Windows PC
Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends
By Ryan Newman
Jul 21, 2006, 6 :36 am

Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends is undoubtedly a strong and strange departure for fans of the original Rise of Nations and its expansion, Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots. Gone are the epoch-jumping civilizations of the past: there are no more Germans, Romans, Japanese, French, Aztecs, and so on. In their place have sprung up the Vinci, Alin, and Cuotl civilizations. Each new civilization has a distinctive flair all its own, with units ranging from suicidal clockmen to flaming genies. In spite of the initially off-putting diverse and often confusing units, Rise of Nations is an addictive and thoroughly enjoyable title.

There is a power struggle near the city-state of Miana. The conflict comes to a head when Alessadri the Doge, ruler of the city-state Venucci, kills the heir to the Miana throne, Petruzzo.  You play the role of Petruzzo’s brother, inventor extraordinaire Giacomo - a namesake inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci’s younger assistant Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno. As leader of Miana, you lead your people in a quest for revenge against the Doge, uncovering a plot that involves both the magical Alin and the mysterious Cuotl.

From a general perspective, Rise of Legends seems similar to its predecessors. There is the large RISK-style map, complete with territories of varying degrees of resources and established cities, each offering different attribute bonuses, and armies represented as set pieces. What’s different this time around is that the world maps are more confining than before, with the difficulty of areas forcing you to go in certain areas so that the story will progress at a quicker pace. The playing cards from the previous titles, acting as bonuses for the succeeding battle, are also gone. The game is also story-driven now, as opposed to the previous free-form, loose goal method.

The previous games’ main Conquer the World campaign could take a long time to play through, with battles being waged for the acquisition and defense of territory. This time around, when an enemy invades a territory owned by you, they simply attack the military installations (if there are any) during their turn. If the military complexes fall, then the territory falls; more military structures can be built during an assault, but the increase in points that is required to build during such precarious times are often too great to be a feasible option. The upgrades that can be purchased for territories – military, research, economy, and a palace that is a little of everything – may affect the territory itself as well as the surrounding territories and the nation’s coffers. The added resources can be spent on units that form an army that will accompany the hero(es) during the next round of fighting, as well as upgrading units’ and the heroes’ abilities.

Starting the game off with the Vinci was a good move, because they are the most developed and engaging of the playable races. With a style that’s a mixture of the busy, gritty steampunk design with the flair of the imaginative and more natural renaissance style, the character design is definitely noteworthy. The Vinci utilize musketeers that can alternate between normal stance as well as a volley stance, the latter dealing more damage at the cost of defense, while some of the Doge’s elite troops (trainable in multiplayer with the appropriate upgrade) can ignore long-range attacks altogether and rush in for melee combat. There are also mechanical spiders that can freeze enemies, pudgy cannons that deal massive amounts of damage, clockwork men that stumble along and sling foes about, and heavy bombers that can launch a hectic barrage of missiles. There are more units of course, and all have a flair to them that makes them eye-catching and somewhat confusing at first. Once the units’ advantages and disadvantages are realized, the Vinci offer an enormous amount of potential to would-be commanders. Their national power is a handy drill that can disrupt enemy troops, knocking them to the ground, while their national master unit is a giant mechanical spider.

There are numerous other heroes throughout the story, but these are dropped in favor of the following for multiplayer. Leading the troops throughout the story is Giacomo in his lumbering robotic platform, with his initial powers allowing him to fire off a disruptive blast to knock enemies down, a healing and armor blast, as well as the fantastic and powerful suicidal clockmen (they look like those barrel barbeque pits, full of gunpowder and on unstable legs). The Doge, unplayable in single player but available in multiplayer, utilize a poison cloud, as well as giant lasers and artillery shells. The pirate captain Lenora drops bombs, captures units, enhances her ship, and practices all the pirating that a pirate should practice.

The Alin are the focus of the main story’s second chapter. They are often described as being inspired from Arabian Nights, and I would say that that’s a good description to start with. The Alin are desert dwellers that utilize fire, glass, and sand to create their units. They rely on giant scorpions, flaming fire-throwing genies, giant fire-breathing salamanders, glass spiders, and glass cannons. Each material has its own building to train related troops, and each training structure has its own upgradeable tech tree.  The Alin are being plagued by a corrupt genie and his army of dark glass units. The heroes in the campaign of the Alin that are carried over for multiplayer are almost completely different. Sawu the corrupt genie, Damanhur, and Dakhla are the Alin’s heroes, with Sawu coming in late in the single-player campaign. The heroes can summon sand horrors and glass spirits, fire giants and salamanders, and cause radius damage through various attacks. Their national power is the ability to summon an army anywhere on the map, acting as the perfect compliment to the ark that doubles as a transport vessel and a resupply unit to keep from friendlies suffering attrition damage. The giant glass dragon master unit can unleash a massive, rechargeable blast that will be the scourge of even the most defended city.

The final chapter brings the heroes from the desert to the jungle as the Cuotl bear down with the power of their gods on the newcomers and their rebellious Cuotl allies. The Cuotl make me imagine a fateful evening sometime in the early ‘90s when the concept of Stargate was coming about: the argument was for going with an Egyptian theme or a Mesoamerican theme. Ra won. The bastard.

The similarities are pretty striking: the technology of the Cuotl heroes is so advanced that it is thought of as magic by the people, with the heroes being thought of as gods. The ground troops carry staffs that shoot out lasers and the attack gliders look very similar as well. I found the Cuotl to be the least developed of the races, with most of their power resting in just a couple of their units. They are financially independent though, being able to use energy created by reactor districts in their cities. The national power is also a unique attack that blasts a controllable ray of energy that both makes portions of the map visible and damages troops and structures in its diameter. Since the heroes are worshipped as gods they are marked as such, including: the God of Death, Czin; the Sun God, Xil; and the Goddess of Storms, Shok. Some of their powers include the draining and contagious plague, disabling the special abilities of their foes, teleportation, and weaker mirror images of themselves. The heroes are a highlight, and like the other nations’ heroes they are thematically similar in their powers but the similarities are largely superficial, as they work in tandem with their side’s units in particular ways. Their master unit is an anxiety-inducing giant, attacking, movable city.

Each nation has a similar city structure. On the engagement maps, you start off with a single core to a city, barring any sections added from the world map. The core can be added onto with military, research, merchant, and, in the case of the Cuotl, energy districts, as well as a palace upgrade that brings your city up to another level; upgrading a city opens up the possibilities of utilizing more units and adding more districts. Upgrading a city and adding more military districts increases the population cap and makes the city more resistant to being stormed, a new feature in Rise of Legends. When a city, or one of the other structures (e.g. mercenary camps), is being attacked, the option is given for you to storm the city to take it without suffering excessive casualties: if you need your units – they are unavailable until the capture is complete – you can opt to continue to attack the city and have it go over to your side once it is beaten into submission. Series staples like territory control and attrition are also back - those being areas of the map controlled by owning structures and enemies entering into the areas without a supply unit suffering constant damage. Neutral sites, such as the mercenary camps and cities controlled by rebels, can not only be subjugated but also peacefully attained by purchase and traded with under a truce, allowing your troops to travel nearby unharmed.

Aside from districts, other structures can be built as well. Buildings like mining facilities and the various barracks and defensive towers are built away from the city but within your territory; the Cuotl also have structures that can be lifted and moved to where they are more useful. Each district handles different aspects of your nation’s capabilities, e.g. merchant districts allow for more caravans to be trained for greater wealth. Resource points will be used throughout battles to enhance troops and gathering capabilities, and even to increasing your nation’s abilities – extend your territory, increase the regeneration of your troops within your territory, and many nation-specific items. The various possibilities lead to strategies that involve either congealing or spreading out, turtling to get the most out of the upgrades, and so on.

The strategic capabilities are really what makes Rise of Legends stand out. Each nation follows a template of buildings and troops – long-range, cannon, air, heavy melee and so on – that means that a basic grasp can be had about what’s to be expected by some of the more quirkier looking units, but they also branch off enough to allow for a real diverse range of tactics. For instance, the Vinci’s clockwork men can sweep ground units off their feet, making them immobile and vulnerable to attack, while the Alin’s scorpion has a poisonous sting that affects enemies after the battle has ended. Extended sessions will involve diplomacy with NPCs, extending empires to the edges of your nation’s borders, and balancing the economy as units and structures increase in cost the more they are built. Getting a good plan for the start and a rhythm afterwards is crucial, but being ready to compensate for surprise hero attacks, large nation units, and national abilities means that there are always contingencies that need to be prepared for. The game can be played on short maps in quick sessions, but also for those long drawn-out games where you dig in and are absorbed for hours.

Multiplayer will end up being the focus of the game because conquering the world doesn’t take nearly as long as you might think. The story-driven approach, coupled with the early forced approach of where to fight, makes for a fairly short experience. What helps to speed things along, aside from not having to defend attacked territories, is that you will auto jump to story points instead of having to travel the entire length of the map to get to an enemy. Since items are constantly being introduced, and at one point dumped upon you, throughout the story, the game feels like it ends right when it starts to take off. Better to leave on a high note, I suppose.

Aside from the designs, Rise of Legends is a visually appealing game. Increasing the detail adds things like sentries patrolling the towns, more dramatic shadows adding a greater sense of scale, all with really smooth animations. The sounds, music, and vocals were also handled well, though the voice-overs can get a bit hammy at times. Battles are engaging to watch, with lumbering clockwork men slinging soldiers away, the constant popping sound of riflemen firing their volleys, glowing genies setting fire to troops below, and glass cannons forcing out powerful blasts. The Cuotl could’ve used a bit more attention, but their heroes do provide for some awesome sights.

Overall: 8.5/10

Rise of Nations’ single-player Conquer the World campaign is now steeped in a story involving three chapters of murder and revenge. Significant steps have been taken to keep the single-player experience streamlined, thereby cutting it down drastically. For those who aren’t big on skirmish mode or online play, they will find an interesting if short experience. However, those who enjoy multiplayer combat, either with other players or against the PC, will find a lot to enjoy. The three races follow a core set similar enough for the basics to be understood, but they diverge enough so much that they offer very different play experiences. Rise of Legends should please fans of the genre and of the series.