The Wargamer

Introduction

Although Sid Meier has earned his reputation through the success of the Civilization series, it is important to remember the critical role Brian Reynolds played. He was lead designer for Civilization II (arguably the best), and his absence for the third iteration was indeed felt. I'm not exactly sure that Civilization III will ever have the classic status Civilization II garnered. Fortunately Brian Reynold's talent is still with us in Rise of Nations, developed by his company Big Huge Games. In my opinion, Rise of Nations easily outdoes Civilization III. Heck, let's dispense with the pleasantries. Rise of Nations is one of the best, most tightly designed strategy games of late and completely trounces Civilization III. It even surpasses the more analogous Empire Earth from Stainless Steel Studios.

While those two titles are very different in design (Civilization III being turn-based, Empire Earth real-time) they both provide a glimpse at the entire span of human history, as it is up to the player to take his civilization from prehistory to the present and beyond. Rise of Nations takes the same route, and can best be described as a blending of those two titles. Combat is pure real-time strategy (RTS), complete with a standard RTS interface, but the base-building aspect is more akin to a turn-based strategy game.

This is where Rise of Nations' design really takes off. To counter the doldrums of the typical RTS buildup period, the developers have included a number of features that require the player to continually expand across the map. Gone are the days of the impenetrable "fort of anti-rushing". For a gamer to turtle himself in is to die an early death and be but a mere stain on the pages of history.

Presentation

The stylish intro movie did an excellent job of getting me in the mood for the subject matter as well as revealing the main focus of the game - warfare. It traces the evolution of combat from the Roman legion to the trenches of World War I. It also contains segments showing ancient philosophers and a fleet of merchant ships. This emphasizes the fact that science and trade play a critical role in the game. Still, the purpose of these is to create bigger and better weapons.

This is where the game loses the opportunity to bring much more to the table. The game is meant to be a retrospect of human history, but it emphasizes warfare above all else. The impact of war on the course of human history cannot be emphasized enough, but it would have been nice to have more paths to take in the course of a game. Especially considering that conquest was only one of the ways to victory in Civilization II. There are other victory conditions that one can choose, such as having the strongest economy or building a certain number of wonders, but these are not as engaging.

Plot

Unlike most RTS games which offer a story in their campaign, Rise of Nations does not. It is up to the player to create the story through the evolution of his or her civilization. There are a handful of scenarios that recreate conflicts such as the Battle of Britain, but these are brief tutorials that teach individual aspects of the game. There is also a campaign called Conquer the World but again, there is no story driving the action.

In my opinion the lack of a story does not detract from Rise of Nations. I doubt many Civilization II players spent more time on intricately designed scenarios than they did on playing a random map. It is the same deal here. Every time I started a game it played out differently. Regardless, the nature of Rise of Nations gameplay is not as conducive to scripted events as a more traditional RTS like Empire Earth or Command & Conquer: Generals.

Installation and Documentation

After inserting a product key - necessary for multi-player games - installation was very quick. The constraint on one's hard drive is also very modest with an 800 MB install. The game will run on older computers, since it only requires a 500 MHz processor with 128 MB RAM.

My computer is well above those specifications yet I still encountered some slowdown in larger games. During pitched battles between multiple nations (which can involve hundreds of units) the game would often chug along as I tried to scroll. The delay varied, but it was sometimes serious enough to impede gameplay. There are options that can help speed things up, the most helpful of which is decreasing the population cap. There is also an extensive list of render elements, such as trees, water, or buildings, that one can set to a low setting to increase performance.

I also encountered a corrupt saved game and a couple of crashes. Since then there have been two updates available through a quick update option within the game or by download from the official website. After applying these small patches I have yet to encounter those problems.

Documentation

Rise of Nations ships with a full-color 37 page manual and a foldout. The manual can best be described as succinct. While it covers all of the pertinent information, it does little in the way of offering advice to players (strategy guide, anyone?). To be fair, it is very well laid out, and the use of color is a nice change from the drab blacks and grays of most manuals these days.

The foldout covers three elements of the game: hotkeys, technology, and the nations. This serves as a very handy guide that especially comes into use when trying to determine what nation best suits one's playing style. What perplexes me is the lack of any sort of table that shows off the vast array of units in the game. I remember when I purchased Civilization II and I was awed by the unit card. "Swordsmen and jet fighters in the same game?" I asked myself. It couldn't be possible!