  This base is on fire...literally. |
Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends is a solid Real Time Strategy game in a genre that seems to be experiencing a shortage of good titles. There are only so many ways to make a real time strategy game unique. Is Rise of Legends unique? Not really. Great graphics, good sound and wonderfully balanced races but the game play is pretty standard for any RTS game. Build a city, gather resources, build an army and defeat all opponents. Rinse and repeat.
One of the things that balance the races in the game is power and cost per unit and differences in what each research tree opens up.
The three Rise of Legends races are: the Alin, who make up for their lack of power with volume of units and the ability to build unit producing structures outside of their own territory, the Vinci who are a well-rounded race that relies on mechanical devices like clockwork men and the impressive long range siege weapon known as the Doom Cannon and the Cuotl, who rely on superior alien technology such as cloaking devices and damage shields but are expensive to build.
Another wonderful difference that separates the races is the research tree and how each race obtains research points. The Alin have a “Magic District” that supplies two research points each time it is built. You get more points if you have a ‘Large City’ or ‘Great City’. Building a Laboratory grants a Vinci player two Research Points. The Laboratory can then be upgraded into a variety of other buildings which then grant anywhere from two – nine research points depending on the building the Laboratory is upgraded to. The Cuotl gain one research point per city district built which makes them the slowest race to gain research points but when your races can research cloaking devices and damage shields everything balances out.
The unit strengths and weaknesses play out like a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Unit A is best countered by Unit B, who is best countered by Unit C, who is best countered by unit A. Fortunately, you can find out which units will counter an enemy unit by holding the cursor over a target. This is a great example of what makes the game easy for a first-time RTS gamer, along with a simplified research tree and a low number of structures to build the learning curve on Rise of Legends is not very steep at all.
The story itself is pretty uninspiring. Brother avenging other brother’s death hears about some powerful alien technology. The alien technology is stolen by enemy. He gets his revenge and alien technology. In the end, he gets corrupted by the powerful alien technology. Yawn.
The single player campaign is plagued by mindless repetition. You enter a new territory, build a base and take over all of the enemy bases. Within the three campaigns there are three or four missions that start you off with a set number of units and you have to accomplish your goal. It is nowhere near an acceptable level of variety.
Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends doesn’t really feel like a Rise of Nations title though, it feels more like a baby brother. In a sparse RTS market it’s a good buy but I don’t think it would have been as disappointing to play if the title hadn’t had such high expectations caused by the Rise of Nations tag. When it’s all said and done Rise of Legends is a solid RTS. The single player skirmishes with the computer are much better than playing the campaign and the multiplayer option is an absolute blast.
WHAM! Rating: |
8 out of 10 |
ESRB Rating: |
T (Teen) |
Official Web Site: |
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