RISE OF NATIONS (PC)


From wooden club to nuclear bomb

By TOM FAHEY & WILL BARKER

When I first caught a glimpse of Rise of Nations (RoN), I immediately thought "not another Age of Empires".

And when I first saw the game, I thought not another porn movie. Then I woke up.

But seriously, there was a little uneasiness at first, as the game does look to borrow many elements of the aforementioned title.

Thankfully, my apprehension was quelled in the knowledge that the game's chief designer, Brian Reynolds, was the grey matter behind Civilization 2 and Alpha Centauri.

Fair point, but In my opinion, there was never enough difference between the RTS's (Real Time Strategy) that Microsoft was producing one after another.

Still, it was my duty as a game critic to give it a fair go, and see what it had to offer. Well, as it turned out there had been quite an improvement on what seemed to be AoE 3.

Indeed, the first few hours of game time with RoN instantly made me think Microsoft had simply said to Big Huge Games [the developers] to follow the successful formula pioneered by Age of Empires - but after more in-depth look, it slowly but surely becomes apparent that this is not the case.

As you all probably know, AoE is based way back in the days where the only arsenal you had to beat your enemy to death with was a bone. How they managed to kill the beast to get the bone is beyond me, but that's another issue.

Enough with the bone talk Tom.

Okay, but you could evolve. Through collecting resources, researching and building new buildings, you could eventually evolve to the "iron age" where the solders wielded cold hard iron swords in battle and the buildings were constructed of stone.

But as you can tell, even in the furthest reaches of the game, we're still looking at the BC time period.

So what's the go with RoN, then? Well, simply put it's an evolution on the AoE theme, and let's be honest, the AoE formula is well liked by many (15 million gamers, I believe) and wasn't really in need of fixing in the first place. Still, RoN is more than just new units and upgrades, and makes for a hugely entertaining experience.

Although Rise of Nations is ridiculously similar to AoE at first glance, I'll hold my tongue for the moment and explain why it's so eminently playable.

You start in a similar time period as the former title, although your timeline extends to thousands of years rather than hundreds. In essence, this is biggest difference between AoE and RoN, but it's this ambitious difference that makes the game so engaging.

Yeah, it's really cool to start off with a bunch of sword-swinging Neanderthals, only to work your way up through the technological advancement ladder.

The way the game flows is spot on too, as your advancements through the ages never seems too rushed, thanks in large part the mammoth amounts of upgrades, buildings and other items you'll have to acquire to advance your civilisation.

From wooden club, to nuclear bomb. Catapult to Tank. Archer to Sniper. It is the only game that I have ever played that has such a massive yet gradual change in gameplay. You start off very slow, gathering resources, researching various kinds of intelligence at your library, eventually rising your nation from almost prehistoric times, to the modern age.

There are so many different things to research in order to evolve it's kind of hard to fathom at times. In fact, it's quite entertaining.

But when you think about it, man (and woman) didn't wander around the earth one day, trip over a rock and by the time he got back on his feet, found himself staring at cities that touch the sky! It took thousands of years of evolution to get to were we are today, and RoN portrays this point very well, in that it takes a good hour of solid gameplay to organize an army of the modern day.

Which brings us to the combat section of the game. Some RTS games have it down pat, and while I wouldn't call it the best warfare emulation ever seen in an RTS, it stills packs quite a punch, and the sheer amount of units on offer can make for amazingly intense, sometimes frenetic, battles.

At first the graphics seem to have little to no improvement over a game going on 5 or 6 years. Now, your first question would probably be: Err.... Why?? Well, the answer I shall tell you is this: Take another look... you see, to start with you only have very basic units which can't really perform any amazing feats that require special effects.

However, once you upgrade and get the odd jet fighter plane, aircraft carrier and nuclear bomb (Hmmm...), the true depth of the graphics can be seen. A huge blinding flash, followed by a devastating force wave, finished off with a massive mushroom cloud is what follows when you set off a nuke from your missile silo. Very impressive and somewhat shocking at the same time.

I agree, and it's interesting to see how dodgy the game looks initially, and I guess I was pretty disappointed with the developers for designing, what on first inspection, looked like a low-rent game. But RoN's scope is vast, and you don't really begin to appreciate, or at least marvel at, the graphics until you start to sample more of what the game has to offer, such as the aforementioned (and grin-inducing) nuke.

The bottom line is this: If you've played any of the Ages games, that is Age of Empires or Age of Mythology, you'll be quite comfortable with RoN.

There is a slight feeling of turn-based strategy involved, which is brought about by the way gamers can pause the game and issue orders, which is very useful and efficient when directing thousands of troops and industry.

Still, the action element of real-time strategy gaming is there in full force, and the main difference between this and the AoE games is that you'll probably have a lot more fun, due to the massive amount of diversity in all constructables.

With generic (but likable) graphics, one of the best interfaces on offer and gameplay that just never seems to end, Rise of Nations is one killer app.

Die-hard AoE fans may spurn it as a thinly-veiled clone, but hey, they'll only be missing out on a deep and involving real-time strategy masterpiece.

ORIGINALITY 70%
SOUND/GRAPHICS 85%
PLAYABILITY 80%
ENJOYMENT 90%
OVERALL 85%