Developer Interview

Designer Brian Reynolds is very excited that he can finally tell us about Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends.
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Yes, Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends is the follow-up to the critically acclaimed and popular real-time strategy game Rise of Nations, which was GameSpot's best PC game of 2003. But, no, this isn't Rise of Nations as you remember it. Just as lead designer Brian Reynolds followed up the historically themed Civilization II with the science fiction-themed Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Reynolds is now following the historically themed Rise of Nations with the fantasy-themed Rise of Legends. Yes, that's right. Apparently, Reynolds has been itching to make a fantasy game for a while now, and he doesn't want to do the traditional elves-versus-orcs-versus-humans thing that's been done to death. And when the lead designer of some of the greatest strategy games ever made tells you he's excited, you better listen.

The Vinci is one of two technological nations in the game, and it possesses a style that's heavily influenced by steampunk.

In Rise of Legends, you'll take control of one of four fantasy nations vying for supremacy of a fictional world in what Reynolds describes as "a war between magic and technology." Of course, this leads to the obvious question as to why brand the game with the Rise of Nations name, since the original was set on Earth and it dealt with both ancient and modern-day nations. The reason is because while Rise of Legends seems a far cry from Rise of Nations, it still takes advantage of many innovations from that game, such as streamlined gameplay, an excellent interface, a color-coded tech system, and a turn-based conquer-the-world system. So it's safe to think of Rise of Legends as Rise of Nations set in an alternate world.

Rise of Legends won't recycle the Rise of Nations graphics engine, though, and this is the first thing you notice. In fact, it's pretty hard to ignore, because the visuals, even at this stage, look excellent. While the first game had a 2D graphics engine that caused some to complain that it looked too much like the Age of Empires games, Rise of Legends has a brand-new 3D graphics engine that was written from scratch and is stuffed full of eye candy, such as huge clockwork cities powered by giant gears and dreamlike desert cities with glistening onion domes. Reynolds said they wanted "blistering white-hot graphics," and it looks like the programmers delivered. He added that the original Rise of Nations was Big Huge Game's debut offering, so they were more worried about getting the gameplay down right than the graphics. But with Rise of Nations being such a huge hit, they felt the gameplay was and is established. So now they can focus on delivering graphics to match.

The Alim is a magical nation inspired by The Arabian Nights.

While Rise of Nations shipped with 18 historically accurate nations, there are apparently only four fantasy nations in Rise of Legends. However, what we've seen so far indicates that each will be completely distinct and unique from the others, and each will play out in different ways. Reynolds only revealed two of the nations to us. One was the Vinci, which is in homage to the famed Renaissance inventor and artist Leonardo da Vinci. The Vinci are one of two technological nations in the game, and they have a style that's best described as a cross between steampunk (the genre of fantasy involving advanced Victorian Age technology) and some of da Vinci's drawings, including his schematics for an early helicopter, which appears in the game. Therefore, the Vinci have an industrial army consisting of massive tanks, infantry, and airpower. The second faction is the Alim, a desert-based, magical nation that's heavily influenced by the stories found in The Arabian Nights. The Alim don't have the fancy machines the Vinci have, but they do get supernatural units, such as genies and dragons, as well as giant scorpions that run around the battlefield.