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Rise of Nations
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It’s almost a lock to say that this title will be a must-have game for any fan of Civilization.

What's so special? Based on what I’ve played so far, I can’t help but think that Rise of Nations reminds me what a real-time Civilization II would play like. And that statement should definitely get any strategy gamer excited.

Developer track record: Big Huge Games was founded in February of 2000 by four veteran game developers: (from left to right) Tim Train, David Inscore, Jason Coleman, and Brian Reynolds. These founding partners, who together have brought strategy gamers such classic hits as Civilization II, Colonization, and Alpha Centauri, share a common vision which they believe will enable them to surpass even these outstanding achievements.

Everyone who ever visits major gaming web sites or reads the pages of PC Gamer or Computer Gaming World know that game previews are often little more than marketing pieces in disguise written for the sole purpose of “greasing up” the relationship between media sites looking for free review copies and publishers looking for media exposure. There simply is no other explanation for quotes such as:

“’John Basedow’s Xtreme Gardening’ is set to take the gaming world by storm”
“Super Mario Fragfest Online: Greasy Gibs Edition was so impressive that the writing staff and myself all drank cyanide-laced Koolaid after our hour spent with the beta, since we all agreed we’d never again see such beauty.”
“Deep Sea Yugoslavia Folk Dancing Tycoon II” caused so many heads to turn at its recent open-to-the-media preview showing that the company had chiropractors flown in for the event.

Now, as silly as some of those statements seem, they’re not terribly far off from what actually gets printed. Of course it’s respectful and fair to not judge a company by its unfinished products, but I’ve been gaming for 20 years now and most of the time I can pretty much tell you with accuracy if a game is going to be any good simply based on its beta version.

And – with a slight risk of sounding like one of the aforementioned media cheerleader – I can tell you without any doubt that Microsoft and Big Huge Games’ upcoming strategy game Rise of Nations is going to be very good. In fact – assuming everything continues to evolve as it has thus far with development – I believe it is poised to become one of the premier strategy games to come out since Civilization. Trust me... I wouldn’t lie to you no matter how many free copies of Microsoft Bob the guys in Redmond send me.

Rise of Nations is the much-anticipated first title to come out of the marriage of newly formed developers Big Huge Games and software publisher Microsoft. The founders of Big Huge Games were some of the folks behind the critically-acclaimed Civilization II, Alpha Centauri, and Colonization, so to say that much is expected out of this development house is quite an understatement. Frankly, anything less than a masterpiece would be considered a bit of a disappointment.

Fortunately for us gamers, it looks as though we have nothing to worry about with Rise of Nations. The preview build of the game that I played takes one part Civilization and one part Empire Earth, throws them together with a dash of beautifully rendered graphics, and adds a sprinkle of solid tactical gameplay. It is then tossed gently with a ton of multiplayer options, and served over a steaming plate of addictive gameplay that is sure to delight the ravenous appetites of PC gamers everywhere.

Hmm... I’m getting a little peckish...

Rise of Nations at its core is a traditional “4X”-type strategy game, complete with city building, resource gathering, diplomacy, and – of course – lots of slaying and killing! After spending around 30 minutes with the game, I thought to myself that Rise of Nations was going to be an Empire Earth clone, but after hours with the beta I realized that simply calling it a clone was definitely selling Rise of Nations short. While the title may not be revolutionary, it certainly looks as if it could take the whole RTS genre to a new level.

Rise of Nations will allow gamers to control one of 18 different nations, ranging from Japanese to French (who I’m sure will have a special “surrender” function) to Nubians. And you can bet with each race having its own unique units and production bonuses, they’ll each provide a different experience. Much of the gameplay should be familiar to fans of the genre – your peasants will collect resources (food, wood, wealth, etc.), build military and civilian structures, and even build wonders to benefit your nation. However, there is definitely some innovation afoot at Big Huge Games as well.

For instance, one of the especially nice additions is the “merchant” unit. The merchant unit is built at a market (where you can also sell excess material for money), and has the ability to set up settlements near special “exotic” resources (diamonds, seal meat, etc.) at locations far from your main cities. These settlements will generate wealth for your civilization, which will enable you to purchase upgrades and research more technology.

You’ll also be able to expand you empire when things get a little crowded by sending your peasant forth to found new cities, which in turn will get their own set of city structures such as universities (which aid in research), barracks (for the building of troops), and farms. Once you’ve built your empire to include multiple cities, you’ll also be able to set up trade caravans to help fill your coffers.

As with all games of this type, technology research plays a major part in Rise of Nations. The research interface is very reminiscent of Age of Empires II – you simply click on your City Center, and a list of researchable technologies is presented to you. Depending on how many resources you have available, you may or may not be eligible for certain upgrades.

Technology is divided up into several categories such as military (where you’ll research certain weapons and troop upgrades), economic (where you can increase your resources), civics, and science. On of the effects technology will have on your civilization is that it can raise your maximum population cap, which will allow you to expand your empire farther and more rapidly as the game progressive. Also available are “age jumps”, which – just like in AOE2 – allow you to progress to more advanced civilization levels.

Rise of Nations definitely offers enough technologies to keep each game unique, as gamers will have to decide early on which type of civilization they wish to control and adjust their research accordingly.

Combat in Rise of Nations takes the “paper-rock-scissors” approach used in Empire Earth, with certain units having the ability to counteract the strengths of other unit types. Archers can take out infantry with their rain of arrows, Chariots can speed their way through your opponents with frightening speed, and you can always bust out the Self-Propelled Howitzer when your civilization reaches the appropriate technology levels.

One interesting feature of Rise of Nations is that some units are actually represented by three on-screen icons, meaning that if you build one hoplite unit, for example, it will be represented by a trio of soldiers on screen. This gives the battles a more epic feel to them, while making sure that the ability to command troops remains manageable.

Conquering towns have been made little more interesting as well with a post-victory feature known as the “assimilation period.” When your troops finally succeed in infiltrating the enemy and destroying their city center, there will be a period of time in which your enemy will be able to launch once last counter-attack before his buildings fall under your control. So just because the initial dust has settled doesn’t mean that the battle is over!

Rise of Nations also make use of dynamic national borders, which are expanded as you building certain types of buildings such as temples. You will only be able to build building with your borders, so the quick expansion of your territory should be right at the top of every player’s “To Do” list.

All these features that combine to make Rise of Nation what it is – technology research, combat, resource management, city planning, etc – could easily be overwhelming were it not for the excellent interface that Big Huge Games has implemented. Even in its slightly unfinished state, every single piece of information I needed to manage my empire was readily accessible on-screen. There’s a huge amount of in-game help available as well, so you’ll never be in the dark about a unit or buildings requirements or capabilities.

It would take much more space than I have here to detail every feature in Rise of Nations – there are over 10 single player game types, each with fully customizable parameters (map size, technology levels) and victory conditions. The options screen is almost overwhelming with all the choices it gives the gamers, and the multiplayer support should be every bit as robust as previous Microsoft real-time strategy titles. Also not implemented yet in the beta is a full “Conquer the World” single player campaign, and a planned map and scenario editor that will be identical to the one used by the developers.

While I am very excited with what I’ve seen thus far, it should be mentioned that there is much work to be done with the single player campaign and other aspects before Rise of Nations reaches a levels where final judgment can be passed.

We’ll be awaiting the 2003 release of Rise of Nations with much anticipation. So long as Big Huge Games doesn’t deviate much from what it’s done with its thus far, it’s almost a lock to say that Rise of Nations will be a must-have game for any fan of civilization-building titles.

Previewed by Michael Askounes, PC Gameworld.