User Rating: 9.2 | Rise of Nations: Thrones & Patriots PC
By Taha | Review Date:
Rise of Nations: Thrones & Patriots is a superb expansion to the original game. Big Huge Games has made some great additions to the game which have resulted in making Rise of Nations an even bigger blast to play. Well you can read GameSpot's review to know about all the additions in the game so I will just talk about my experience with the campaigns and multiplayer. The most popular addition are the new nations. These are the Americans, Persians, Dutch, Iroquis, Lakota's and the Indians. The most requested was of course the Americans, and now we get them. For me, the Indians were the most wanted, since I am from India. The new nations have recieved some great bonuses. The Americans seem to have recieved some very good bonuses. The first wonder they build is instantly built (unless someone else is also building it or if its the Space Program or the Supercollider). They also get a free scholar at every University and a free bomber at every airport. Research at the Senate is also free for the Americans. One feature that to me feels like it overpowers the Americans is that you recieve +3 for all the resources for every infantry that is not garrisoned. This allows the Americans to be offensive and economic at the same time. The Americans' unique units are the Marines. They entrench themselves automatically after being idle for 5 seconds, pretty cool feature. The Dutch get armed Merchants and Caravans, which don't allow "merchant hunting" where opponents send a few troops to take out merchants or caravans to destroy your economy. But these armed versions can take out any random troop they meet which is very nice bonus. One more thing is that the these armed merchants can take out any other regular merchant at the same resource. Selfish little buggers, aren't they? The Dutch get unique Ships and then the Armed Merchants and Caravans. Then there are the Indians and the Persians who both get Elephants. Now they say they are unique, yet both nations get the same exact type of elephants. Then the Persians also get Immortals, a type of infantry. Indians get no other unique units, but they do get cheaper Elephants and free upgrades. The big bonus Indians have is that their building costs do not ramp up except for cities, towers, forts and wonders, which ramp up in cost by half of the usual rate. The Persians main bonus is that they get to have two capitals. So as a opponent you need to take out both, which can be a hard task, especially with their elephants ripping your army apart. Then there are the Native American tribes. The Lakota's have a crazy rushing advantage with the ability to build anywhere that is enemy territory. So right in the beginning of the game they can come and build a city outside your border. An experienced player can be devastating using them. The Lakota's get unique cavalry units. Then there are the Iroquis to can't build any farms! That sounds like a huge disadvantage, but their woodcutters gather wood and food. Pretty cool feature. The Iroquis armies are also invisible if they are not attacking. Talk about a sneak up attack. Their unique units are scouts who can walk through forests instead of having to go around them and also unique infantry. The real unique addition is the addition of the Governments. You need to build a senate first (allowed after you reach Classical age), then you can pick between two types of government after every other age. I haven't really played around with the senate much yet, but the patriots that come out give some really neat bonuses, I especially like the faster build times the President gives. The single player aspect of the game recieved some big addition. Four campaigns in the conquer the world mode were added: Alexander the Great, Napoleon, The New World & the Cold War. The original Conquer the World campaign was changed as in to add in the new nations and more territories. To go in chronological order, the first new campaign is Alexander the Great. This campaign allows you, as Alexander the Great, to campaign the known world. One nice addition in the campaigns is that you get tips from an "adviser". So your adviser can well...advice you to get some of the smaller nations before attacking the Persian empire. There is one mission where you can control another nation along with your own. The first time I played this, I did not know that and won the battle with my own nation. As Homer Simpson would say, D'oh! Next is the Napoleon campaign. I haven't had a chance to play this yet so I can't say much about it. Then there's The New World. Here you can either be America, the European, Native American and South American nations to try and conquer all of the Americas. I decided to be the Americans and this was a great campaign. Here to there are special battles where you have to kill various bands of mercenaries instead of actual nations. Finally is the Cold War. Which in my opinion is the best campaign in the game. And it seems like Big Huge Games spent the most time on it as well. Here you can either be America or the Soviet Union and again, try to Conquer the World! One thing of notice is that both nations recieve an extra unique unit which can only be used in this campaign. For the Americans it is the Humvee. It has a machine gun on top and I found it quite a useful weapon. For the Soviets it is a nuclear submarine I believe. Haven't had a chance to play through the Soviets side yet. Here you get even more new types of battles. There are the Korean and Vietnam wars, also the Afghanistan war. Another new addition is the spy missions. Here you use spies and scouts to sabotage Soviet buildings. Whether it is using scouts and helicopters to destroy oil wells and refineries or using spies to infiltrate buildings and get partisans and humvees to attack the capital. There is even one mission where you have to free hostages from Soviet buildings. I ended my campaign by building a nice nuclear arsenal and nuking all of Soviet territory leading to my victory. Finally, the Multiplayer. Here is where the game loses some points. The game feels a little rushed because every once in a while you get "out of sync/scenario" errors which end a the game. Other than that its still great. The new nations are being used a lot right now since people are still trying it out and of course the Americans are being picked the most. People are already coming out with great strategies for the new nations. For the Indians, people are using the no cost ramping bonus to build "barrack walls" where they build a string of barracks which remain at a cost of 120 wood to stop invading armies and take their time in destroying those. All in all, Thrones & Patriots is a great expansion to an already great game. The addition of new nations, campaigns and the government feature have a game which seemed like it needed no more additions, even better. And the minor tweaks made to nations already there and the game as a whole have made it even more balanced.

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