Rise of Nations

The Good
The idea that you have actual cities rather than a collection of buildings is very neat. Being able to capture and plunder his caravans and cities, really adds realism in this admittedly best RTS to come out since Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings, (except for Age of Mythology;) The use of borders and attrition damage give you more of a feeling of ruling a real empire. Add to this some real nice graphics and buildings, and it's truely a delight to look at. It also has a slew of civilizations, just like Age of Kings.

The Bad
Unfortunately, it hasn't learned from the mistakes of other recent RTS games cough Empire Earth cough.. like in EE, the planes circle overhead in large sweeping arcs like big buzzards. It's not as bad as other ones though, as the planes are faster and refuel quicker. Nuclear weapons also make the game less fun. You can just nuke the other guy's capital, killing most of his economy, and essentially greatly setting back his civilization. The maps are also pretty small, so you probably won't be able to get more than 5 cities. Also, this shares one other trait with other not-as-good-as-age of empires-games. It spans a far too long time period. AOE is probably about 300-400 years. Empire Earth and Rise of Nations and Empires: Dawn of the Modern World span 1000 years or more. This means in RON, you will find that you've advanced to the Modern age, and now need oil to build anything wort building, although you have great food and wood economies. it just makes your economy a pain.

The Bottom Line
Although better than other recent poor RTS, it falls short of being better than Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings

The Good
The aforementioned summary describes a wonderful game hybrid, which I’ve been dreaming about for the better part of a decade; the chess-like strategy of Civilization mixed with the intense real-time combat of Age Of Empires, which Microsoft and Big Huge Games seem to have achieved with ease.

The real-time portion of the game will be spent in the Age of Empires-like universe. From Age of Empires, the easy-to-read, no-nonsense interface has been utilized when it comes to advancing through the ages, creating/moving units, constructing buildings, and gathering resources. This in my opinion was always the Age series’ best feature. Even a complete novice could grasp this system with no problem. Also, the buildings, unit animations, and overall appearance will very much remind one of the Age series (which is to be expected since Microsoft published the game). Logically, the turn-based part of the game gives a nod to the Civilization series, where we have a “world map”, in which the player has the option of moving their armies in for attack/occupation, and conducting diplomatic business with other nations, and purchasing territories. There is also of course a “turn” button, where the player can decide whether they want to attack a location, or skip out on battle altogether and receive money for it from military surplus. As strange as this may sound, it’s almost…almost…possible to the play the entire game without fighting, much like in Civilization. But hey, where’s the fun in that?

It should also be mentioned that even when in real-time mode (or “Age mode” if you like), the concept of nation borders and city construction is vital to winning the scenario. The more cities you build, the larger your nation borders will become, just like in Civilization (the borders can also be extended by constructing buildings such as castles). Enemy units and the player’s units can also suffer attrition damage when crossing over an opposing nation’s border. Excellent!

The Bad
Sadly, even my dream strategy game has a flaw or two, like any game does. For one thing, I found the time limits to be a bit annoying. Occasional time limits are acceptable when it applies to the victory conditions, such as preventing the opposing nation from finishing a Wonder for instance, but a time limit in every scenario is unnecessary. Much of the time I felt rushed, blazing through my research and scrounging for every single bit of resources I could find before the damned clock ran out. It didn’t really allow for careful city planning, so my nation ended up being scatterbrained in a number of ways, with my poor little trade caravans running all over the place. In addition to this, there were times when I thought the “Age mode” was a bit too easy, even at high difficulty settings. In no time, I would have the opposing nation’s borders run over and taking out their cities one by one, killing their units and stealing resources in the process. I don’t know if it’s an AI issue or what, but the opposing nations oftentimes didn’t seem all that assertive in protecting themselves from my wrath (including nuclear strikes). Oh well. Of course a game like this is a fairly new thing, so hopefully this type of game design will be improved in the future.

The Bottom Line
In conclusion, this is a game that will win over all sorts of converts. Novices, RTS fans that hate TBS, TBS fans that hate RTS, or gamers that don’t care for strategy at all; I believe that they’ll all find something to love in this game. Also, it has enormous replay value, be it single player or multiplayer. As another reviewer said, this is indeed the next-generation strategy game, and I hope other strategy franchises take note of this truly awesome game, because it is a force to be reckoned with.

The Good
As many did, I waited for this game for months looking for the new AOE style game, AOM and EE didn’t make it for me but this one is great and has the potential to...

I like:

1) How were implemented the rare resources and the nation borders from the Civilization series.

2) The mix between RTS and TBS.

3) The diversity on civilizations and their bonuses.

4) The fact that multiplayer works great not as many games ship these days.

5) The fact that scores isn’t fully related to military therefore the last player can have the strongest army and win the game.

6) The fact that you can (recommended) add generals and supply wagons to your army.

7) The risk-like campaign is great.

The Bad
A few points but let’s go...

1) As a strategy lover I feel that techs are researched to fast and after 30 mins of game you are at the latest ages... I don’t ask for slow developments like you have in a TBS but I dislike the fast ones.

2) The fact that first player to reach nuclear power have a big advantage at that point.

3) The fact that if your capital is taken by enemy and you can't recover it on 5 mins you are out and the total of your cities are now part of your enemy nation.

The Bottom Line
If you like RTS is a must-have, if you like TBS and never tried RTS because the differences this one can be a great start.

If you like Multiplayer games this one is for you and if you prefer single player the risk-like campaign will provide you hours of fun...

The Good
This combined the visual appeal and "niftyness" value of the better RTS games with the large-scale feeling of a Civilization-style game. Unlike far too many in the genre, you don't have to out-click a computer to play single-player, and the game design makes actual strategic decision-making - longer-term planning and choices - crucial to play. It's also missing most of the worst annoyances of the genre, like stupid units that don't react when under attack and a race to create an uber-unit rush. It even manages to capture the scope and feeling of a great strategic game like Civilization, where your cities really feel like cities and not just bases - heck, it even has Wonders of the World. The single-player "Conquer the World" campaign is also really great, a more-than-decent real strategy game that uses the RTS module for tactical battles.

The Bad
Although the variety of nations support various play styles and give several good choices for most player styles, eventually you do reach the point where games start feeling pretty much the same and there's nothing more to play. Also, sadly, in the CTW campaign the real-world starting locations don't mix very well with the list of nations chosen; the worst case of this is probably the Maya, who have a very nice power in the RTS game but start in a basically hopeless location in the campaign.

The Bottom Line
Although the seminal title in the genre, Dune, was an original idea and I played it as such, most of these games vary from boring to unplayable for me. RoN is only one of two that I've played since Dune that I actually liked, and it's the only one I've ever got enthused about. It also accomplishes something I thought impossible - it actually renders much of the flavor of a Civ game into the RTS genre.