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Genre: Real Time Strategy

Format: CD

Developer: Big Huge Games

Publisher: Microsoft Games

Mac Port: Westlake Interactive

Mac Publisher: MacSoft

Minimum System Requirements: 600MHz processor, Mac OS X v10.2.8, 256MB RAM (512MB recommended for online play), 32MB video card, monitor with support for 1024x768 resolution, CD-ROM drive, 1GB hard drive space,
56k modem or broadband for online play

Review Computer: 1GHz iMac, 256MB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 video card with 64MB of DDR RAM, Mac OS X v10.3.5

Network Feature: Yes

Price: $49.99 (first 30 days free, then $14.99/month or $12.99/month in six-month blocks)

ESRB Rating: Teen (blood and gore, violence)

Availability: Now

Official Website: [url=http://www.riseofnations.com]http://www.riseofnations.com[/url]

This is my review of Rise of Nations: Gold Edition. Are you ready? Here it is:

It's Age of Empires.

I'll grant you that it's more diverse than AoE, has a greater sense of scale, and includes a campaign mode that creates a Risk-like "overgame." But what you need to know, if you're thinking about picking up the game, is that it's a new, better version of Age of Empires.

I was certainly curious about the game when I saw the ads, which cast it as sort of a real-time Civilization, with the emphasis not being entirely on military strength, but on creating and building cities, establishing economic routes, and advancing your culture's knowledge.

And that's all true. All of that stuff happens in the game, but you're doing all of that stuff so that you can build bigger, more powerful armies. The game promotes that you can win through "non-military and quasi-military" methods, but you'll need a powerful army to convince people to ally with you to get those victories. Here, this should tell you a lot: You don't increase your population limit by building more cities, you do it by researching War at the library.

So, while the game is newer, with more bells and whistles and unusual units, etc., etc., it's still an RTS game, and you know the drill. Your peasants gather resources to improve your buildings so that you can make and upgrade military units. The resources are initially the holy duo of Food and Wood, of course, and as your civ advances, you add Gold (created by trading between your own cities), Metal (mining mountains) and Knowledge (by establishing universities with white-bearded wise men who's Eurocentric view of world events colors the curriculum...sorry, I got distracted).

All of this helps you build a bigger army.

Most of the game will be familiar to people who've played any strategy games. Selecting a unit by clicking on it, then right clicking on a location, will cause that unit to take "intuitive action;" peasants will gather wood in a forest, military units will attack cities, merchants will set up shop on resources. If you select a mixed group of military units, you can cycle through various formations they can take at their destination, all of which are intelligent and helpful, placing siege weaponry behind infantry who, in turn, will be behind quicker-moving cavalry.

The scope of the game is certainly huge; you can play games that start in the stone age and continue on to the modern age, although most of the scenarios and campaigns limit themselves to a more modest time period.

While the units have no supernatural abilities (unlike the hero units in Age of Mythology), several, like the Generals, have special abilities to help troops within their leadership radius, allowing armies to move faster via a forced march or to entrench when facing an enemy to take less damage.

There are other bennies, like building Wonders (Pyramids, Forbidden City, etc.) that will give your civ certain boosts. But most of the scenarios are timed to be so short, around an hour or so, that by the time you build them, they may not influence game play so much.

If you're a fan of real time strategy games, this is the one you want. You'll recognize the interface immediately, the graphics look really good, and the tutorial for the new concepts is clear and helpful. It's fun to advance past shamans waving their sticks in the air and finally be able to build airfields and tanks as well as archers and knights.

The game's big innovation is its campaign mode. When playing a campaign, you're given a superobjective of conquest: Alexander the Great must completely conquer the world in his campaign, but, in the New World, the American Indians must drive off all the Europeans while the Americans must declare their independence and the British try to prevent that while gathering tribute.

The campaign mode is first presented as a game board that looks a lot like Risk. You select your army and then a territory to enter. Once you're in that territory, you play the standard game of RoN, with varying scenario objectives. You may have to take enemy cities or prevent your cities from being taken within a set time period.

If you win those scenarios, you can get a bonus: special cards that give you additional troops or abilities in another scenario, or resources and tribute. The over-game is played in turns—one turn per scenario—and, in addition to attacking the other players, you have to prevent your territories from being taken away.

All in all, Rise of Nations isn't a breakthrough in the evolution of the RTS; it doesn't take the RTS in any radical, exciting new direction, but is that really wanted? If you liked Age of Empires, and want to play a new, better version of that, here it is.

Bill's been using Macs since the late 80s. When he's not making smartass remarks to amuse Kirk Hiner, he enjoys fighting for the user.