Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends

"An RTS with some twists"

Having not played the previous game in this series I cannot say of any improvements or differences, but I can say that this game has inspired me to go and try its predecessor Rise of Nations: Thrones & Patriots.
Overview: Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends is an RTS (real time strategy) game set in a fantasy pioneer era. The units range musket-men to dragons with a bunch of mechanical units (like clockwork spiders and sun idols that seem to be made of stone) in the mix. There is also a group of about 10 heroes you can use throughout the campaign. There are 3 factions you can play: Vinci, Cuotl, and the Alin. They are all very different for reasons I will get into later. The whole campaign follows a hero through 3 separate sub-campaigns where you assume the control of the aforementioned factions. The game will take you about 25-30 hours to complete.

Gameplay: 8.5
As mentioned this is a RTS where you must make units and buildings in real time and fight off the enemy while managing your economy, I will try to explain how this game works but it is somewhat complex until you try it yourself, also note the Cuotl have a different game style than the other 2 (learning curve about 1-2 hours).

Resources: There are only 2 resources in this game: Timonium and Gold (or Energy for Cuotl). You get Timonium from mining and gold from trade, the Cuotl gain energy by building a special building at their main base. Your main base can build 3 types of buildings. Each faction has its own unique 3 which then go on to have other effects but the basics are housing, markets/energy, and a unique faction special building (which is more unique than the other 2 as it might let you gain special research points or give you a special unit). The interesting thing about this game is that there are infinite resources (so a miner mines forever, and more miner's just increase the rate per minute you gain Timonium, same with gold/energy with their respective units/buildings). This infinite resource gain, however, is marred with a cost increase every time you make another of the same thing. For example, if you make 1 clockwork man it would only cost you 40 gold, but then the next would cost you 45, and the next 50 and so on. The same is also true for buildings, the first building is always cheapest.

Battle: As you make units and more buildings you can (and should) research new units, upgrades, and heroes. There are 3 heroes you can make in a skirmish and about 7 in the campaign. In a skirmish you upgrade hero skills with gold/energy while in the campaign map its done differently with experience which you gain from completing quests. In terms of actual fighting it's the same as most other RTS games where you try to match units against their weaker counterpart while avoiding having the same done to you with hero skills being used to mix battles up and even turn the tide. Heroes are strong but they will need a lot of micro management to be totally useful. Even powerful heroes are not gods however, and they can easily be overwhelmed. Its best to use them as leaders rather than one man armies as most of their skills work in compliment with an army around. The way buildings are captured is interesting in this game. First off on every map there are neutral sites scattered out over the map, the range from cities to resource generators. You can buy them for gold/energy (the farther away the more they cost), kill the neutral guards and take the building HP down to 0, or if you are Alin or Vinci you can win them over with trade (basically as you make markets you can make caravans which fly over the map trading with neutral sites and each time they reach a neutral site it reduces the cost of the site, and eventually you get it for free). Neutral sites and cities cannot be destroyed they can only be captured. All other buildings built by the players (that don't attach to the main base) are destroyed (and cannot be captured). In order to capture a building it must have its HP reduced to 0 (or if you have enough troops you can storm it) and you must have military dominance in that area (i.e. more units than then your enemy). When this happens a flag timer starts to fill with your colour, once it reachs full you own the building at almost no health.

Campaign: The campaign is more interesting than a regular RTS game as there is also a Strategic Map that looks like a mini risk map. You move your hero token over the map and each territory is claimed by a unique (or skirmish like) battle. The twist is that each of these territories can be upgraded in Strategy mode and you can only gain access (in campaigns, because skirmish has everything available) to new units by researching new units. You get research points from buildings. You get building points from other types of buildings (and there are also army points which let you get extra men at the start of each battle). You also gain different points (building, army, research) each time you take over a territory. It can be a bit confusing at first but basically you want to make a bunch of buildings so you can upgrade them to palaces which generate all three types of points each turn. It took me a while to clue into building palaces (because building a barracks or district only gives you 1 pt the next turn after building, not every turn like palaces-NOTE: markets are the only non-palace building which give you a continuous source of points which are build points, start off making lots of these then move on to palaces) and I didn't get very many research points to improve my army which may happen to you if you don't start making markets then palaces right away. Once you take over the map you move on to the next sub-campaign and you play as another faction and the process is repeated. As you play levels you can also do bonus quests within them to get experience points which you can spend on your heroes and upgrades them (in skirmish/multiplayer mode you upgrade your heros with gold spend on their skills).

Story: 5
Its very short (less than 10 minutes in total scenes) and plays out like a decent movie in super fast forward. It skips almost all emotion and detail to drive the story forward and there isn't a sense of purpose instilled. Still some people may argue if you want a story watch a movie and that it allows faster game play action. I personally like a good story and a reason to play the hero. This game isn't heavy on a good story.

Sounds and Music: 7
Its ok, not much else to say other than you can turn it off.

Controls: 8
You can use hotkeys and change them which is basically all you need. The camera is pretty good and I never need to rotate it. The mini map is helpful and there is a locate idle units (or locate all units of a type) but as with some RTS games this one is marred with mini map over crowding and all the symbols can become blurry. Still good though.

Overall: 8 (rounded down because of the story)
This score reflects game play and a hint of the story score. It's a pretty good game and I really recommend giving it a shot. I personally liked it so much I want to get the earlier game in the series. Since it's a computer game you obviously cant rent it so look for a trail version or a friend who has it if you don't want to dump the cash without sampling it first.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/12/06