Rise of Nations

"Nations, you may rise!"

We've seen the theme before: start somewhere in the dark ages, build settlements and soldiers and progress through the epochs and become sole ruler of the world. We've also seen numerous games tackle the theme from various approaches. Rise of Nations doesn't attempt to break new ground however; rather, it takes the best elements of games such as Age of Empires and Civilization into a cohesive, accessible real-time strategy game.

As with the other games, players can play as one of 18 different nations. When playing the game, players will realise one of the most noticeable differences in Rise of Nations compared to other games in the same genre: instead of building a load of base structures to pump out units, the game revolves around the concept of cities and territory. Players start with a city and can only build supporting structures within the city's proximity, and the size of a city and the number of support structures it has determines how much territory the city dominates. Players can build additional cities to expand their borders and to place resources into their territory for them to utilise. Cities can never be destroyed, but they can be captured by opponents and assimilated into their own territory, conferring the benefits of whatever structures the city had.

Of course, one cannot flood the map with cities. The game's technology model regulates what the player can do at any time. Technology is divided into four categories: Military, Civics, Commerce and Science. Upgrading each category increases the capacity of the player's nation. For example, upgrading the Military line will decrease cost and training time of units and increase population limit, while Science has the innate benefits of cheaper upgrades and larger map exploration. Furthermore, progressing through the research lines will open up new abilities, such as purchasing new upgrades, new units or being able to obtain new resources.

The resource model is remarkably different to what players may be accustomed to. Rather than using peons to mine resources and watch them carry bags back and forth, Rise of Nations simulates resource income through units per minute. For example, let's say we're gathering wood. Instead of getting villagers to lug lumber back and forward, the player simply builds a lumber camp next to a forest and sends a number of villagers there. Depending on how many villagers sent to that camp, the intake of wood will increase at a steady rate. Similarly, obtaining other resources such as oil and iron are based on how many citizens are allocated to the task. However, there is a limit to how fast resources can be obtained, which can be increased through upgrading Commerce. While resources can never be exhausted, this resource model forces players to consider resource management strategies and efficiency over micromanagement of workers.

Rise of Nations includes a large number of resources. Resources that can be directly gathered include the usual food, wood, gold and iron; and as players enter the modern ages, oil becomes a rare but valuable resource. Unique to the game is the resource of Knowledge, which is ‘produced' in universities and is required to purchase more potent upgrades and technologies. Additionally, players can also claim bonus resources which are located on the map. These bonus resources include silk, salt, sugar, uranium, diamonds and much more. Bonus resources add extra income to the player's current resource intake and usually confer other benefits, such as cheaper and faster unit production.

The game's military units are divided into numerous types, which can often be confusing but forces players to build a balanced army instead of spamming one unit type. Unit types include light infantry, heavy infantry, ranged cavalry, heavy cavalry, air units and several types of naval units. Each unit type has a natural counter in another unit type, so archer-type infantry do significantly more damage against heavy infantry while being susceptible against cavalry units, which in turn are weak against heavy infantry. The key to battles is to use the right counter to what the opponent throws at you instead of relying on powerful units or using mindless strategy. As technology improves, unit types become more powerful but at the same time other types can become obsolete, such as the invention of gunpowder rendering most archer units and heavy infantry useless. Unit production is done through the usual military production buildings of barracks, stables and so on. To reduce the amount of micromanagement required, infantry units are trained in groups in three, balancing them against more powerful individual units that cost more.

The Nations themselves include the Romans, French, British, Russian, Bantu and more. As expected, each Nation uses the same units as the others, but certain units are replaced by the Nation's unique units, which are slightly more powerful. For example, the British have access to Yeoman bowmen, Black Watch and Lancaster Bombers to replace the regular units, while the Germans have superior heavy infantry and later Panzers and MG42's. Unfortunately, the difference between unique units and base units is marginal, and there isn't much creativity when it comes to naming them. Expect to come across Elite Royal Super Mega Unique Swordsman or something along those lines.

To separate the Nations further, each Nation has a unique set of bonuses, called “Powers”. For example, the Russians have the Power of the Motherland, which gives the Russians defensive bonuses and increases damage taken by enemy units in their territory. The Germans have the Power of Industry, allowing them to procure resources faster and gain access to resource-based technologies earlier; while the Chinese research Science techs faster and can build citizens and merchants instantaneously.

The presentation side of the game is sensational. The visual side retains the 2D backgrounds but combines them with 3D unit models, resulting in a pseudo-3D appearance that looks deeper than Age of Empires II but less clumsy than Empire Earth, allowing the game to handle large-scale battles without punishing the game's frame rate. The sound effects are disappointingly generic, but the background music more than makes up for it with a large variety of instrumental pieces.

As far as gameplay modes are concerned, Rise of Nations contains the usual standard and deathmatch game types against AI or human opponents, but also contains numerous scenarios that place players in different situations. The game also features the “Conquer the World” mode, in which players select a Nation and capture global regions in a Risk-like turn-based mode, with battles determined by real-time combat between the player and opponent. Despite the interesting concept, Conquer the World is repetitive, consisting of rebuilding the same towns over and over in order to defeat a foe that is doing the same thing. Don't expect to play through Conquer the World for long periods of time without getting bored.

Aside from a rather lacklustre single-player experience, the combination of successful elements of other games gives Rise of Nations the best of everything. The game shines in its depth and balance while being highly innovative at the same time.

Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 9/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Replay: 7/10
Overall: 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/27/06