trap, a commander of the Hierarchy waits for an appropriate time to challenge the overseers of his race of slave soldiers.

From here you have the opportunity to play as the Hierarchy commander. The commander is betrayed and killed by the Hierarchy overseer as he tries to make peace with the Masari who have also laid a trap on planet Earth.

Until the end of the game, the game player leads the Masari in their ancient battle against the Hierarchy. In the final battle you save the humans, the Earth, the Novus and the Masari by defeating the Hierarchy. The plot leaves the door open for a sequel.

This plot is woven into a real time strategy (RTS) game. There are structures to build and upgrade. As you build and upgrade structures more structures and units can be built. Some units, the large Hierarchy walkers, can create units as well.

There is a tech tree for the Novus, Hierarchy, and Masari. As you develop more bases on the Earth you get more parts of the research tree that you can purchase as you play the game. There are 12 technologies that you can research.

I found the interface to be a bit different than most RTS games I've played. As you build builder, infantry, vehicle and air production structures and units you are given buttons to click on to build those units across the bottom of the screen. Heroes are also easily accessed through the icons at the bottom of the screen.

The plot was sufficiently twisted for me to enjoy it. If you are a little twisted, you might also enjoy the plot. In the end the good win the campaign. In the multiplayer game anything goes.

The game functions on two levels. The world level allows you to fight from one region of the world to the next. You establish a base and you decide how to develop the base.

You move to a new area and either occupy it if it is empty, or conquer enemy. If the enemy is there you go from the strategic map to the tactical one where you command individual troops, build and upgrade structures, and ultimately grow an army.

I was a bit disappointed that some of the good guys were scripted to die in the campaign. There is no way to save these heroes, you cannot go back and play the game over and over again until you save them. They are dead once you load the game off of the DVD.

Most games today have voice over work and actors. These actors have done a good job. I enjoyed the voice over work. Sadly there is no way to use the voice over work extensively in multiplayer. The music was good if sparingly used. The sound effects were effective. I enjoyed the use of sound in the game.

I wish there had been more than three game saves. It was frustrating to reach the end of the game with the Hierarchy and the Masari still locked. You had to play through Novus to get to them again.

The multiplayer game can be played on a Windows Live Gold Account or you can host a game on your own computer. Also, you can participate in ranked or unranked play. Playing while hooked up to Live gives you earn medals to win and special abilities not available in the campaign mode. You can take up to five medals into multiplayer mode to customize the game the way you want.

Unfortunately, you cannot play multiplayer with humans and the campaign feels a bit over scripted. You have few choices with this game, the script locks you in. The multiplayer game is a bit more open ended. I enjoyed Universe at War: Earth Assault and happily recommend it.