Rise Of Nations

Rise Of Nations - When I first got this game I went straight to the tutorials and found around seven of them all designed to teach you about the game, whether you're a complete rookie to the world of strategy games or whether you are very advanced and beating the best. All are very good and have a history timeline theme from ancient Egyptian times to the Battle of Britain which I thought was very original and quite clever of the designers and it is one of the many things which stop it being an "Age of Empires" clone.

After the excellent tutorials I then moved on to the campaign (which is titled "Conquer the World"). I got presented with the world map and a representation of 1 army (though more can be gained by conquering land). This is another feature seperating "Age of Empires" and "Rise of Nations" from being the same and makes "Rise of Nations" all the more fun. However the map looks a lot like it is trying to immitate the superb map off "Medieval: Total War". "Rise of Nations" fails, quite badly, at trying to get the same quality map as "Medieval: Total War". So, consequently some of today's countries that are playable in "Rise of Nations" may appear squashed (e.g the UK) or somewhat bigger/smaller than real life which I think spoils the game's campaign, but not too much to put you off completely.

Another new welcome feature is that of realistic technologies at the library and national borders can be extended on the game map. This allows another new feature, attrition to fall, into the game, which of course damages the enemy's units and makes it more unlikely for them to succeed.

Although plenty of new features have been added (such as planes, ballistic missiles, a full timeline from ancient to today and realistic technologies at the library that can benefit your nation, etc.) Some of the old classics have been kept. These includes the classic scenario editor, multiplayer, exceedingly good graphics and cheat codes if you cannot win, though the codes are not recommended as they can spoil the life span of the game.

However, the game can get repetitive or boring if you keep it on the same difficulty and keep winning. To keep it going I find moving it up a difficulty makes it far more challenging and fun if that happpens

So, to conclude, this game is worth every penny if you like strategy games, and/or "Age of Empires".