Good idea but fails to deliver enough hours of gameplay to be satisfying.

User Rating: 6.8 | Rise of Nations PC
Rise of Nations is a great idea and probably the most complex RTS game out there. It looks and feels much like Age of Empires, but spans over the whole history of mankind and has far more complex rules that cover almost every aspect of civilization management.

The main feature of the game is "Conquer the World" option which combines a Risk-like turn-based game in which battles are fought as RTS scenarios. The problem that wastes this whole idea is that there are just too few different kinds of scenarios so the game eventually becomes very repetitive. Early battles against barbarians in unclaimed territories do give some diversity, but once the whole world is claimed and you start fighting other civilizations, the game turns into a series of similar scenarios collectively called "Conquest". You will start with a city and fight an enemy that also starts with a city dozens of times before you conquer the whole world.

With a campaign that features more unique scenarios, this game could have been the best RTS I ever played. Like this, it is just a great idea that didn't reach its full potential.