How did the sequel to one of the best RTS game's ever made turn out so disapointing? read on and I’ll explain.
Enter Rise of Legends, the biggest sequel letdown since Devil May Cry 2, I'm sorry but this game has the worst looking battles I've witnessed in a Real Time Strategy, the guns sound like pop guns and are barely audible and the characters look very pixely and lack detail. The story feels very disjointed and leaves you with alot of questions and is mediocre at best. The overall flow of strategy is different from it's predecessor in that instead of building large complicated cities that interlock with roads you form a single structure that is branched off of and simply grows larger and larger, it doesnt feel as realistic or practical as the older system.
I think the biggest problem with this title is that it just feels a few year's old, if it would have been released in say 2003 it probably would have been more well received, as it stands it just can't compare with strategy games like Company of Heroes or the Dawn Of War series.
The game is not without it's redeeming features however, the overall flow of the game feels like Rise of Nations wich is a good thing, I also liked the character designs which are fairly imaginitave, I especially liked the Da Vinicis with their steam driven tanks and flying airships.
In the future I hope for the sake of this series the developer learns from his mistakes and aspires to what the Warhammer series is accomplishing right now. I think that with a revamped graphics engine and more attention to detail the Rise Of Nations series will be back on top in it's next entry. Here's Hoping!