February 8, 2005 - On the outside, it may look like a remake of Microsoft's Age of Empires, or Sierra's Empire Earth, but this one is a totally different monster to tackle. Big Huge Games first major entry into the PC gaming community is more than a surprise; it is a welcome change to a proven yet repetitive formula. Published by Microsoft, Rise of Nations: Gold Edition contains both the original title and the Thrones & Patriots expansion in one bundle. If you have never ventured into the title before, then it's definitely worth getting the bundle as the expansion adds a lot to the game.

Graphically, Rise of Nations is a very strong title. Environments are highly detailed, and models are well developed. Attack and defensive animations are fluent and flow nicely with the overall style. The structural models are also really well developed, as players advance through the technology tree the buildings become more modernized. A pair of 19th century battleships duel it out in the sea, watching as they pummel holes in each other. Finally as one sinks to the ocean floor and vanishes, that is the atmosphere in Rise of Nations. Watching planes bomb a small city, only to come crashing down after taking a hit from anti-aircraft fire, or a barrage of missiles take down a building is really well animated. Overall, the graphical element of Rise of Nations is very well developed, one of the strongest aspects of the title.

Along with the graphics engine, the sound effects in Rise of Nations are very engaging, albeit repetitive at times. The background music present in the game is also very enjoyable to listen to; it seems to change depending on the current situation happening on screen. Some of the in-game messages, such as when an opponent begins constructing a wonder, are displayed on screen as captions. It would be much more effective if these were simply indicated by a voice indicating you of the event, as. I found the caption to occasionally get into the way of what I was trying to accomplish. Besides these issues, the sound engine in Rise of Nations is superb and extremely well developed.

Although it may appear to have a lot in common with popular strategy titles such as Empire Earth or Age of Empires, Rise of Nations is a very different game. The gameplay strategy is completely different, and techniques that work well in other titles do not necessarily adapt overly well to Rise of Nations. For starters, Rise of Nations is based around a city model, as players create cities and have national borders. Within these city limits, facilities for producing units, and collecting resources are present. Cities grow based on the number of buildings within them, and the larger the city; the more difficult it is to capture it. The benefit to this city model is that opponents can't simply sneak right outside your city and build a fortress or military facility, nor can they mine for resources within your national borders. This offers a new gameplay dynamic focused on capturing cities, as when a city is captured all of the facilities used for resource gathering in that city become the property of the attacking nation. The city model is one of the most unique elements to come out of a strategy title in a long time, a welcome change to an old formula.

Rise of Nations also offers a very different resource-gathering model than other real-time strategy titles. Instead of simply assigning an arbitrary number of civilians to woodcutting of a forest, a maximum number can be assigned to a resource gathering facility. This makes civilians much more efficient and easier to manage. Secondly, unlike other strategy titles, Rise of Nations makes is easier to predict the income of resources. In other strategy titles, resources simply increase by arbitrary amounts as peasants return resources to the drop-off facility. In Rise of Nations, an indicator is given as to how much of a resource is being gathered of a specific resource per one-third minute. The game also implements a maximum gathering limit for each resource per one-third minute, which can be increased by doing research at the library. This resource-gathering limit is designed to help balance the game and avoid wars where resources are not an issue, something that has been needed in this type of game for a long time.

The resources available in Rise of Nations are wood, food, iron, gold, oil, and knowledge. The process of collecting these resources is very different from other strategy titles, in the fact that it integrates tightly with the city model. Wood, food, and iron are gathered in the usual manner of sending peasants to chop trees or build farms. Exploring the land, and setting up trade routes between your cities produces gold. Oil becomes available later in the game, and is mined by peasants either on land or in the sea. Knowledge is required for most upgrades and advancements, and is obtained by building universities in your cities and populating them with scholars. The large numbers of resources really requires players to micromanage and balance their peasants accordingly, as they count towards your unit cap.

One of the downsides of Rise of Nations is the low unit cap. Although this avoids using shear force to overtake cities and requires a more strategical approach, it can make games last a really long time. I can think of one game I had in which I was playing against the computer and losing really badly. Through some innovative strategy, I fought back and ended up winning the game, about five hours later. It took nearly two hours to capture their last two or three cities on an arena size map, simply because we had both reached the maximum unit production and every time I would send in units the opponent could always counter them. In fact, the computer would usually win as they had the home territory advantage. If the unit cap in the game were higher, even if it was simply available as an option, it would really be beneficial in making games much shorter in length.