Jul 29 2010

Forgotten Games : Rise of Nation

CATEGORY: Opinion/Blabbers | GAME: - other By Karar

Rise of Nations is around 6 year old game now. But I got to just recently try it out when I asked people for recommending some RTS games (which aint my forte). If you want a quick idea of how RoN is and how it compares to other games like Age of Empires then I would just say: "RoN is thinking man's Age of Empire". For those who want more detailed info read on.

Rise of Nations is another game from Microsoft who also published the world famous Age of Empires. Rise of Nations is in many ways build on Age of Empires 2, and successfuly takes it beyond that limit.

Graphics
The game graphics are a little outdated but certianly not your usual AoE2 2D pixels that I dont understand how people can still play with. But visual style was something I really liked... because I dont like the full 3D battlefields of today as they usually end up having rough polygons.. which look ugly and unrealistic colors and too hard to rotate the world around to see everything. RoN is well set in b/w AoE2 and AoE3 to let you play as easily as in AoE2 and look less flashy than AoE3. You can still zoom in an out to certain extent.

A hint of Civilization
Gameplay wise it is at core AoE but adds two successful elements from Civilization and Company of Heroes / Warhammer series. From civ it takes the world map and conquest idea, where you can co-exist with other nations in a world map, declare wars with nations and fight for occupancy of empty lands for resource bonuses. The more world you capture more stronger your nation becomes for further wars. you get bonus cards (extra resource, army etc) from winning battles and you can use any number of cards you have before entering next battle from world map to tilt that resource in your favor.

Pace of Company of Heroes
Warhammer / Company of Heroes games use territory control to power the resources you have and also bring conflicts to multiple fronts rather than just one base. Same thing is in RoN. You must build small cities around the map to control territory and earn capital. This replaces gold gathering. I think RoN found perfect balance in b/w Company of Heroes (no resource gathering at all) and Age of Empire (vareity of resource gathering) by keeping resource gathering for metal, wood, food and also use territory control for gold collection. Plus it innovates with "special resources". these are different points on the map which give bonus to you if you assign a merchant there, like salt etc. which can reduce cost of military etc.

Heroes and stories
Warcraft 3 / C&C / Empire earth used Heroes to give more intimate feel to RTS unnamed soldiers of wars. There are heroes in RoN too. Although their impact I didnt feel as important as in WC3 but they are there. Regarding the storyline... there is NONE. its just world conquest. and that was really disappointing for me. making mission vareity really boring. Warcraft 3 was best in that matter with each mission bringing something new. Here it just free-play like games connected linked with a world conquest map. So, if you are like me to whom story is UTMOST important thing to keep hooked to a game.. then RoN's weakest link is exposed here. The mission do try to vary. But in the end its either defend or attack.

Verdict
Rise of Nation impressed me more than I expected. It was fun no doubt. Many trees of progression, you can win a game not just by spamming enemy with units, but you can beat them through technology, education, economics etc too. it requires more careful planning to set your target way to win. its more fast paced than AoE and much better in many ways while becoming too radically different and difficult to pickup. Overall I would recommend it to anyone who is still playing Age of Empires 2. and also to those who dont like very heavy duty 3D RTS. Its best RTS in that regard no doubt. Has full lan support (thus playable over Tunngle / GameRanger / Hamachi etc). But those looking for storyline, then unrealistic RTS like Warhammer, C&C, Warcraft and Starcraft offer better option.

Download @ TinyPaste
Guide to allow widescreen / higher resolutions for game @ LanCraft WC3
Get mods to enhance your RoN @ RoN Heaven