Credit IGN.com
Big Huge Games' Rise of Nations was a big huge hit. The game's synthesis of real-time strategy gameplay with concepts popularized by turn-based strategy games like Civilization resulted in one of the more unique RTS experiences of the last few years. Still, the game's historical setting lent it a sort of predictability that wore thin for some gamers. Happily, that's not the case with the unfortunately titled sequel, Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends.
One of the best features of Rise of Legends is that there's not a single elf archer, Nazi tank or Space Marine in sight. Given the overabundance of stock settings, it's nice to see Rise of Legends invent an entirely new set of civilizations that are just as interesting and compelling as more familiar types. To be fair, the new types certainly draw inspiration from existing traditions but that only makes them more effective in terms of giving players an idea of what to expect. The only real downside to the original setting is that there's very little sense of history or connection among the different peoples of Rise of Legends.
Still, the civilizations themselves are pretty damn interesting both in terms of their individual flavors and their abilities. The Vinci are obviously based on Renaissance Italy, at least in terms of their politics and culture. The game, however, adds in a healthy dose of advanced retro science in the form of clockwork soldiers, steam-powered tanks and flying units inspired by Da Vinci's own designs. They're largely a research-oriented civ that can specialize in a variety of areas.
The magical Alim civilization draws from the tales of the 1001 Nights. Their Arabian aesthetic includes things like floating palaces, fiery serpents and gigantic scorpions which all contrasts nicely with the Vinci. They also have their own unique play style, which is much more fluid and rush-friendly than the Vinci. They also love stuff that can fly, so you'll definitely want to protect against that if you know they're coming for you.
The final civilization is the Cuotl, a combination of ancient Mesoamerican influences and highly advanced technology. The massive stone statues that make up their armies mix nicely with the orbital lasers, cloaking devices and power shields they have available. Things like mobile barracks make them almost as fluid as the Alim but the Cuotl aren't quite as powerful in the early stages of a game. They become almost unstoppable once they've unlocked the more advanced technologies.
With each civilization representing a unique play style, getting a handle on the match-ups that work best can take a little while. Unfortunately, as the three campaigns put you in charge of each of these civilizations in turn, you'll mostly be fighting units from the same civilization you're playing. It would be much more compelling if the game presented you with more opportunities to lead the units of one civ against those of another.
I won't give away any real details on the story here, because you can kind of see it coming within the first few hours anyway. There are a few surprises here and there but the story itself is really only an excuse to tie the different campaigns together. You start off leading the forces of the Vinci in a simple quest for revenge. As you move on to the second campaign, you'll find yourself allied with the Alim and become aware that there's more at stake here than your own personal vendetta. The third and final campaign sees the Cuotl drawn in to the conflict and it's here that you'll more or less settle your score.
The campaign follows the Conquer the World style where you're presented with a turn-based map of each theater. Each territory offers unique bonuses to the owner, from powers you can use during a battle to upgrade points you can spend between fights to enhance your units' effectiveness or increase the size of your starting forces. You'll also be given cash to upgrade the infrastructure of these territories, which can help you out with reinforcements or cash when you find yourself fighting in nearby territories.
I liked the freedom of the Conquer the World modes in Rise of Nations and Thrones and Patriots, but the objectives in Rise of Legends are so specific that you won't have as much flexibility in terms of planning your overall strategy. There are enemy armies that must be defeated and enemy cities that must be captured so you'll pretty much have to go straight for those instead of trying something fancy.
Thankfully, there are a nice range of mission types here. Some are just straight up slugfests between you and whoever happens to own the territory. Others require you to defend against a siege, or free people from a massive prison, or chase down and kill a genie who's got something you need. In nearly every mission, there will be hidden objectives that you can uncover and undertake but the only rewards for doing so are the pride you feel knowing that you did something that you technically could have skipped.
Though the units and abilities are very different, the basic gameplay during the RTS battles is very similar to Rise of Nations. There are pre-arranged city sites that you'll need to conquer in order to expand your empire. You'll construct plenty of barracks, mines and so forth around your cities but you'll also need to upgrade your basic cities with neat add-ons that improve your abilities. Each nation projects its own borders that have a detrimental effect on invading armies. There are only two resources this time around -- Timonium and cash/energy -- so things have been simplified a bit there.
One cool new effect in Rise of Legends is that your foot soldiers can storm enemy cities to take them over. Whenever you attack an enemy city, you'll see a small number above it indicating how many soldiers it will take to reduce the city to zero health and start capturing it. (Cities and some other sites in Rise of Legends are captured rather than destroyed.) Once you have enough soldiers, you can just click on the number and they'll all rush in to take the city right away. It's a nice way to speed up the process of capturing stuff when you know you've already got the manpower to make it happen.
The AI is generally very good. It won't crush you unless the designers intentionally weighted things in its favor, but it puts up a steady, comfortable challenge. The enemy knows how to use its hero units and, though it still suffers from the trickle tactics of most RTS' AI, it can still manage to put together a sizable enough force to make you break a sweat. If the challenge level isn't just right, you can actually adjust the game's difficultly at any point during the campaign.
Rise of Legends has a good visual style. The units are all distinct and full of character. Though it sounds kind of obvious, they all also do what they look like they might do. This is a huge improvement over Rise of Nations (and most other historical RTS games) where you're confronted with eleven different types of infantry who all pretty much look the same but actually have totally different applications.
The environments are all highly detailed and are also drawn from the geography associated with each civilization. The Vinci, for instance, inhabit a Mediterranean landscape, while the Alim reside in the desert and the Cuotl in dense jungles. The environments are pretty static, unfortunately, but they're detailed enough to be convincing.
In all the game runs pretty well on our higher end PCs but, even then, we still had some stuttering and framerate problems when the action got really intense. This is only really a problem during the big assaults that end some of the missions but it's definitely distracting. The game has been relatively stable for us but it did start to crash towards the end of the third campaign.
It's a pity that the graphics aren't supported by convincing audio. The actual effects here are just far too thin to add any excitement to the battles. It's not that I want to blow my speakers out or anything, but when I manage to blow the crap out of mechanical spider the size of a city block, I'd like to hear the sounds reflect the weight of it. They just don't. On the plus side, the voice acting is generally very good and the music suits the action well.
The gang at Big Huge Games wanted to really step it up in the area of multiplayer and, in part, they've really succeeded. The basic interface and front end of the multiplayer system is solid and allows for the kinds of things that Microsoft has done with Xbox Live. Friend lists, challenges, stats, news, and a host of other conveniences are all in place here and they do a lot to strengthen the community aspects of the game.
Unfortunately, connecting to a game still seems to be a bit of a problem. There's no shortage of maps and no shortage of willing competitors but gamers are encountering some connectivity obstacles that are keeping them from actually enjoying the game online. Representatives we spoke to today indicated that a patch is in the works that should address some of these issues but we couldn't nail down an exact date that the team hopes to have this stuff ironed out.
Closing Comments
Given how much I liked the first title, more Rise of Nations isn't a bad thing. Fortunately, Rise of Legends improves on the original in a few key areas. First, the introduction of the new unique races and their distinctive abilities and art styles helps give the game a much needed fantasy flavor. The graphics are pleasant to look at and offer a wide range of cool effects and distinct environments. The RTS mechanics take a while to get used to but they're relatively solid and undeniably enjoyable.
Then there are the downsides. The Conquer the World campaign now has a story but it sort of limits your freedom in moving from one territory to the next. The new races are sweet but the story provides little reason for them to coexist much less fighting each other. The multiplayer interface includes some innovative concepts but the basic connectivity issues still have to be addressed.
IGN Grade - 8.2/10 - Impressive 
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