Developer: Rocwise Entertainment
Publisher: Rocwise Entertainment
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Soldiers of the Universe – Review
Finally, a game where not the average John Cena or Chuck Norris walks across the battlefield packed like Rambo. A game where not the American army, but a Turkish special agent plays the main role. Especially in a time of controversy around the Middle-East, a welcome change. Developer Rocwise Entertainment, located in Turkey/Istanbul, has taken on an ambitious project with just a small team. The fact they started the company in 2016 doesn’t make it less of a challenge..
Story
You play as Hakan, an elite soldier, soon to be serving a Turkish secret military operation called Akinci Warriors. Apparently, you take after your dad since he also served the military, or at least the state of Turkey. Hakan’s dad gets killed during a coup attempt in 2016, a rather weird intertwinement with propaganda since there are images being used in the introduction cutscene that seems to be originating from the actual coup attempt in Turkey, 2016. The cutscenes are something crossed between the generic American TV-series such as CSI and a small team’s eager drift to tell a story. The title of the game, just as a lot of other things of the game, seem to be breathing nationalism and patriotism. Soldiers of the Universe doesn’t even really mean anything in the game, so it’s safe to assume the ”importance” of the soldiers was supposed to be expressed by the name. Besides the title and the story, Rocwise Entertainment doesn’t mind clearly stating and affirming that the game indeed has a lot of nationalistic elements by describing it with sentences such as ”He will learn what “patriotism” really means” and ”Hakan will be fighting a relentless struggle against terrorists along with three other heroes” on their Steam Store page. it’s like taking a slice of bread and covering it with 12 slices of cheese.
Graphics
During the gameplay itself, the game has some pretty nice graphics. Graphics that almost resemble AAA+ titles such as Battlefield or Call of Dutyn which is surprising considering the small team. If anything, the cutscenes are more what you’d expect with their rather simplistic models and movements that represent graphics from around 2005. Experimental, not experts at work. It’s something that will repeat in all game elements. Small team, low budget, high ambition, it’s a cat that will barely ever land on its feet. But, the in-game graphics were surprising nonetheless.
Sound
Chronologically, when playing the game, the first terrible sound you will encounter is the voice acting in the opening cutscene. It could be something to cry over or to laugh over, but it sounds like a couple of perfectly British gents trying to represent Turkish people. Or in the main character’s case not even that, but like he’s an MI6 agent instead of Turkish special forces. The second sound is the bugging sound of badly repeated footsteps when walking. The only real plus points about the sound are the gun effects that are ”just okay” and the satisfying sound of one of your bullets lodging themselves in your enemy’s head.
Gameplay
Sadly, gameplay is where the worst part of the game lies. Making a first person shooter, you’d expect there would be more than enough prime examples to study, starting in the 90’s. In Soldiers of the Universe, however, there is a lot missing that’s supposed to define a good quality shooter. The environment is bad and easy to get stuck in. The AI is terrible. On normal difficulty, as soon as you are in sight, no matter what the distance, an enemy will shoot and almost certainly hit you. Since you die in about three hits, this makes it rather unrealistic, but above all unenjoyable to play the game. What good is a special agent that can’t even scout around any corner before he gets bullets flying around him?
Your teammates’ AI is about as good as the enemies’, making you sometimes rather want to shoot them than somebody else. The levels are boring and straightforward, run to point A, run to point B. Shoot. Shoot. Duck cause you are getting shot at. Stand up trying to shoot back, die. It would be sufficient for at least some amount of fun if the game would play at least half as good as it looked. But no. Besides that, removing the game from Early Access seems like a clear sign the developers have given up on trying to improve this project and also, like the players, rather move on to the next one.
Conclusion
Soldiers of the Universe has nice graphics and an idea that could have worked out great. Too bad that’s all it has. It’s a project where developers tried to imitate games they probably admire with their own experiences and ideas. This combination created an exercise, an experimental game. It just didn’t work out this time, crushed by ambition and lack of experience.
Soldiers of the Universe - Review,
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