Rise of Nations

"Best..RTS.. EVER!!!"

RTS (Real Time Strategy) games have come a long way, starting from the well known Age of Empire (in my case). Different games has been developed, getting more and more realistic, better and better. I must say that Rise of Nations is really at the top of all RTS games that exist, but not only RTS, but also strategy games like Starcraft or Warcraft. Most of the RTS tends to bore me after I play them for a while, but this one is just too good to get boring!!

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
When I started this game, I was halfway sure that it would be good. But I was a little scared that it would be too hard, like empire earth is, or too long to get used to the controls or something like that. Well I can say that after 2 games, I got fully accustomed to this game. It is really addictive and probably the best RTS game ever made yet.

GAMEPLAY
The gameplay is really good. You start in the primitive epoch and build your way to our period. There is a total of 18 races, each having their own ''bonuses'' and unique units. If you are the non-violent type of person, you can simply win this game by expanding your territory, diplomacy, or simply by building wonders. Or you can win this old-fashion way, which is kill your enemy. There is few new concepts in this game, which makes it much more fun, and now having multiple cities actually gives bonuses, unlike in other games. For once, you can actually trade, instead of having your merchant attacked by enemies. In other words, playing this game is a sheer bliss.

For a quick explanation: First, gathering resources is very different from other RTS; in this game, there is 6 resources: Food (farms/rivers), wood (forest), iron (mountain), wealth (taxation, trades, cities, expansion), knowledge (university) and oil (villagers drill for it). Also, another difference is that you can only build in your national borders. You can also build buildings only under your city area, but can build new cities, as long as they are still under your national borders. Building new cities increases your national borders, so the more cities you have, the bigger the territory.

STORY
There is no real story in this game. You build your empire and try to vanquish your rivals. Unlike almost every other RTS, the campaign has nothing to do with history.

GRAPHICS
The graphics of this game are just wonderful. Units and objects are well-detailed. You can get closer to the action, which is real fun. Even details like grass movement or water waves are present. Only problem is when you get closer to the action, graphics then to get uglier, but hey! A game can't be perfect.

SOUND
The sound of this game is simply beautiful. You can hear your units fight (in a battle), or yell (when you order them to attack), you can hear gunshots, hear them die, etc. Just wonderful.

REPLAYABILITY
Replayability is the essence of a RTS. You will NEVER get tired of this game, believe me. This game is too good for that. Only thing that can sometimes get annoying is having to wait to reach the desired epoch.

CHALLENGE RATING
At first this game might seem hard, but a good trick is to have some allies until you get the hang of it. When you become really good, you can always change the difficulty setting, and believe me, hardest is insane, I personally never managed to beat a computer at insane. In other words, thanks to the 5 different difficulties, you can either own totally, play fair, or have the challenge of your life.

Score

GAMEPLAY = 10/10
STORY = 10/10
GRAPHICS = 8/10
SOUND = 9/10
REPLAYABILITY = 9/10
Overall = 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/08/04