High: Graphics, artwork, and a solid multiplayer experience.

Low: Weak sound effects, lose story line, some minor gameplay issues.



Making a standout strategy game in this new era of gaming is a tough task, thanks in part to Big Huge Games' earlier effort, Rise of Nations. In the Age of Empires realm of Real Time Stratgy's (RTS), Rise of Nations was the pinnacle of deep and broad gameplay, featuring a huge variety of nations, maps, units, and eras. A sequel was a given, but who expected Big Huge to go out on such a limb with Rise of Legends? Granted, it's similar enough to its lauded predecessor to keep it grounded, but in other ways, it couldn't be more different. And for that, we cry "Hallelujah!" It would have been all too easy to toss out Rise of Nations 2 and call it a day, but instead, we have a brand new experience on our hands. An experience that is interesting, and an improvement, but isn't necessarily innovative.

A lot of these changes are welcome, even superior. The biggest improvement is arguably the addition of a single-player campaign narrative, the lack of which was Rise of Nations' primary shortcoming. The story introduces you to Rise of Legends' three races, each of which is as different from the others as you can imagine. Yet modern strategy titles like Dawn of War and Battle for Middle Earth II prove that solid gameplay does not preclude a fascinating story, and Rise of Legends stumbles in this regard. The science-fantasy game world is colorful and artistic, but the story is slapped on with little exposition. We'd love to know more about the Vinci, Alin and Cuotl, but as presented by RoL, we can't make heads nor tails of exactly what was going on or why. Important characters are introduced with a two-second voiceover, a lot of plot points go unexplained, and the campaign feels a little haphazard as a result. This has been a short coming creeping up in lots of games, and in a strategy game a powerful story with a good paced plot helps immerse gamers into the game.

That feel translates to the gameplay itself, although it pieces itself together well as the campaign progresses, and finally roots itself in Rise of Legends' strong multiplayer game. The Vinci race produces clockwork units that would have been at home in Syberia, while the Alin and Cuotl bring their own unique flavors to the table, thanks to their own colorful, fantastical units and buildings. This is where the muddles story sticks out most, because this is a vibrant, fleshed-out world that is unlike anything we've seen before. Giant fire-breathing salamanders emerge from volcanic Alin fortresses, while winged cherubs float above the proceedings while a flying Vinci hero rains down flaming death upon them from above. It's a mix of sci-fi and fantasy design that is simultaneously enthralling and confusing.

It doesn't take long to get used to Rise of Legends' unique elements, however. The crux of the gameplay isn't changed much: expand your territory, collect resources, and prepare for attack. The mechanics of doing so give the usual ingredients an unusual and original spin, however. Off the bat you'll notice that city building and expansion is a little different than we're used to. You must build city districts to unlock upgrades, produce new units, and generally advance your offensive and defensive capabilities. Unit-producing buildings vary by race, making the gameplay experience on each side unique. For example, the Vinci must build multiple research facilities, because each facility can be used for one purpose, such as churning out lumbering walkers, or building an enormous telescope. The Alin, on the other hand, have separate structures representing the elemental ingredient of the resulting units.

From there, matches equate to a war of land domination. As you spread across the map, you encounter NPC units and buildings to attack, although if you've been trading with them (an automatic process taken care of by caravan units), you may very well acquire them without a battle, earning some new unites in the process. You've also got other skills which you acquire over the course of battle, usually determined by which player reaches a particular goal first. Military dominance provides a powerful attack that differs by race, for example, while craft dominance offers a defensive power. As you could guess, these skills take some time to recharge, and can turn the tide of battle.

Those battles aren't difficult by most strategy gamers' standards, unlike those of Rise of Nations, in which a single match spanned across entire eras of history. In skirmish battles, you'll need to turn up the AI to expert difficulty to get a challenge, which is disappointing, since it doesn't do a good job of preparing you for multiplayer matches. There are also issues with pathfinding, and on more than one occasion, we watched troops get stuck against objects or each other, and when combined with opposing artificial intelligence with a death wish, there's a nagging impression that the units aren't always sure what they should be doing. Dozens of great, vibrant maps with various terrain features help keep this aspect fresh, but Rise of Legends' saving grace is its multiplayer.

The online suite isn't nearly as huge as with Rise of Nations, but it's just as addicting, because the human element brings perspective to the disparate races and units missing in the single-player game. As unique as each race is, any of the three conform to any given strategy, so what seems hit-or-miss against the AI becomes far more coherent against other players. It's easy to join an online game, thanks to a multiplayer interface that owes a lot to Xbox Live. Just select which type of game you want, and you get automatically matched to another player. Unfortunately, you're likely to get paired with players of widely differing skills levels, a fact more noticeable since you gain levels as you play online. You can still browse through available games, but at press time, it's easy to let the game choose a match for you without much effort. We haven't experienced any stability issues or other online quirks during a dozen hours of internet play.

Whether on your own or with others, Rise of Legends looks very good. It owes this mostly to its glorious art design, but we don't want to discount the graphics technology powering it. All the standards in pc gaming are here: lovely cutscenes, full unit shadows, billowing smoke plumes, and sparkly particle effects. It runs smoothly for the most part, although the engine gets occasionally sluggish during the largest battles. Units are great to look at both up close and from a distance, although they suffer from some jerky animations, as if there are missing poses somewhere in there. Yet there's no way we can overlook the visual awe of a giant Cuotl moon god, and Rise of Legends is chock full of similarly unequaled designs.

The audio design is fine but doesn't pack the same punch, mostly because a big mess of units doesn't make much din. Big battles look frantic, but sound drab, which is odd, since individual effects are solid in and of themselves. Voice acting is standard fare, and thankfully never tough on the ears. The real shining sonic moments are provided by the soundtrack, which is nice and quirky a befitting description for a game that could be described with those same words.

What it all becomes is a good addition to the genre that is more unusual than groundbreaking. Strategy fans will surely enjoy Rise of Legends, but we doubt it will become their standby RTS of choice once the novelty wears off. It's mostly fun, and will have legs from a solid multiplayer component, but its innovations, as such, are mostly skin deep. Once you're done, you'll head back to Rise of Nations or Age of Mythology or Warcraft III or whatever your strategy game of choice is. With a less slapdash campaign and tighter AI, it could have been great, but even now, Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends is worth playing just not legendary.

Editors Note: Some of the pathfinding issues and other game play problems have been fixed with several patches available from the built in upgrades system. We highly recommend you get the updates.

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Reviewed By:EG Admin Reviewed On: Fri, 26 May 2006 03:14:16 Read:

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