Rise of Nations

"It's a bit different, but it's the best RTS game EVER!"

I have played Starcraft and I still play Age of Mythology. I like Real Time Strategy game (RTS) and this breaks the old pattern of RTS games. It introduces such new concepts that they will last for a long time. It may not be a new genre but it completely sets new standards for RTS games. I downloaded the demo and bought the game on it's release, and I have to say one thing... AMAZING, simply AMAZING. There is no other game like this one, read on.

General Summery:

Like all RTS games you have gather resources with villagers and build an army to conquer your enemy as well as building some defenses along the way. Rise of Nations takes RTS gaming a BIG step forward. There are cool 8 ages. You can choose from 18 different nations, including the Chinese, British, Roman and even Aztec. Each nation has it's own set of special units as well as unique powers and bonuses. This totally increases the possibilities of the game. So many options and so many ways to play them, the keys for an everlasting game. I will go into new concepts such as attrition, resources and units in a later section.

Story:

Rise of Nations has a lack of a story. There is almost no story in the game, even in single player. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad thing. Rise of Nations was not designed for a story. Think of it, 18 nations and 8 ages that fit into one campaign? It wouldn't work, and you wouldn't want to play through 18 different campaigns because it would be boring after a while.

Single Player:

Rise of Nations has a single player mode called Conquer the World (CTW). You choose your nation and you start at your capital on a world map. All the 17 other nations also start at their capital land. You move your piece to naboring lands to conquer them. You get rare resources and battle cards. You can also ally or make peace with other nations. It is like the board game Risk, except with RTS battles every time you start a battle, instead of rolling a die or dice. The neat graphics are that the map is shaped like the real land in the world. For example: If you are playing a game in Italy and North Africa, the map will be formed like those two places with the Mediterranean Sea in between. A great option for single player since there can't really be a story. It will get boring after a while, so consider multiplayer. You may also start quick battles against the computer if you wish too.

Multiplayer:

The online experience is amazing, the game isn't the same without it. You can create or join games, rated or unrated. You can set the game options as you wish. There is a buddy list for you to save friend's usernames and check when their online as well as private message them.
I will admit the game can get laggy. If you have dial-up (56k), the game will be slower and it will lag for other people with faster connections. I have cable and I find that the game lags when slower connections play. The solution is to play with people with the same connection type. Overall, I play Rise of Nations FOR the multiplayer!

Graphics: The graphics of the buildings and maps is above average and can compair with other RTS games. All building are 2D. On the other hand, the 3D units are simply amazing. Not only do the units look good, their actions are unmatched. I will give some good examples. When a field cannon has to move from one place to another it is taken by two men, hooked onto a horse with a wooden hook for the cannon. Before and after the cannon is fired a man loads it with gun powder using a large stick to pack it down. A machine gun is loaded and hooked on a tripod before fired. No worries because all of the actions are done very quickly. The backround for the menu screens is a changing picture of battle scenes and pictures of big cities in the game.

New Game Concepts:

Boundaries: In Rise of Nations, the land you own is surrounded by elastic boundaries. This land is owned by you and your allies. You can expand your territory by building new cities or forts. You can lose territory if the enemy captures your cities or destroys your forts.

Attrition: In real life, if you went into a battle without and supplies such as food, water, medics or ammo, your army would die. Well in Rise of Nations it's the same thing. If you send your units into enemy territory without a supply wagon (or supply truck in later ages) your units will take attrition damage. Your opponent must research attrition first at a tower and the only exception is the Russians who get attrition upgrades free. You can also upgrade your attrition damage later as the game progresses.

Wonders: There are 14 wonders in Rise of Nations that ever nation can build. They are expensive and take long to build but they offer great bonuses. Each age brings new wonders to the game. A type of wonder can only be built once in the game, and it belongs to its builder until it is captured or destroyed. In Rise of Nations you can win a game by building wonders, as each wonder give you a certain amount of points. You can turn of wonder victories if you wish.

Resources: There are 6 main resources food, wood, wealth, metal, oil and knowledge. Metal, oil and knowledge become available at later ages. There are also 32 rare resources that are scattered on every map. Multiple nations can share a rare resource.

There are so many different and exciting new concepts I cannot mention them all!

Assimilation of cities: When ever you place a city in the game it stays there permenatly. If an opponent wants to capture your city he will have to destroy its hit points. The building itself doesn't change. When all the hit points are gone, your opponent must defend the city for a 2 minute timer, until it doesn't belong to you. The land in the area of a city being assimilated is neutral.

To buy or not to buy:

Defiantly buy, if liked what you read in this review, than don't wait any longer. If you are content with other RTS games, and don't feel like investing them maybe you should wait or find more information. Other than that, if you long for fun like you've never seen before in an RTS game, go buy it! See you online!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/27/03, Updated 06/24/03