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Review:

5th July 2003:
Rise Of Nations
Can Age Of Empires and Civilization 2 fuse together to rule the RTS genre? Can this epic title take the RTS crown? Read the review then decide for yourself.
Posted by Peter Cavan - PC - UK and Europe

Rise Of Nations is a game of truly epic proportions. Developed by Big Huge Games, and being based around 6000 years of history, this was always going to be a large title.

The best way to describe this game is what happens when you put "Age Of Empires" (Microsoft Game Studios) and "Civilization" (Brian Reynolds, lead designer on Civ 2), in a pot and mix thoroughly. Age Of Empires with national borders, or Civilization zoomed right in, whatever way you want to look at it.

This is an RTS (Real-Time Strategy) game in the purest sense of the word. No adventure or FPS elements tacked on to cover a few genres, this game is an RTS and happy to flaunt it. If you want arcade blast-a-thons or pedal-to-the-metal driving simulators, then look away now. This is a game which can take ages to get anywhere, and for fans of the genre that is where its appeal lies. If you so desire you can spend ours tinkering and changing, making minute adjustments that will pay dividends later.

Onto the game itself. As you may have guessed from the title, RON asks you to take one nation (out of a possible 18) to glory, from one tiny village to a world-spanning empire. From the research screens that show you from the start what the final few years of your control will be like, to the clearly defined ages, this game is all about advancing through time.

There are 3 main single-player modes to start off with. The ubiquitous tutorial is there, giving you 6 stages to teach you everything from collecting timber in ancient times to forging alliances during WW2. The other two make up the main part of the game, a Quick Battle, and the "Conquer The World" campaign. The quick battle is a simple enough affair, where you are placed on a map with other CPU controlled enemies and win through pre-defined rules. A quick battle is quick only in contrast to the other main mode, battles can last from 15 minutes to hours on end.

And now we come to the "Conquer the World" campaign, the main meat of the game, where the player will probably spend most of his/her time. If you have ever played Risk this is very easy to explain, this is Risk, but where every move takes hours to complete. If you haven't played Risk in any form, let me explain. You start as a nation on a map of the world, which has been divided into dozens of little areas, or "territories". You control one of these territories and there are CPU controlled nations dotted around, each in control of their own country. To win, all you have to do is to either annihilate everybody else, or make peace with everybody else (or a bit of both). Sounds easy? Get ready for one of the longest "easy" modes you'll ever play. You start with one army, and can move to any adjoining territory. If it is empty, you claim it and you empire grows with space, tribute and resources. Also, if the territory has a supply depot, you gain an extra army; useful for defending all sides of your empire. But if somebody already owns it, that is where the fun begins.

If you want to go into somebody else's territory, you will have to beat them in battle to make them leave. There are two main types of battle in this area, Conquest and Tactics.
In Tactics, you are given 10-15mins and told to eradicate all of the enemy's buildings. As you have no support civilians, and therefore no way to build anything, you have to win the scenario with just the troops you begin with. This tests your skill in tactics (surprisingly enough), and is probably the quickest battle mode in the game.
In Conquest, on the other hand, you are given civilians, and sometimes just a scout to help. Scouts can't fight or build, but they are the best unit in the game for exploring, being quick and able to see far. Civilians can build and gather, they will do a lot of this in the course of a game. The Conquest scenarios are either destroy your enemy within a time limit (a couple of hours), or survive for the same time. With the exception of this time limit, and the way it affects your Conquer the World success, these Conquest scenarios are similar to the quick battles.

In both Conquest and Quick Battles you start with some civilians, a scout, and a handful of troops. You also get a small city and a library. You start at a pre-defined age out of a possible 7, the higher age you are the more you can build, do etc. Your first priority in these scenarios is resource collection, which will be familiar to AOE veterans. You can use resources, such as wood, food, metal and oil, to build things, to create units, and also to research. Research in done in library, under the headings of Civic, Military, Science, Commerce and Age Advance. Age Advance simply advances you to the next age, but the others have different effects. Military gives you a higher population cap, which means that you can make a larger army, and allows you to make more advanced units such as tanks and planes. Civic allows you to build more cities and expand your borders, more on this later. Science allows for a few more buildings and reduces research cost. Commerce allows you to have more caravans, and increases your commerce cap. Unlike AOE, in Rise Of Nations you don't get 10 or so more of each resource every time you see a person walk into the specific building. Instead, you get a number after a + sign in the top left of your screen. This number can be increased, for the example of timber, by building more woodcutters' huts and making more civilians work at them. If this number goes above your resource cap, the number will flash and you will have to research commerce at the Library. As you may already have guessed this is a very deep game with much to learn and take in for an inexperienced gamer.

Other buildings are useful too. Temples can increase your borders and allow for taxation. Wonders, such as the Eiffel Tower, can be built; each wonder gives its own benefits. Barracks, Stables and Siege Factories build units that add to your army, making conquest of your enemy easier. Cities build extra civilians, which can build or gather more resources. Building more cities has other advantages, as in the Civilisation series of games. Each city can only support 5 farms which make food, you will need more cities to make more food. Also, once you have a Market building you can make Caravans. These units make trade routes between your cities, which brings in wealth.

I mentioned borders before, which are an integral part of scenarios in RON. Borders are a thin coloured line that mark out your territory. The vast majority of buildings can only be built in your territory, so expansion is crucial. Sometimes you can even win a scenario by controlling more than 60% of the map. Buildings such as temples, cities, and forts increase your borders, as does Age advance and Civic research. Also, you can research Attrition Damage, which means that enemy units take damage just because they are in your territory.

Another main part of Rise Of Nations is diplomacy. You may not always be able, or want, to crush all of your opponents. Instead you can forge alliances with your neighbours. Once researched allies can see each other's line of sight and can have trade routes between their cities. Allies can also choose to go to war together against a common enemy. If this happens all of the allies will start a battle against the decided foe. Diplomacy can be useful in other ways too. If you want to declare war on a rival you would be advised to declare war on them first, if your army enters a neutral territory they will take serious attrition damage.

This must be one of the best-looking RTS games out at the moment. The world is very detailed and well animated, a vibrant and rich landscape portrayed. You can zoom in quite close to the action, never losing clarity or detail. You might not be able to zoom in or out as far as you like, but it is still quite useful. The sound is more than acceptable too, an epic soundtrack befitting of such an epic game. A lot like a good film score, smooth yet gripping and involving perfectly into the action

This game wants greatly to be the greatest RTS of gaming so far, and in many ways it is. As long as you have the patience, this could be a game you will come back to again and again. And it is very long the first time round, never mind replaying. If you have played Age Of Empires or Civilization it may not be all that amazingly different, but there is still more than enough innovation to make this a must-have purchase for RTS veterans and newbies alike.

Peter Cavan

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Review Summary:

A truly great RTS game that will appeal to veterans and new-comers alike. A lot of it has been done before, but never with such style and polish. A title that can rule the RTS roost. Long, but rewarding after a lengthy play. Top notch.

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