Rise of Nations: Gold Edition

"A few years have passed since its release, but that does not mean it has lost its golden touch."

Synopsis: This a real-time strategy game, and it has everything you would expect of one; a campaign map of the world, a system of diplomacy, and a battle map where you basically test your building and recruiting skills. It may seem like other real-time strategy games where the key to winning is rushing, but the bigger focus on materials, the manpower limitations, and a competent AI make the game more worthwhile. Plus, there are small extra features, such as nation cards which grant the bonus powers of other nations for a turn.

Gameplay- 9/10: One of the most important factors in determining a game's worth is how it plays. Rise of Nations has a story mode, an instant battle mode, and a few extras, such as the feature which allows you to build your own battle map, or even a small game which can test your skill. The emphasis of the game is on its gameplay, which tries its best to combine the aspects of a true real-time strategy game with features that make the quick rush of cheap infantry at the beginning obsolete. Although the game can easily become one-sided, the gameplay is quick and enjoyable.

Graphics, Sound, and all that fun stuff- 8/10: The second thing people will look at in a game are its units' looks, the details of the environment, the quality of the sound, and much, much more. Although I myself find these lesser in comparison to the other features of a game, they cannot be ignored. The units have nice sprites and do not run with buggy animations; while any projectiles they fire shoot from the general area you'd expect them to- the upper body. The sound is nice but soft, it is more of a relaxing mechanism while you spend some time playing this game. Both these things help better the games' popularity and gameplay.

Campaign/Story Mode- 9/10: The ability to play 5 different campaigns in five different eras is superb. You can choose antiquity and conquer the Achaemenid Empire as Alexander the Great; colonize the New World as a European country, or defend it as a native inhabitant; be Napoleon and attempt to conquer Europe as powerful coalitions form against you; play as either the U.S.S.R. or the U.S.A. in the Cold War and fight for supreme control over all nations; play with every nation on a map based off the entire world. The diverse environments of each allow for fun and different outcomes.

Replayability- 10/10: Just like any other RTS, this game has infinite results because no two games are ever played the same. This allows the game to last long like other games of its type, and the extra features make it much better. This is the type of game that a person can learn after a few tries, and they can still have fun after their hundredth game.

Final Words: This game is exactly what a person who wants a quick paced, detailed experience in the RTS genre needs. It provides hours of fun because there is no set rules, and the online play just adds to the heaps of fun- that is, if you can find anybody to play online with you.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/27/06