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	Rise of Nations
	Developer: Big Huge Games Publisher: Microsoft Genre: Turn-Based/Real-Time Strategy Players: 1-8 Similar To: Empire Earth, Age of Empires II Rating: Everyone Published: 05 :21 : 03 Reviewed By: Ryan Newman Overall: 7.5 = Good

Screenshots

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Intro
Brian Reynold's first foray outside of Firaxis games has resulted in a game as epic as it is rudimentary. With a dash of Empire Earth, a hint of Age of Empires, and a smidge of imagination, Big Huge Games has created an enjoyable title that remains too formulaic to achieve its full potential.

Gameplay: 7.5/10
For those who tried Stainless Steel Studios' Empire Earth you know that the game, while fun, did have its flaws. Fans of the genre also know that Age of Empires II has become a seminal classic in PC gaming and has had its style mimicked since. What Rise of Nations feels like comes across as the result of the two titles meshing, alone with some additional goodies thrown in to give it a fresher feel - however successful the later is really depends on the player's exposure to other titles within the genre.

Along with an enjoyable tutorial, that also plays as a level within itself and guides the player through little story archs, the game mainly consists of Quick Battles, World Conquest, and the standard multiplayer. Quick Battles allow for the player to choose the nationality of themselves and their opponent(s), along with the option to choose customized and set rules. The set options include modes where the player must defend against waves of attackers, play the role of the aggressor, kill a certain unit, start the game without a scout or town, an option to win by research and not war, along with a couple of others. Customizing the game can be more enjoyable as the player can restrict what time period to start in and when advancement ceases, technology price, territory requirements, etc.

The bulk of the game really lies in conquering the world. This is the main way in which Rise of Nations distinguishes itself from its contemporaries - or inspirations, however one wishes to look at it. The world map consists of colored territories that are held by the various nations. Each territory has an attribute that makes it desirable; some have wonders - giving the player an advantage - on them, some have valuable resources - that will be gathered via the world map whenever player ends their turn; some are important for strategic reasons; and most importantly, some have supply depots that will allow for additional armies. The player starts off with a single army and has to gain territory through combat, entering combat will result in the game loading into the Age of Empire-styled gameplay. Moving them is similar to Medieval: Total War as armies are represented by a single icon that can be moved to nearby territories.

To better prepare for invasions, the player can use the money they get from their territories - known as tributes, which are also collected when they end their turn on the world map - and use it to either upgrade their territory or purchase special cards. Upgrading territory means that the enemy will have a tougher time taking it over and the player will start off with ready-made towns and, in some cases, a nice amount of soldiers that are both on the map, ready to fight, and also some on the sidelines that act as reinforcements. The special cards can also be won when an enemy is defeated and are played before combat starts; the cards range from making technology cheaper, starting with extra units, doing more attrition damage, and so on. The cards can really help to turn the battle into the cardholder's favor, so deciding when and where to use them is important.

Based upon the action taken that led to war, the player will either be in boats that need to be landed onto shore, protect a small settlement for 15 minutes, fortify already built structures, or start with a town and go from there. When the objective is to simply conquer the enemy, some hairy situations arise due to the time limitations imposed on the wars themselves, and also on how long it takes to capture a town hall and assimilate it to the player's culture. Taking the enemy's capital and holding it for 5 minutes will cause the rest of their forces to forfeit; but, even if their capital is taken with 20 seconds left before assimilation, and all but one of their towns are taken, and the time runs out, the player is still counted as being defeated. To date, I can say the Egyptians have gotten away from a few beatdowns due to the clock running out - but I shall return!

The age advances for everyone at the same time, and these events take place during the player's time on the world map. When entered into combat, the player needs to research the technologies so they can match the world's current age; however, depending on the territory, the nationality - as each has their own benefits, per the norm these days - and town strength, the fighting can be started with advance troops already made or technological advancements already researched.

To spice things up on the battlefield, the map is broken up into specific territories, and one's control increases by the addition of more towns. Other buildings, like temples and castles, also expand the player's control. What makes the aspect of territorial control unique is that, without a supply wagon accompanying enemy troops, any which set foot in the player's area, will take attrition damage. This may not sound like much, but when a destination is a lengthy distance from the training facilities, and a supply wagon isn't around to aid them, a unit can have nearly half its strength sapped away - even more if Russia is chosen, as the 'Russian Winter' increases attrition damage. This makes waging war more serious than rushing with tanks or setting a rally point to the enemy's border and pumping out troops; if the proper amount of time and resources isn't allotted to preparations, a sure-fire assault could end with disastrous results.

Creating an army requires a healthy amount of resources: food; wood; iron; gold, gained through taxation and caravans moving between towns; knowledge, which is acquired by having scholars trained within schools, and is used to advance technologies at the library, which also leads to advancements into superior ages; and later, oil. Each resource has a limit as to how many civilians it can hold, and food is also limited to 5 per town; this, along with revenue from trade, is a large incentive to expand with new towns. There are additional resources, like cotton, found throughout the map. These are harvested by merchants and they offer special bonuses to those who take advantage of them. All of these will be needed in the wars as it takes massive amounts of troops to take down some of the more advanced enemy territories.

Structures have a few interesting elements to them as well. Most buildings can be fortified with particular units, resulting in some nice bonuses; sending a wounded group of infantrymen into the town hall will slowly increase their health, similarly, sending riflemen into a tower will also have their health increased, but they also improve that building's facilities. Another building of particular interest is the castle, or fortress, as it's later known as. The castle not only provides a nice roadblock between the enemy army and the town hall, but it can train spies and generals. Spies are accompanied with a humorous 60's-styled sound bit and are ladies who have the ability to blend in with the environment and bribe enemy troops to join the player's side. The general also has special abilities that allow units to be invisible for ambushes and also entrench themselves for better defense. These units, along with scouts - who can later be trained to snipe and bomb buildings - have craft meters that refill over time and allow them to use these special abilities. Aside from these, and other buildings that allow the improvement of gathering resources and a dockyard, much of the buildings are the same as are found in other strategy titles.

The units will be instantly familiar to fans of the genre, especially players of Empire Earth. There are the nation-specific troops, along with general units like archers, slingers, infantry, tanks, bombers, aircraft carriers, and fusiliers. The advancement in eras matches the upgrade capabilities of the new technologies available, per the norm since Age of Empires. All too often, these units will feel as though they are little more than mass objects to toss against other waves. The computer is never very clever and often gets its advantage through pumping out large numbers of troops and storming the player's position. They do, on occasion, try to out maneuver the player, but that's not very often.

To put it bluntly: Rise of Nations is a good title, but it feels too rehashed. It plays like a better-balanced Empire Earth, set into the world of Age of Empires. There's just no escaping the comparisons as, aside from a few elements, it plays so similarly. The Conquer the World feature is great, and anything above Easy will take a very long time to accomplish, but its features of being able to bribe, make alliances, and take strategic locations, never feels like it comes full circle. There's also the tendency for the player to attack and immediately get attacked themselves, so aside from certain occasions, there could easily be a few hours set into one solid turn. There is the option to save in the world map and in combat, luckily. The card feature was interesting, but seemed a little out of place and just as a means to differentiate the title from others like it - as opposed to something intricate to the game's design.

Graphics: 8.5/10
From afar, everything looks like an image that had been sharpened three or four times; nothing too distracting, just average. However, it's when the camera zooms up that the player is in for a treat. Every unit has an amazing amount of detail; everything about the units floored me. Watching peasants work wheat fields was incredible; I could actually see the citizens reaching into a basket, tossing seeds, and then taking their instruments and hack away; watching cannoneers pack in gunpowder and seeing workers cut wood during construction is equally thrilling. Some effects are weak, like rockets and their resulting explosions. On the whole, while it looks average on the outset, it's gorgeous when the time is taken to appreciate it.

Sound: 8/10
The soundtrack was great, but the songs didn't mesh together very well. It would sound like a track would stop; a few seconds of silence, and another would kick back in. Their individual qualities, of both technical and artistic merit, were solid; maybe a closer gap between tracks, or some way to put the more similar ones closer together. The sound effects were well done, most of which were average, but nothing too distracting or of poor nature. I will say that is always a thrill to hear 30 highlanders fire their rifles at the same time.

Control: 8/10
Established hotkeys and the ability to assign armies, ala Red Alert 2, help to keep things smooth. One thing I wasn't fond of was, like Age of Empires, the player has to choose to go into a more advanced sub-menu system so they can set how the troops should react; this isn't particularly troublesome as it's not unheard of, but they tried to streamline the process of choosing stances by making the player sort through the different options by right clicking, I don't see why they just didn't toss in a few more icons so they could be selected in half the time. Pathfinding is pretty good, although the stance settings are finicky as some set to stand ground will advance too far and similar smaller problems occur with the other stances.

Overall: 7.5/10
The thought of bombing Roman Legionnaires with a B-52 was exciting a few years back, but since then I've ran through that scenario more times than I can remember. For those who haven't played Empire Earth, go ahead and add a point, but for those who have, don't expect many changes to the core gameplay. The world map, attrition, and card system are interesting additions, but they just weren't enough to make me feel like I hadn't played this game a hundred times before. Rise of Nations is a solid game, and fans of the genre won't have much to complain about - mainly because so much of it has been established for a while now, and it's a fairly polished product - but the déjà vu is too strong to shake off completely. A solid offering, but it could've been much more, given the talent behind it.

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