More than Meets the Eye
So, how is this game? Well let me tell you I am not an experienced RTS player, never won any few online matches that I foolhardily took on, and I must say that I was quite damn proud of myself for having beat the Terran campaign in StarCraft without using any cheat. So I am, in the most relevant sense, an RTS noob.
Well I should be the last qualified person to answer any questions on the merits of an RTS, and in fact I was aghast when the quick guide listing hotkeys assigned to covering many unit commands and game settings popped out of the fancy DVD box (the game comes in 4 CDs). Also, a full colour 70 page manual is certainly a very welcome return to the past where it was not considered merely expendable.
Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends (RoL for short) offers standard single player campaign, quick battle skirmishes, and multiplayer that can involve up to 8 people.
The single player campaign is where the eclectic world of Aio is introduced and developed through the exploits of its main protagonist, Vinci nation's Giacomo on the path of avenging his brother's untimely demise. I will spare the discussion of the main plot, but from the manual and the rendered cutscenes, the setting is nicely established with rich background material that I had no particular problem following along what seems to be a typical to the genre. Only that the cutscenes expose some of the graphical shortcomings of the Big Huge engine with muddled textures and stilted animations on extreme close up, accompanied by voicework which awkward delivery does not exactly endear me to the characters, however exuberantly designed and directed.
The first few missions concentrate on tooltips and helping gamers more acquainted with the basic gameplay mechanics. The tutorial sessions are constructed in a way that you do not get the feeling of being pulled through a series of mundane tasks. They pass by briskly enough and in no time will you be staring at the turn based strategic map where planning a course of action in a bid to conquer objective territories plays as important a role as actually being victorious in real time session. On the strategic map that is similar to one in board games, you move your representative piece (of Giacomo) to traverse your own territory or invade others. Invasion results in real time battle to take place, often with indigenous forces, or within the framework of scenario scripts. If there was an enemy piece in the contested territory or if it moved into it defensively, then the possibility of facing a notably difficult and aggressive opponent increases. Sometimes they can gang up on you and that certainly would spell doom if you are not very well prepared. This setup on strategic map provides varying amount of challenge and increases replayability.
There are four 'resources' to collect on strategic map, and they are for research, wealth, army, and hero skill upgrades. These can be gained only by successful territory capture or by building facilites in existing cities that would generate them per turn. Research allows the upgrade of the current military units that one can build. You can save enough up to get to the next most powerful unit (ex. Juggernaut) that will prove to be a big advantage or opt for an incremental upgrade to your existing unit (Musketeers). You can decide to improve upon your exisiting territories by spending wealth to upgrade its facilities. Each facility serves a particular function, such as military district that offers protection against one invasion by opposition piece for one turn. Army determines what unit one could start with, and hero upgrade enables new and more powerful skills.
There are also 8 dominances, which can only be gained through successful invasion. These provide special limited use priveleges within the real time session, such as 'treachery' that forces an enemy unit to change sides, and perhaps turn the tide of a battle.
All these contrivances on the strategic map seems to make for an incredibly deep and varied gameplay, despite the chess like veneer from the outset. There are many pathways for a player to embark upon, depending on their strategic inclination or whim. One generally has to be aware of the location of the opposing pieces and have to accordingly work toward the objectives to divide and conquer. The overall campaign tends to encourage exploration and taking full advantage of whatever resources at disposal, as other heroes join your cause and scales the difficulty to the player's favor.
As for the real time gameplay, anyone that is even remotely familiar with RTS games released in the past five years will be able to grasp the basic conventions. These include camera with rotate and zoom, minimap, group assignments, 'barrack' buildings, right mouse button for unit orders, etc.
There are clear differences, however, in that the 'cities' that serve as your stronghold are predetermined for each map, and that there are limited amount of them scattered as strategic points. The city is itself a big fortress that have attack rating and hit points, and regulate not only income and unit number limit, but tech advances as well. These abilities are upgraded by adding 'districts' to the city, so space limitations certainly factor into overall strategy. The cities can be upgraded into 'large city' and eventually 'great city', and the first one to develop into large city is appointed the capital, and the objective of your opponents.
There are also no unit formations to speak of, and in its place there are different 'stances' that adjust the level of aggressiveness your units would act not under your direct control. One can also set waypoints for the buildings so that the manufactured units can instantly be a part of a group. The group can also be identified by a streamlined interface that presents them as selectable icons.
The default pace of the game seems slow, perhaps due to the fact that the units do not suffer damage as quickly as in some games. The battles can sometimes get drawn out, but one can clearly determine in most cases which side would come out on top, which would most likely result in sending reinforcements or retreating. As such, RoL provides never an idle moment. Toward that inevitable confrontation, the build up phase can get as tense and frenetic as you have to decide whether to invest fortune into expansion or military build up with defensive posture. And there is always that race to the first super unit, the creation of which is broadcast to all involved that they are in for some serious butt kicking.
The extensive map of hotkeys control almost every function from unit commands to scripts such as 'find barracks' or 'find damaged units', etc. Judicious use of the hotkeys will really alleviate the micromanagement aspect of the gameplay (such as usage of hero skills) and the game pace, and they can all be configured in user options to your liking. Also, one can select commands to be performed when the game is paused, and it allows one to issue orders just by mouse just as effectively and at leisure, at least in single player.
The three sides featured in the game, Vinci, Alin, and Cuotl, have their own unique district to add to the city. They serve a different function that is nonetheless quite relevant for emphasizing each nation's strengths. They also differ slightly in how they collect wealth (for Cuotl, energy) and how units are upgraded. There are around 12 units for each side, and although some of them basically are only different in unit design and share the same intended purpose, many do seem to have no distinct counterpart in the other two nations. These uniqueness about them are no better captured than in the so called super units, which are more or less balanced in how they go about levelling cities and causing general mayhem. And also in a cool little unit called Zeke, which is introduced in the game along with a Vinci hero, that serves three functions of scout, land based melee and siege weapon.
With the distinct units and differences in resource gathering and management, it is a wonder if Big Huge managed to balance the game. The units are also differentiated in how they use cover (such as foliage), and have distinguished characteristics that further set them apart. For example, clockwork men unit of Vinci can absorb destruction of another unit into its own hit points and acquire enhanced attack rating and hit point by being grouped together. Cuotl units can use partial invisibility while its barrack can fly around as transports. It will be interesting to see what tactics would transpire by experimental and successful players.
The three sides also differ wildly in their overall aesthetic design. The concept of embracing different cultural aspects observed in different corners of the historical world, although they are quite liberal interpretation, and incorporating them in a game seems nothing short of inspirational. Vinci sports a steampunk type visual to its buildings and units, with turning gears and ratchets clicking, and generally have that Renaissance prototypical mechanical devices look on them (that Leonardo da Vinci might spin in his grave notwithstanding). Alin obviously gets cues from fanciful Arabian fables with hovering buildings, efreeti units, and genies (almost half expected magic carpet units). Cuotl features an outrageous combination of Aztec monoliths with ominous alien technology. As meticulous and impressive the buildings designs are, their destruction involves equally detailed stages of progressive dilapidation, with billowing smoke and crumbling facades, conveying the sense of seige quite impressively.
The units are all well animated at least from the practical camera perspective. Shader effects sometimes indicate the general well being of units. To enhance the atmospheric immersiveness of the world, the game features weather effects and wildlife. The terrains have gentle rolling slope to them and foliage permeates the landscape. The units fling about as if they had mass under realistic physics. RoL is actually one of the first RTS games to support Ageia's PhysX technology, and its physics is still demonstrated quite convincingly even without. I was quite amazed to see a small soldier exploding into the air from a grenade burst and tumbling off the side of a cliff with its limbs flailing about, and how the airborne units seem to lose control and spiral before combusting into fiery ball. Little details like these make the gameplay more interesting and afford the units some well appointed personality, lessening that generic clone feeling. Moreover, the Big Huge engine that renders all these are quite capable in scaling the performance to various PC configurations.
One nitpick on the graphical front is that the units seem to have too broad collision detection, that to move a moderately sized unit (e.g. clockwork spider) through a throng of musketeers involve many of them trying to move out of its path and in turn spread out the other adjacent units in a way that slows down the progression overall. I have also observed some pathfinding issues involving units especially when there are a congregation of units in the way of their path. One final comment to be made is about the scope of the camera; I personally think it covers too small an area. Resting on a sprawling complex such as a great city can fill the entire screen on 1024 by 768 resolution, and some airborne units can be entirely hidden from view depending on the altitude of the ground over which they are placed.
Sound production seems to be overshadowed by all the pretty and shiny visuals. The overall quality to the the background music soundtrack seems varied and high, and those who are irritated in the least by looping tracks can adjust their playing frequency in user options. The units do not acknowledge by voice, which is a bit disappointing, but obviates the repeating confirmation sounds that can get grating after hearing them for an umpteenth time. The units do respond by a distinct sound and the din of battle seems to increase as there are more units involved on the screen. An open battle consisting of siege units can get rather loud and with noises accompanying destruction of buildings and general mayhem.
As for multiplayer, the maps are spread out over a variety of play options, such as 4 vs 4 and in all there are around 40 maps. The matches seem to usually involve two opposing teams, with the option of more variety offered in options such as diplomacy, where alliances are forged within the game. Depending on map sizes, one could assume that the length of typical play session to vary widely, accommodating gamers with differing time commitments. I have not tried multiplayer extensively, but there are reports of "drops" during multiplayer sessions. The interface on the multiplayer aspect seems to be intuitive and streamlined, and takes after the windows XP login system for profiles, in which you can readily join up with others to be directly connected to a match. I am quite sure that the patches released in future will address the performance problems as well as accessibility issues. The matches are recorded and can be viewed later with bevy of control options.
RoL is certainly moddable, and maps and scenarios can be constructed using utilities included with the game and those downloaded from the numerous fan sites along with proper documentation and guides. Even though the expansion pack is probably now in the pipeline for Big Huge, I hope there will be enough fan created materials to keep players busy until then. It is still too early to think about the next installment in this uniquely conceived series, and as some of the inevitable balance and multiplayer issues are resolved and fan feedback allows the gameplay mechanic to be polished further, then they would be better able to decide where to take this franchise next. If RoL does not certainly break new grounds in gameplay aspect, it certainly makes up for it in unique inspired designs and robust playability. RoL continues Brian Reynold's creative streak that I first experienced in Alpha Centauri wrapped in its technological jargon whereas the gameplay stays true to deliver high entertainment.