kombolcha Posted June 28, 2004 Share Posted June 28, 2004 (edited) i know its not a new game, but it deserves a review. Title: Rise Of Nations Maker: Microsoft Game Studios, BIG HUGE Games Platform: PC Genre: Real time strategy ESRB rating: T (Teen) Price: at time of purchase $49 System requierments: (minimum) XP/2000/ME/98 128 MB RAM 500 MHz Processor 800 MB HD 16 MB gfx card sound card 56k or better for online gaming Rise of nations is a strategy game which has over 6,000 years of history. The game is loaded with a lot of game modes. It lets you create new cities, improve your cities and expand your borders. A lot of people who are not familiar with strategy games might find this game hard to master, but infact it is very easy to master the game and it is even easier now since the game includes 6 walk through tutorials w/ different difficulty levels from n00b to advanced gamer. There are 18 nations in the game. Aztecs Bantu British Chinese Egyptians French German Greek Inca Japanese Koreans Maya Mongols Nubians Romans Russians Spanish Turks Each nation gets a special military unit, at least four. examples are: The romans have the power of Ceaser, the Japanese have Samurai, and the Germans have Tiger Tanks. The basic resources are food, wood, metal, oil, wealth, and knowledge. There are also rare resources that have special powers on the nation that has it. The villigars are also "smart" compared to previous RTS games microsoft has made. This time if a villigar if left alone it will automatically start work/repair on the nearest mine, farm, city...etc The only thing they can't do by themselves is construct new buildings and they have a limited range of what they can see so they can only maintain buildings that are near them. It is optional to turn off this behavior. This is what i really hate about the game. It has a population cap. It starts out small and increases as you advance in technology and age. National borders are a territorial region that increases/decreases in size from your villages/cities depending on their size and civic aclompishments. This also means that enemies can not build on your territory. The more territory you have, the more ground you have for mining metal, collecting rare resources, placing army units.. etc. Game Modes/Menu: when you start the game you are introduced with 3 clips, first being the microsoft logo, second the BIG HOUSE logo, and then a short but sweet cinematic of the game. then you will see this, where you can choose: Learn to Play Solo Game which will give you more options Quick Battle - exactly what is says, here you can play against the computer by setting difficulty level, teams, changing maps, and other options. Conquer The World Campaign - Here you will choose a nation to play as then strategically place your army units to battle other nations. Each time you win you will acquire territory, wealth, and wild cards. Wild cards give you special power, for example one wild card might keep your enemy from advancing to a certain age/technology. Each time you declare war it will cost you a move and some gold. you have 30 moves to conquer the world. After 30 moves the campaign is officially over and score given, but you can continue on to conquer the rest of the world. Load a Scenario - Here you can customize your own map, edit an existing map, or play on existing scenarios. Load Saved Game - stop reading the rest of this review if you don't understand what "load saved game" does. Recorded Game Playback - This is something i don't know and it crashes whenever i try using it. i'm sure there is a fix somewhere. Options In the options menu you have a lot of options to change. I have two examples. In this example i have picked "quick battle" I've customized it to my liking. When the game starts, this is what you will see. The box on the bottom left corner is where you will spend a lot of time clicking. This is where you tell your peasants to build or repair, or command your army units on their stance, formation, attack, retreat, kill... The middle is where the entire map is, the more you explore the more is revealed, there are cheats to reveal the entire map or as you advance the map will be more visible. The bottom right corner is more about statistics. Select a building and it'll tell you information about the building, like what it is, its HP, and how many. The top left box shows your gathering rate and how much resources you've gathered, depending on your advances there is a cap on your gathering rate. You can reach your gathering rate cap when you have a lot of peasants mining or you have a lot of trading caravans. As you build wonders and advance in technology the cap goes higher so that you can gather more. Lastly the box on the top right is where the menu is and your population. In the menu you have the option to pause the game, quit game. and also for alliances and treaties with other nations, you can also send tribute to nations and declare war. This is a few minutes into the game, i have used a few cheat codes to make the game go faster and to show you more of the game play. Cheats i used are: "cheat resources all 1xxxxxxxx" - gives me x amount of all resources "cheat sandbox" - reveals entire map and gives control of other nations "cheat finish" - instantly finish selected building under construction or technology being researched. As you can see i have built a few barracks and factories. soon i will be ready to destroy the other nation. There are a few ways of winning a game, you can change it in the game options just before starting the game, you can win by taking over the capitol, killing everything, having an x% of territory, having an x amount of points. In this case i have chosen to win by taking over the capitol, the only way you can take over a capitol is by foot soldiers, tanks, trucks, and planes can not win it. You use the tanks to destroy the city, bring down the HP to 0 then you can send the troops in to capture the city. Examening the Map: It gives you a lot of detailed things that went on in the game, examples in the picture. Audio: The music is excellent in the game. During a battle a lot of things are happening, like air planes flying, machine guns firing, and buildings exploding. What i find amazing is how all of those sounds are heard without interferring, everything is synchronized. My favorite thing about audio are the multiplayer taunts. here are some examples: bwahaha help here which part of clicking... this noobs rushing me sweet Also here are two in game music files. i really like them. ArcDe_Triomphe Santiago Grpahics: Graphics aren't big in this game, but it still has great graphics compared to other RTS. you've already seen what it looks like from the screenshots. and if you want more go here http://www.microsoft.com/games/riseofnations/screenshots.asp Since the games release an expansion pack has been released which features more maps, weapons, and nations. Out of all the other RTS games like Civilization III, Empire Earth, Warcraft... Rise of Nations is the only that carries more content, better game play, and a feeling of a never ending quest. You can keep playing and playing and it will never get old. i hope i've taken care of everything. Online Gaming: You have a lot of choices when it comes to playing online. within the game you have the options for: GameSpy - on game spy servers, i personally dont like GameSpy, but if you have an account you simply log in and find a game to play in. Local Area Network (LAN) or Direct Internet - this lets you create your own LAN game or to join an existing game. Recorded Game Playback - again, i don't know what this does. sorry. ... this is dissappointing. i just checked at http://zone.msn.com/en/root/cdrom.htm and i did not see Rise of Nations on the list. I have only played on LAN and never outside. edit. - props to ultima, screen shots made possible by NeoShooter, it would have taken longer without it. Thank you. Edited June 28, 2004 by Vice King Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chouzan Posted June 28, 2004 Share Posted June 28, 2004 Awesome review, I love the detailed walkthrough of the interface and given options. How well populated is the community surrounding Rise of Nations, is it difficult to find a game online? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kombolcha Posted June 28, 2004 Author Share Posted June 28, 2004 updated - online gaming, bottom of review. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keldyn Posted June 28, 2004 Share Posted June 28, 2004 Fantastic review. Very well written. I loved the game. I have always been a fan of the "Ages" series, so i was right at home with Rise of Nations. (Y) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wannes Posted June 28, 2004 Share Posted June 28, 2004 i actually just bought this game (yes i do game) and i love it, didn't really have time to really focus on it though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Favvi Posted June 28, 2004 Share Posted June 28, 2004 'tis a great game, i bought it when it was first released :yes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mooodi Posted June 28, 2004 Share Posted June 28, 2004 the game aint that bad.i have it @ home..as i am in alex. now i cant really play it.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kombolcha Posted June 28, 2004 Author Share Posted June 28, 2004 thank you for the nice replies. i'll do another game when i have time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malechai Veteran Posted June 28, 2004 Veteran Share Posted June 28, 2004 recorded games are cool. you can download some from here: http://ron.heavengames.com/downloads/lister.php?category=rec its basically that someone recorded their game and you can watch the whole thing from start to finish. its great to watch players who are extremely good at the game...gives you lots of tips Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam.sproul Posted June 28, 2004 Share Posted June 28, 2004 I have the game, I love it. Nice review. Thx for the link Spyder. :) Do you know of any for Counter Strike ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
futb0l Posted July 3, 2004 Share Posted July 3, 2004 I love this game, one of the best strategy games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frozzi Posted July 3, 2004 Share Posted July 3, 2004 a great game but I find it a little bit too complicated... there are too many options and possibilities AoM is the best regarding that for the moment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.KICK Posted July 3, 2004 Share Posted July 3, 2004 Cool, might pick this game up now (Y):) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spidoinkel Posted July 7, 2004 Share Posted July 7, 2004 yup definately cool. is the expansion good? i was considering buying it but i played the original so much i bored myself of it ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elfangor Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 I just bought the game and the expansion pack for $29 each. I haven't really played an RTS since starcraft, but it's still fun and easy to pick up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
habtro Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 nice review man... rise of nation is a kick ass game! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zephiK Posted July 14, 2004 Share Posted July 14, 2004 its like age of empires Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chacho Posted July 14, 2004 Share Posted July 14, 2004 excellent review, very in-depth. i love the game as well, being an old-school Age series geek myself, the new features and concepts introduced in this game blew me away... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kombolcha Posted July 17, 2004 Author Share Posted July 17, 2004 thanks :) i really really want to buy the expansion, but i just can't pull out the $30 for it :/ and i like the game too much to download it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dejon Posted July 17, 2004 Share Posted July 17, 2004 Thanks for the review. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vespaman Posted July 25, 2004 Share Posted July 25, 2004 would anyone review Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots? my friends and i have been playing the game for quite sometime now :p kinda need some tips and hints. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StealthMode Posted July 25, 2004 Share Posted July 25, 2004 Is this turn based like Civ III, or more like Age Of Empires style? I love the old style games like this, I was addicted to Civ III hardcore, then I finally won and I haven't played it since... :p Although if I play it again I will be hooked all over again :D Stealth - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shining Arcanine Posted July 25, 2004 Share Posted July 25, 2004 Is this turn based like Civ III, or more like Age Of Empires style? I love the old style games like this, I was addicted to Civ III hardcore, then I finally won and I haven't played it since... :p Although if I play it again I will be hooked all over again :DStealth - Age Of Empires Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hurmoth Posted July 25, 2004 Share Posted July 25, 2004 Awesome review! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdog Posted July 25, 2004 Share Posted July 25, 2004 love the game! I also have a poster autographed by the CEO of Big Huge Games. I could get a autographed box if I wanted! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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