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score: 7/10Developer: Big Huge Games (N/A)
See Instead: Big Huge Games/Wikipedia Released: 2006 Genre: Real Time Strategy, Management Official Website: N/A See Instead: Rise of Legends Heaven |
Rise of Nations: rise of legends Are you a real-time strategist? Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends is a real-time strategy game that takes everything great about the genre but does nothing to improve it, nor does it have any ground breaking design elements to elevate it above the rest. There is a story to follow but it’s shallow, not fully fleshed out, and basically stupid. The game is broken into three chapters that are loosely tied together via the vapid story and the character development is so weak that by the end of the game you really stop caring about the fate of this fictional world. As with other games of this type, you start each level with limited resources and must build up your base, create an economy, and use your wealth to create an army with which to crush your foes. Once you have enough units it’s a simple matter of storming your opponent’s base and destroying it. Wash, rinse, and repeat. A superficial world map allows the player some degree of progression and choice in the levels they tackle, but this mechanic feels tacked on rather than integrated in any meaningful way. Overall, Rise of Legends is a fun RTS but lacks any real changes to the tried-and-true formula to give it anything more than a passing interest. If you’re a hardcore RTS player you’ll certainly want to add this game to your collection, but if you’re more of a casual gamer, or invest more time into another genre, Rise of Legends won’t hold your interest long enough or leave you with a deep feeling of satisfaction when the end credits roll.
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PROS:
Beautiful graphics Fantastic sound effects and music Creative unit types |
CONS:
Lame story line Gameplay grows stale Woefully lacking differentiated mission types |
graphics
Rise of Legends is visually alluring; unit animations are detailed and smooth, building models are vivid, and the overall color scheme is vibrant and colorful. The different levels you visit are naturally appealing but eventually the environments start to look the same as they fall into the three tropes of forest, desert, and jungle environs. It’s all been done before in many video game titles, but at least Rise of Legends’ attention to detail makes these places pretty.
Character models in cut scenes are nicely displayed but the mouth animations are scary looking. It’s difficult to explain, but the mouth movements make the characters look like their face holes are being ripped open and manipulated by some demonic force. Cut scenes are short enough so the stiff movements and outright terrifying mouth animations are something you won’t be subjected to suffering through. In-game the graphics are lush and beautiful. Your army is detailed nicely and if you zoom in close you can see gears turning, wings flapping realistically, and fire and smoke trailing convincingly behind moving units. Selecting your army and ordering them to move across the map prompts them to line up in marching formations, with heavy units in the front and ranged units in the back. It’s a nice touch and really adds to the sense of your power as the player. This is your creation and to see it respond in such a manner is exciting.
Environments are detailed and alive but you can only look at so many jungles or deserts that all look the same before becoming bored. The level of graphical polish is impressive but the overuse of recycled environments and the limited units available means that the game becomes visually uninteresting after extended play time. Consistency is a wonderful thing and each unit is distinct on the battle field but nothing really changes much over the course of the game. The visuals all fall apart after a while and towards the final chapter of the story mode you’ll force yourself through the last few missions just to end it all. The attractive graphics can only hold your interest for so long before it all feels reused and humdrum.
There is a lot of creativity at work though. Giacomo, the main character, lives in a clockwork fantasy land that’s displayed with aplomb. Steam-punk is notoriously difficult to portray artistically but Rise of Legends’ attention to detail brings this visual style to life. Machinery churns and whirs to life while billowing, black smoke seeps out of pipes and vents. Clockwork men are autonomously controlled via a series of gears and pulleys and mechanical spiders skitter across the landscape. It’s lovely to watch in the quiet moments you get with the game. The other characters you come across also have their own visual flair. The desert units are engulfed in flames and in the late game stages you are in control of a race heavily inspired by the ancient tribes of South America. Each race is distinct in their presentation but with no real graphical progress the graphics feel lackluster.
The first half of the game is really exciting in terms of the visuals. The world feels lived in and the graphics help keep you interested and invested. It’s unfortunate that after a while the graphics become stale and uninteresting because they’re just that nice to look at. The cut scenes could have used a little more work but, taking into account the age of the game, they would have been considered fantastic when it was released. The three playable races are diverse in their overall visuals and everything is animated with minutiae in mind. By the end of the game, though, nothing graphically will really stick with you even though you can tell a lot of thought and effort when into making this game absolutely gorgeous.
Character models in cut scenes are nicely displayed but the mouth animations are scary looking. It’s difficult to explain, but the mouth movements make the characters look like their face holes are being ripped open and manipulated by some demonic force. Cut scenes are short enough so the stiff movements and outright terrifying mouth animations are something you won’t be subjected to suffering through. In-game the graphics are lush and beautiful. Your army is detailed nicely and if you zoom in close you can see gears turning, wings flapping realistically, and fire and smoke trailing convincingly behind moving units. Selecting your army and ordering them to move across the map prompts them to line up in marching formations, with heavy units in the front and ranged units in the back. It’s a nice touch and really adds to the sense of your power as the player. This is your creation and to see it respond in such a manner is exciting.
Environments are detailed and alive but you can only look at so many jungles or deserts that all look the same before becoming bored. The level of graphical polish is impressive but the overuse of recycled environments and the limited units available means that the game becomes visually uninteresting after extended play time. Consistency is a wonderful thing and each unit is distinct on the battle field but nothing really changes much over the course of the game. The visuals all fall apart after a while and towards the final chapter of the story mode you’ll force yourself through the last few missions just to end it all. The attractive graphics can only hold your interest for so long before it all feels reused and humdrum.
There is a lot of creativity at work though. Giacomo, the main character, lives in a clockwork fantasy land that’s displayed with aplomb. Steam-punk is notoriously difficult to portray artistically but Rise of Legends’ attention to detail brings this visual style to life. Machinery churns and whirs to life while billowing, black smoke seeps out of pipes and vents. Clockwork men are autonomously controlled via a series of gears and pulleys and mechanical spiders skitter across the landscape. It’s lovely to watch in the quiet moments you get with the game. The other characters you come across also have their own visual flair. The desert units are engulfed in flames and in the late game stages you are in control of a race heavily inspired by the ancient tribes of South America. Each race is distinct in their presentation but with no real graphical progress the graphics feel lackluster.
The first half of the game is really exciting in terms of the visuals. The world feels lived in and the graphics help keep you interested and invested. It’s unfortunate that after a while the graphics become stale and uninteresting because they’re just that nice to look at. The cut scenes could have used a little more work but, taking into account the age of the game, they would have been considered fantastic when it was released. The three playable races are diverse in their overall visuals and everything is animated with minutiae in mind. By the end of the game, though, nothing graphically will really stick with you even though you can tell a lot of thought and effort when into making this game absolutely gorgeous.
Sound
Rise of Legends received a lot of attention in the sound category and shares the same level of polish as the graphics. The opening composition is a booming orchestral score that immediately grabs your attention. It feels grand, with undertones of a symphonic march, and horn crescendos rise up like bugles calling soldiers to the battle. It’s epic and you’d be doing it a disservice by skipping over it. Take a few moments to listen to the main menu music to get you into the mood before you jump into the game.
In-game the sound effects and music are quite nice too. The music is pushed into the background just enough to keep it from overtaking the sounds of the on-screen melee. The in-game music also responds dynamically; a quiet melody tinkles in the background while you work on building up your base that suddenly springs into a sweeping score as you engage in combat. It’s all well recorded and expertly leveled to subconsciously affect your response to the game.
Other sound effects are also pleasing to hear; musket fire, the scream of a sand dragon, and the death moans of your fallen foes and comrades drag you deeper into the game. Much like the graphics, the sounds fall into the black hole of monotony. After a few hours of playing you’ll have heard almost everything there is to hear. Again, the consistency is nice but there simply isn't enough to hold your interest all the way through. Each unit has their own associated sound effects so the recycling of effects isn't immediately noticeable, but as you move through the game your ears will begin to detect the sameness. By the end of the game nothing here will be so memorable that you’ll rush to tell your friends about how awesome the music or sound effects are.
The sound in Rise of Legends is a beautiful compliment to the equally well-honed graphics and they both work in concert to keep the game feeling fresh enough to keep you playing long after you stopped caring. With a little more ingenuity and more bombastic sound the game wouldn't spiral into the whole it digs itself into. The voice acting is simply mediocre though at least it doesn't sound forced or contrived. The sound isn't bad, it’s just not memorable and with some of the creative units in the game it’s a shame that there’s nothing here that really stands out. A lack of differential sound effects and a musical score that, while none the less pretty, loops around and keeps itself tucked away leaves the sound of Rise of Legends less than memorable.
In-game the sound effects and music are quite nice too. The music is pushed into the background just enough to keep it from overtaking the sounds of the on-screen melee. The in-game music also responds dynamically; a quiet melody tinkles in the background while you work on building up your base that suddenly springs into a sweeping score as you engage in combat. It’s all well recorded and expertly leveled to subconsciously affect your response to the game.
Other sound effects are also pleasing to hear; musket fire, the scream of a sand dragon, and the death moans of your fallen foes and comrades drag you deeper into the game. Much like the graphics, the sounds fall into the black hole of monotony. After a few hours of playing you’ll have heard almost everything there is to hear. Again, the consistency is nice but there simply isn't enough to hold your interest all the way through. Each unit has their own associated sound effects so the recycling of effects isn't immediately noticeable, but as you move through the game your ears will begin to detect the sameness. By the end of the game nothing here will be so memorable that you’ll rush to tell your friends about how awesome the music or sound effects are.
The sound in Rise of Legends is a beautiful compliment to the equally well-honed graphics and they both work in concert to keep the game feeling fresh enough to keep you playing long after you stopped caring. With a little more ingenuity and more bombastic sound the game wouldn't spiral into the whole it digs itself into. The voice acting is simply mediocre though at least it doesn't sound forced or contrived. The sound isn't bad, it’s just not memorable and with some of the creative units in the game it’s a shame that there’s nothing here that really stands out. A lack of differential sound effects and a musical score that, while none the less pretty, loops around and keeps itself tucked away leaves the sound of Rise of Legends less than memorable.
GamePLay
The real meat of Rise of Legends lies in the actual gameplay. The main campaign is fun at first but devolves into a slog rather than a joy as the same mechanics are used over and over again. It’s the bane of the RTS genre and one that Rise of Legends simply can’t escape. Like other video games in its wake, such as Command and Conquer and Universe at War, Rise of Legends tasks the player with building a base to generate in-game currency then build structures to create ground and air war units. Water based combat is absent from this game but there is just enough diversity in unit types to make this forgivable. It would have been a nice addition but the game plays fine without it. Since each race has their own unique units to control the game keeps things interesting enough even though you may feel like a huge gameplay element is missing.
Almost every level starts off the same; you start off on a map shrouded in a fog of war with a handful of combat units and a capital city, then you must explore for resources to expand your operations. The main base mechanic is interesting in that you add modules to your capital city to increase your population limit or the frequency at which you collect wealth. The larger the city the more hit points it has thereby making it more difficult for your enemies to capture. If your starting city falls you lose the level and must start the scenario over. Thankfully this doesn't happen often, so even though some levels require a substantial invest of your time you won’t typically lose to unfair A.I. that exploits design flaws to crush your empire. The loss of secondary cities you capture usually won’t spell defeat but only a few levels benefit from the exchange of cities between the player and A.I. so battles of attrition or drawn out war games are generally absent. You’ll mostly be defeated by something you did wrong such as rush the enemy too early with an insubstantial army, forgetting to fortify your capitol with automatic turrets, or not ensuring a certain character remains alive and out of harm’s way. The game is balanced well enough so that it rarely feels unfair which is something many RTS games fail to get right.
Most of the game is wrapped up in common RTS gameplay elements: the aggressive expansion of your base, the almost unlimited churning out of combat units, and the complete and utter destruction of your enemy’s base. There are a few unique twists to this standard formula that, while creative, don’t really add up to anything meaningful in the end. As you build upon your capital city your area of influence, denoted by a colored line drawn on the ground, expands to show your national borders. It’s a nifty mechanic and as you research different buffs your own units may be healed while behind your borders while enemies will suffer a constant health drain while occupying your territory. Cities and other unit producing structures can be captured and occupied to add to your combat lineup. Once a city has lost enough hit points your units will capture it and all of the benefits of ownership will transfer to your cause. These are nice touches, but once your army is large enough you’ll simply sweep over the map and gobble up everything that stands in your path. By the time you cross the map your army will have swelled disproportionately to the A.I. and it turns into a waiting game as your units obliterate the foe.
The game moves at a relatively steady pace. You move from one level to the next at a clip that’s comfortably acceptable. You won’t necessarily fly through the game nor will you find yourself stuck on the same level for hours, days, or weeks. The difficultly can be changed per level which is also a nice addition. If you do find yourself stuck you can simply lower the difficulty to get past the offending scenario and then raise the difficulty back to where you want it after you've moved forward. Between missions you’re taken to a world map where you move your pawn across a RISK-style board. You can only invade territory that’s adjacent to your current position but before you move you’ll have a few points to spend to bolster your conquered territories and upgrade your units. It’s a novel way to keep the story progressing and your army and hero units upgraded but it’s really nothing more than an attractive overlay for a menu. Adding districts to your collection of territories increases the amount of wealth or research points between turns, but unless you’re a hardcore player or filly understand how this system works you won’t have enough points to make a huge impact on your army. By the end of my own playthrough of the game I was still lacking even basic access to some of the units present in the game. It’s unfortunate that this mechanic feels like more of an afterthought than anything integral to the game as a whole.
At the normal difficulty I found that the game was quick and fair but the story was so pointless that after a while this made it hard to keep me interested in the game. The world map also made the story feel disjointed and by the last world map the same objectives were reused so often it made the journey to that point seem fruitless. You can only be told to capture all the cities in any one level so many times before you wonder why you’re playing this game at all anymore. The game starts off strong in this aspect; Giacomo’s home has been invaded and destroyed by the corrupt Doge and Giacomo takes it upon himself to avenge his brother’s death. Once the Doge is defeated however, the story takes a few weird turns and by the end you wonder why you’re waging war anymore. Giacomo is supposed to be the savior of this universe, crushing the evil powers that threaten total enslavement of the population, but it all comes apart at the seams towards the end and you’ll be scratching your head wondering what the point of going through all this was. How can waging war across this fictional planet and occupying every continent make the hero the savior when he’s doing the exact thing the villains are doing? The end seems to hint at the possibility of a sequel and in a way I’m glad there isn't. The characters that fight at your side are listless and uninspiring, serving only as hero units with more powerful attacks as opposed to people you begin to care about. The quandary of the realm also doesn't illicit the kind of response that it should since there’s no real plight of the people. It’s a big, empty world at the core and that keeps the game from rising high above its predecessors. In other, more refined, RTS titles the story is kept succinct so the player always feels in control and fighting for the “right side” even when they play as the bad guys.
The entire game is really nothing more than a click fest. Click to select your units, click to order them to move, click to deselect, click to, well, you get the point. Amassing your army is enjoyable at first, especially when you’re still weak in the first few levels. Once you upgrade your units they become outrageously overpowered and victory is all too often just a matter of making enough heavy hitters and unleashing them on your foe. A few missions require you to attack via multiple fronts or keep a certain structure under your control. Mission types are too few and most of the game relies too heavily on wiping your enemy from the current map. It’s fun, for sure, to annihilate your foe but this can only carry the game so far. Once the story starts to unravel and you lose sight of exactly why you’re marching across continents and taking over everything in your path, you feel more of a fascist dictator than a savior. A better story that’s more linear and purposeful would have served this game much better than the weird branching quests it gives and would keep things controlled rather than feeling like you’re all over the place for the sake of total conquest. The disparate gameplay elements actually hinder the game rather than giving the player purpose and meaning, and with the over world and battle scenarios growing distant from one another, the whole structure of the game comes crashing down.
The game is fun but sadly the update and online multiplayer servers have been shuttered. You’ll have to manually patch this baby up and even then it’s tough to find someone hosting the last patch. There’s also a few changes that need to be made to the game directory to make it stable on modern computers. Even then crashes are still frequent so be sure to save often so your progress isn't lost. Overall Rise of Legends is a fun RTS but the overuse of flaccid mechanics and the lack of any real depth to the story or player strategy keeps it from being a crowing achievement in the genre. Some clever additions to the core elements are welcome but the game doesn't do anything that outstanding as to change the formula of the genre. As a whole it’s got a ton of polish, great graphics and sound, and just enough to keep you playing but as you near the end it all feels pointless and rote. If you’re a die-hard RTS player it’s certainly a game you’ll want to have in your collection, but if you’re looking for something with more meaning there are better selections out there.
Almost every level starts off the same; you start off on a map shrouded in a fog of war with a handful of combat units and a capital city, then you must explore for resources to expand your operations. The main base mechanic is interesting in that you add modules to your capital city to increase your population limit or the frequency at which you collect wealth. The larger the city the more hit points it has thereby making it more difficult for your enemies to capture. If your starting city falls you lose the level and must start the scenario over. Thankfully this doesn't happen often, so even though some levels require a substantial invest of your time you won’t typically lose to unfair A.I. that exploits design flaws to crush your empire. The loss of secondary cities you capture usually won’t spell defeat but only a few levels benefit from the exchange of cities between the player and A.I. so battles of attrition or drawn out war games are generally absent. You’ll mostly be defeated by something you did wrong such as rush the enemy too early with an insubstantial army, forgetting to fortify your capitol with automatic turrets, or not ensuring a certain character remains alive and out of harm’s way. The game is balanced well enough so that it rarely feels unfair which is something many RTS games fail to get right.
Most of the game is wrapped up in common RTS gameplay elements: the aggressive expansion of your base, the almost unlimited churning out of combat units, and the complete and utter destruction of your enemy’s base. There are a few unique twists to this standard formula that, while creative, don’t really add up to anything meaningful in the end. As you build upon your capital city your area of influence, denoted by a colored line drawn on the ground, expands to show your national borders. It’s a nifty mechanic and as you research different buffs your own units may be healed while behind your borders while enemies will suffer a constant health drain while occupying your territory. Cities and other unit producing structures can be captured and occupied to add to your combat lineup. Once a city has lost enough hit points your units will capture it and all of the benefits of ownership will transfer to your cause. These are nice touches, but once your army is large enough you’ll simply sweep over the map and gobble up everything that stands in your path. By the time you cross the map your army will have swelled disproportionately to the A.I. and it turns into a waiting game as your units obliterate the foe.
The game moves at a relatively steady pace. You move from one level to the next at a clip that’s comfortably acceptable. You won’t necessarily fly through the game nor will you find yourself stuck on the same level for hours, days, or weeks. The difficultly can be changed per level which is also a nice addition. If you do find yourself stuck you can simply lower the difficulty to get past the offending scenario and then raise the difficulty back to where you want it after you've moved forward. Between missions you’re taken to a world map where you move your pawn across a RISK-style board. You can only invade territory that’s adjacent to your current position but before you move you’ll have a few points to spend to bolster your conquered territories and upgrade your units. It’s a novel way to keep the story progressing and your army and hero units upgraded but it’s really nothing more than an attractive overlay for a menu. Adding districts to your collection of territories increases the amount of wealth or research points between turns, but unless you’re a hardcore player or filly understand how this system works you won’t have enough points to make a huge impact on your army. By the end of my own playthrough of the game I was still lacking even basic access to some of the units present in the game. It’s unfortunate that this mechanic feels like more of an afterthought than anything integral to the game as a whole.
At the normal difficulty I found that the game was quick and fair but the story was so pointless that after a while this made it hard to keep me interested in the game. The world map also made the story feel disjointed and by the last world map the same objectives were reused so often it made the journey to that point seem fruitless. You can only be told to capture all the cities in any one level so many times before you wonder why you’re playing this game at all anymore. The game starts off strong in this aspect; Giacomo’s home has been invaded and destroyed by the corrupt Doge and Giacomo takes it upon himself to avenge his brother’s death. Once the Doge is defeated however, the story takes a few weird turns and by the end you wonder why you’re waging war anymore. Giacomo is supposed to be the savior of this universe, crushing the evil powers that threaten total enslavement of the population, but it all comes apart at the seams towards the end and you’ll be scratching your head wondering what the point of going through all this was. How can waging war across this fictional planet and occupying every continent make the hero the savior when he’s doing the exact thing the villains are doing? The end seems to hint at the possibility of a sequel and in a way I’m glad there isn't. The characters that fight at your side are listless and uninspiring, serving only as hero units with more powerful attacks as opposed to people you begin to care about. The quandary of the realm also doesn't illicit the kind of response that it should since there’s no real plight of the people. It’s a big, empty world at the core and that keeps the game from rising high above its predecessors. In other, more refined, RTS titles the story is kept succinct so the player always feels in control and fighting for the “right side” even when they play as the bad guys.
The entire game is really nothing more than a click fest. Click to select your units, click to order them to move, click to deselect, click to, well, you get the point. Amassing your army is enjoyable at first, especially when you’re still weak in the first few levels. Once you upgrade your units they become outrageously overpowered and victory is all too often just a matter of making enough heavy hitters and unleashing them on your foe. A few missions require you to attack via multiple fronts or keep a certain structure under your control. Mission types are too few and most of the game relies too heavily on wiping your enemy from the current map. It’s fun, for sure, to annihilate your foe but this can only carry the game so far. Once the story starts to unravel and you lose sight of exactly why you’re marching across continents and taking over everything in your path, you feel more of a fascist dictator than a savior. A better story that’s more linear and purposeful would have served this game much better than the weird branching quests it gives and would keep things controlled rather than feeling like you’re all over the place for the sake of total conquest. The disparate gameplay elements actually hinder the game rather than giving the player purpose and meaning, and with the over world and battle scenarios growing distant from one another, the whole structure of the game comes crashing down.
The game is fun but sadly the update and online multiplayer servers have been shuttered. You’ll have to manually patch this baby up and even then it’s tough to find someone hosting the last patch. There’s also a few changes that need to be made to the game directory to make it stable on modern computers. Even then crashes are still frequent so be sure to save often so your progress isn't lost. Overall Rise of Legends is a fun RTS but the overuse of flaccid mechanics and the lack of any real depth to the story or player strategy keeps it from being a crowing achievement in the genre. Some clever additions to the core elements are welcome but the game doesn't do anything that outstanding as to change the formula of the genre. As a whole it’s got a ton of polish, great graphics and sound, and just enough to keep you playing but as you near the end it all feels pointless and rote. If you’re a die-hard RTS player it’s certainly a game you’ll want to have in your collection, but if you’re looking for something with more meaning there are better selections out there.
Final Thoughts
As a whole Rise of Legends is a very good game, but it gets lost in its own ambitions. There’s a lot going on but on closer inspection there’s not much content. The game is ripped between a board game style over world and a micromanaged battle field. Coupled with a weak story that itself doesn't seem to know where is going and why and you've got the potential for a huge mess of a video game. It teeters perilously close the edge of this and just when you think it’s going to topple over it pulls itself upright again. The game is fun but more as a passing diversion when you've run out of other, better titles to fire up.
The transition from the world map to the battle scenarios is seamless at first and each new territory captured has purpose and meaning to the story. Once that starts to come undone the rest of the game goes with it. It’s a lesson on how important a good narrative is to a video game especially when that story is what’s driving the player and keeping them invested. Units are imaginative and well-constructed but even the glossy finish on the graphics loses its luster while the narrative checks out and is then shredded to bits. You will keep playing just to see what’s around the corner and once you've gotten far enough you’ll keep playing just because you feel obligated to. Even after you lose the entire point of the story you’ll want to finish the game just because.
As a real-time strategy game the game is woefully short on strategy on lower difficultly levels. It’s great for players new to the genre but veteran players may find the A.I. either too easy or far too smart. On higher difficulty the game seems to have an unfair advantage of speed and power and will rush the player before they ever had a chance at success. On lower difficulty the computer just keeps most units stationary, waiting for the human player to steamroll over them. There seems to be no happy medium here, though medium difficulty is probably the best overall. The computer is just smart enough to make the game challenging without seeming horrifyingly unfair or too stupid to acknowledge your existence, though even here the game seems strangely calibrated. It all boils down to building up your base and making as many units as possible so the strategy element is a bit of a misnomer and every level plays almost identically to the mission previous.
Rise of Legends is a fun game and if you’re looking for something to toss a few hours a day into it’s a noteworthy addition to your video game library. Even with the level of polish on the graphics and the sound there just isn't enough content or divergent gameplay to make it truly great. The three races you can play as are all different in terms of visuals and concept but they aren't different enough in terms of gameplay to make them truly noteworthy. By the final chapter the game is really just a final push instead of coming to some sort of grand climax or conclusion. As a straight RTS title Rise of Legends is an enjoyable game with a few gameplay twists to the standard formula, but, taken in its entirety, the game is a congelation of disparate mechanics that never fully fit together. An over-reliance on reused objectives and a tale and characters that never truly expose themselves, coupled with a story that gets lost in itself, leaves Rise of Legends as a footnote rather than a full entry into the genre. If you can pick up a used copy somewhere, and you’re looking for something relatively mindless between titles, Rise of Legends will certainly fill that void. If you’re looking for an RTS with a rich story and some true innovations Rise of Legends will leave you feeling empty and dissatisfied.
The transition from the world map to the battle scenarios is seamless at first and each new territory captured has purpose and meaning to the story. Once that starts to come undone the rest of the game goes with it. It’s a lesson on how important a good narrative is to a video game especially when that story is what’s driving the player and keeping them invested. Units are imaginative and well-constructed but even the glossy finish on the graphics loses its luster while the narrative checks out and is then shredded to bits. You will keep playing just to see what’s around the corner and once you've gotten far enough you’ll keep playing just because you feel obligated to. Even after you lose the entire point of the story you’ll want to finish the game just because.
As a real-time strategy game the game is woefully short on strategy on lower difficultly levels. It’s great for players new to the genre but veteran players may find the A.I. either too easy or far too smart. On higher difficulty the game seems to have an unfair advantage of speed and power and will rush the player before they ever had a chance at success. On lower difficulty the computer just keeps most units stationary, waiting for the human player to steamroll over them. There seems to be no happy medium here, though medium difficulty is probably the best overall. The computer is just smart enough to make the game challenging without seeming horrifyingly unfair or too stupid to acknowledge your existence, though even here the game seems strangely calibrated. It all boils down to building up your base and making as many units as possible so the strategy element is a bit of a misnomer and every level plays almost identically to the mission previous.
Rise of Legends is a fun game and if you’re looking for something to toss a few hours a day into it’s a noteworthy addition to your video game library. Even with the level of polish on the graphics and the sound there just isn't enough content or divergent gameplay to make it truly great. The three races you can play as are all different in terms of visuals and concept but they aren't different enough in terms of gameplay to make them truly noteworthy. By the final chapter the game is really just a final push instead of coming to some sort of grand climax or conclusion. As a straight RTS title Rise of Legends is an enjoyable game with a few gameplay twists to the standard formula, but, taken in its entirety, the game is a congelation of disparate mechanics that never fully fit together. An over-reliance on reused objectives and a tale and characters that never truly expose themselves, coupled with a story that gets lost in itself, leaves Rise of Legends as a footnote rather than a full entry into the genre. If you can pick up a used copy somewhere, and you’re looking for something relatively mindless between titles, Rise of Legends will certainly fill that void. If you’re looking for an RTS with a rich story and some true innovations Rise of Legends will leave you feeling empty and dissatisfied.
The first video of a great full playthrough of Rise of Legends by Tardivex. Be sure to check out his channel which has a huge list of games he plays, including his full Rise of Legends series.
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