Rise of Nations

Infobox VG
title = Rise of Nations


developer = Big Huge Games
publisher = Microsoft Game Studios
designer = Brian Reynolds
engine =
version = 02.04.04.2903
released = vgrelease|North America|NA|May 20, 2003
vgrelease|Europe|EU|May 23, 2003
genre = Real-time strategy
modes = Single-player, Multiplayer
ratings = ESRB: T
USK: 12+
PEGI: 12+
OFLC: G8+
platforms = Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X
media = CD
requirements = 500 MHz processor, 128 MB RAM, 800 MB Hard disk space, 16 MB GPU, Windows 98, Windows me, Windows 2000, Windows xp, Windows vista
input = Keyboard and mouse

"Rise of Nations" is a real-time strategy computer game, developed by Big Huge Games and published by Microsoft on May 20, 2003. The development of the game was led by veteran Brian Reynolds, of "Civilization II" and "Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri". Concepts taken from turn-based strategy games have been added into the game--including territories and attrition warfare. [ [http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/riseofnations/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary;review Rise of Nations for PC Review - PC Rise of Nations Review ] ] Rise of Nations features 18 civilizations, playable through 8 ages of world history.

On April 28, 2004, Big Huge Games released "", an expansion pack. Later that year, a Gold edition of "Rise of Nations" was released, which included both the original and the expansion.

Overview

"Rise of Nations" is similar tructures with which to build and strengthen their army, and attacks the enemy's army and settlements.

"Rise of Nations" employs the concept of "territory," as employed in Civilization I, II, III and IV; the area near the player's settlements is considered their territory, and players may only construct buildings within their territory or that of an ally. A nation's borders can be expanded by the creation and expansion of cities and forts, the discovery of certain technologies, and obtaining access to certain rare resources. Other technologies and resources cause enemy units to suffer attrition over time, which can eventually destroy an unsupported invasion force.

Cities are centrally important to gameplay; most buildings must be built within a certain distance of a city, borders are most easily expanded by building and expanding cities, and cities are the only source of the resource-collecting Citizen unit. City placement must be carefully considered, because the player may only build a certain number of cities (usually eight)--a limit which can only be exceeded by conquering enemy cities. Cities cannot be destroyed by enemy attack, but are instead assimilated into the conqueror's control. The defending player may choose to adopt a scorched-earth policy and raze the city's infrastructure, and/or even the city itself, to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.

Citizens (resource-collecting workers) in "Rise of Nations" don't remain idle after creation until orders are given to them; rather, after a brief pause, idle citizens look for any nearby construction sites, unoccupied resource gathering sites, or damaged buildings and automatically move to build, gather, or repair there. This option can be disabled if desired. All resource patches in "Rise of Nations" are infinite, unlike the finite amount of resources found in, for example, single-player campaigns; the main limit is the player's maximum-collection-rate cap, which must be upgraded via research.

Unlike most RTS games, which feature only two resources ("StarCraft", ') or even one ("Homeworld", '), there are six resources in "Rise of Nations", five of which (Food, Timber, Metal, Oil, and Wealth) are used mostly to build units and buildings. The sixth resource, Knowledge, is mainly used for researching technologies, though it is also necessary for the construction of missiles and the last two World Wonders (Supercollider and Space Program). Despite this proliferation of resources, each building, technology or unit type requires only one or two types to build; thus, gameplay is streamlined, as the player almost always has enough stockpiles to build "something" (even if that something is not what they originally intended to build). While creating harvesting infrastructure can be time-consuming, it is partially eased by the fact that certain resources only become available after progressing to a certain age; for instance, the player cannot harvest Oil until they have entered the Industrial Age.

As in the "Civilization" series, any nation can be played during any age, regardless of that nation's fate throughout actual history. Some unique units are based on predictions and projections of what may have been, if certain nations were not destroyed in real-life history: for example, the Native American nations (the Aztecs, Maya, and Inca) have unique units in the Modern and Information ages which resemble real-world Iberian-South American guerrillas. The end conditions are also made to be historically neutral, in that one can win the game by a capital capture, territorial superiority, researching four dominating technologies, or the usual wonder and score victories. Another perceived inconsistency is that some nations have their historical capital city instead of the current one (or vice-versa); for example, the Turkish capital in Rise of Nations is Istanbul, although the capital of Turkey has been Ankara since 1922. Similarly, the Japanese capital in-game is Kyoto, despite the fact that Tokyo became the capital in the 19th century. It is also worth noting that the same city can be built by multiple nations: if the Romans, Greeks, and Turks are found in the same game, it is possible that the cities of Byzantium, Constantinople, and Istanbul will co-exist during the same game, despite the fact that these are different historical names for the same city.

Each of the 18 civilizations in "Rise of Nations" has its own set of at least three unique units spread throughout the ages, as well as a graphics set unique to their cultural group. "Rise of Nations" uses a hybrid 2D/3D engine to render buildings, but a 3D engine to render units, terrain, and special effects [ [http://www.microsoft.com/games/riseofnations/faq.aspx#2d3d Microsoft Game Studios - Rise of Nations ] ] .

A single player campaign, Conquer the World, is included in the game. It is comparable to the board game "Risk", except that attacks on enemy territories take place using the in-game battle engine, which can last as long as 90 minutes depending upon the scenario. The campaign map is similar to Risk's, but luck is less of a factor. The player can also purchase reinforcements or bonus cards and engage in diplomacy with other nations. The campaign starts at the Ancient Age and progresses slowly over the course over the campaign to end at the Information Age. Within the context of a battle, it may be possible to advance to the next available age (and thus benefit from the associated potential unit upgrades in that battle).

"Rise of Nations" uses an ELO rating system to rank players.

Gameplay

Gameplay focuses heavily on creating a balance between a heavily aggressive and militaristic attack and developing a strong economy and center of production. Players who develop a balance tend to be better than players who focus specifically on one or the other.

Because every unit in the game is strong against certain units and weak against others (for example, pikemen counter heavy cavalry such as knights, heavy cavalry counter bowmen, bowmen counter pikemen, etc.), and terrain and military tactics matter, a keen sense of generalship is required to make the best use of one's army. Flanking maneuvers are made possible as attacks from the side and, to a lesser extent, from behind, will do more damage than frontal assaults. A general unit can be used to fast march an army to outmaneuver an opponent or move to where it needs to be quickly, create decoy armies to draw enemy fire or create a diversion, camouflage an army to make them temporarily invisible or fortify infantry positions and thus increase their defensive capabilities. Terrain also plays a role on a tactical level: attacks from higher ground are more effective, and, from a defensive standpoint, units in rocky areas are better protected whereas units wading in water are more vulnerable. Five tactical formations are also available, including the ability to compress or expand the line of battle. When a formation is chosen, the selected units automatically reposition themselves accordingly, typically with faster moving units in the front and slower moving, vulnerable units in the rear. With sufficient skill in creating proper unit distributions in an army and fielding that army, it is possible to defeat a numerically superior enemy in "Rise of Nations".

In a manner similar to chess, slight strategic mistakes early in the game can turn into major tactical problems later on. For example, a poor and hasty placement of a city in an empty piece of land when some more reconnaissance would have shown a superior wood placement site, can lead to severe wood gathering problems later on since a lumber mill must be built within city boundaries and serves to automatically enhance the productivity only of those wood gathering sites that are within the city's limits.

Units

There are more than 200 different types of units in "Rise of Nations", ranging from the Ancient Age Hoplite to the Information Age "Stealth Bomber". Military units are created at certain structures: the Barracks, Stable/Auto Plant, Siege Factory/Factory, Dock/Shipyard/Anchorage, Airfield, Missile silo and Fort/Castle/Fortress/Redoubt. Unit types such as Light Infantry, Heavy Infantry and Ranged Cavalry are upgraded as the player advances through the ages. These upgrades usually represent revolutionary changes in their particular field. For example, the Arquebusier of the Gunpowder Age becomes the Musketeer of the Enlightenment Age, representing the great advantage of flintlock muskets over the earlier matchlock muskets and showing increased attack power and reload speed. Also, each nation gets its own set of unique units. For example, the Greeks can build Companion cavalry, the Russians can build Red Guards infantry and T-80 tanks, the British can build Longbowmen, Highlanders, and Avro Lancaster Bombers, and the Germans get the Tiger and Leopard tanks.

Because of the wide variety of units in the game, players have the opportunity to create an army customized to their tastes. Most units have a cost that is roughly equal to that of their peers. Additionally, most units use only two resource types, making the creation of diverse armies easier and almost required. Terraced costs further contribute to the incentive for a diverse army, as each additional unit a player creates of a single type will cost more.

Nations

There are 18 nations in Rise of Nations and each has its own special ability. The nations and their special ability are:

* The Aztecs have the Power of Sacrifice
* The Bantu have the Power of Migration
* The British have the Power of Empire
* The Chinese have the Power of Culture
* The Egyptians have the Power of the Nile
* The French have the Power of Leadership
* The Germans have the Power of Industry
* The Greeks have the Power of Philosophy
* The Inca have the Power of Gold
* The Japanese have the Power of Honor
* The Koreans have the Power of Tradition
* The Maya have the Power of Architecture
* The Mongols have the Power of the Horde
* The Nubians have the Power of Trade
* The Romans have the Power of Caesar
* The Russians have the Power of the Motherland
* The Spanish have the Power of Discovery
* The Turks have the Power of Siege

In the "expansion" pack Thrones and Patriots many other nations become available including:

Americans,Dutch,Lakota,Indians,Persians,Iroqouis

Reception

Rise of Nations received mostly positive reviews from most websites and magazines and won several awards, though significant problems with multiplayer gaming were noted.

Reviews

*PC Gamer (UK) - 88%
*PC Gamer (US) - 95% (Editor's Choice)
*PC Format - 93%
*((pc game 100% Gamesmaster UK - 89%
*GameSpot - 9.3/10 (Editor's Choice)
*IGN - 8.2/10
*GameSpy - 90/100
*Eurogamer - 9/10
*Maximum PC -10/10

Awards

*GameSpy 2003 Game of the Year - PC RTS [cite web|url=http://www.microsoft.com/Games/riseofnations/relatedlinks.aspx|title=Microsoft Game Studios - Rise of Nations|publisher=www.microsoft.com|accessdate=2008-06-15]
*GameSpy Top 10 RTS Games
*Best Strategy Game of 2003 by Gamespot
*Best PC Game of 2003 by Gamespot

Multiplayer

On Microsoft Windows "Rise of Nations" uses the GameSpy matchmaking service. This enables people from around the world to play together in an easier environment. However, computers with slower internet connections may find the service harder to use, due to the resource demand it requires.

On Mac OS X, "Rise of Nations" uses GameRanger as a matchmaking service. The LAN networking provides a system for people on the same network to play together.

Cross platform play is not supported between Windows and Mac users.

ales

"Rise of Nations" and its expansion pack "" have received combined sales of over 1 million copies. [ [http://www.bighugegames.com/press_rongoldships.shtml PRESS ROOM: October 27, 2004 - Rise of Nations: Gold Ships] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.bighugegames.com/ron.shtml BHG "Rise of Nations" site]
* [http://www.microsoft.com/games/riseofnations/ Microsoft "Rise of Nations" site]
* [http://gamestats.gamespy.com/rontp/rankings0.html?rank=0 GameSpy "Rise of Nations" Rankings]
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* [http://www.destineerstudios.com/macsoftgames/products/ron/ron.html "Rise of Nations"] for Mac OS X
*moby game|id=/rise-of-nations
# [http://riseofnations.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page Wikia's new RoN wikia]