Mediocrity at work

Universe at War was the third game from the development studio Petroglyph Games, which had launched the excellent Star Wars: Empire at War and its addon Forces of Corruption a year earlier. Without a strong license, the young studio tried to develop a strategy game somewhere between StarCraft and Command & Conquer with aliens of the War of the Worlds brand. It didn't appeal to me at the time, so I didn't play it. In terms of rating, the game is in the fairly average range, but because the music came from the old rock master Frank Klepacki, who also accompanied the entire C&C-series up to Renegade , I thought I'd give it a listen. And what can I say: it does sound the same.

When I listened to the OST again for the review, I realized that the former Westwood composer to me embodies this one rock/grunge band that sounded exactly the same in their early days as they did 10 years later. Where others evolve, this one prefers to stay where it feels safe and consistently plays the same kind of music. Strong electric guitars, lots of drums and calm passages with synths. This pattern runs through Klepacki's entire musical oeuvre in the video game industry and, if one were to put it nastily, one could also say: if you've heard one, you've heard them all. Klepacki even references his own tracks, such as Act on Invasion, a clear nod to works like Act on Instinct from Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn from 1995.

But there are also positive examples where Klepacki breaks away from his formula and lets the stringed instrument rest. For example, vocals and strings are used in Display of Power or Masari Suite. Although they add variety, they are unfortunately not memorable enough. It is safe to say that a lot of my enthusiasm for Klepacki's music stems from nostalgia for the old games that he worked on and with which I spent a lot of time - and unfortunately that is exactly what I miss completely with Universe at War.

Consequently, my rating of the tracks corresponds to the general rating of the game and is in the good midfield, without anything particularly standing out. The music is of a very high quality and stylistically sound. It's all rocking, but it's also expectedly rocking. If you like this style of music, you can definitely listen to it no questsions asked. For everyone else I recommend the more varied score from Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, and if you like it more metal, you should listen to the soundtrack from the new Doom.