Rise of Nations is a historical real-time strategy game which combines the strategic and in-depth features found in turn-based strategy games with the speed of real-time strategy games. The game was developed by Big Huge Games, the team behind Civilization 2 and Alpha Centauri, famous turn-based strategy games. However, the team has decided to move away from the turn-based genre for Rise of Nations. I bet most gamers will appreciate it. Rise of Nations brings a great deal of innovation from the turn-based world that creates a very different game-playing experience. National borders that define where you can build, multiple key cities you must defend, detailed tactical combat, and an in-depth technology tree all help bring that strategic depth from the turn-based world. You can win through military might, using everything from slingshots to cannons to stealth bombers; corner the market on key commodities, and wheel and deal with a wide variety of nations. You can quickly play from the Ancient Age (2000 B.C) to the Information Age.

Rise of Nations features over 6,000 years of history - you will advance through eight different ages - classical, medieval, gunpowder, enlightenment, industrial, modern, information and future, each with their own rewards; 18 highly diverse nations - each with its own distinctive nation powers and special units (Aztecs, Bantu, British, Chinese, Egyptians, French, Germans, Greeks, Inca, Japanese, Koreans, Maya, Mongols, Nubians, Romans, Russians, Spanish and Turks); many different objects such as Barracks, City, Forge, Fort, Library, Market, Oil Platform, Sawmill, Temple, Refinery, University; over 220 different unit types, with over 500 artistically distinct variations based on gender, race and time period, ranging from slingers, bowmen, musketeers to M1-A1 Abrams Heavy Tank, Missile Cruiser, Submarines, Jets and rocket-launching MLRS units defended by anti-air and infantry to nuclear weapons.

In addition to building and weapons, there are also wonders (Angkor Wat, Colosseum, Colossus, Eiffel Tower, Kremlin, Porcelain Tower, Pyramid, Space Program, Statue of Liberty, Super Collider, Taj Mahal, Terra Cotta Army, Temple of Tikal, Versailles) that provides your Nation with a great many bonuses and are well worth the investment.

All the mechanics of traditional RTS games are here - there's resource gathering of standard resources such as food, timber, metal, oil, knowledge, wealth, and over 32 unique rare resources (they are inexhaustible and scattered around a map randomly) such as Aluminium, Amber, Bison, Citrus, Coal, Copper, Cotton, Diamonds, Fish, Gems, Horses, Marble, Obsidianm, Papyrus, Salt, Silk, Silver, Spice, Sugar, Sulphur, Titanium, Tobacco, Uranium, Wine, etc., construction of buildings and infrastructure, researching various technologies (in four main areas of research: military, civil, commerce, and science), and fielding military units.

Along with six story driven tutorials ranging in difficulty level from beginning to advanced players, the game mainly consists of Quick Battles, World Conquest, and the standard multiplayer. Quick Battles allow you to choose the nationality of yourselves and your opponent(s), along with the option to choose customized and set rules. The set options include modes where you must defend against waves of attackers, play the role of the aggressor, kill a certain unit, start the game without a scout or town, an option to win by research and not war, along with a couple of others. Customizing the game is definitely enjoyable. The main focus of our single-player campaign is Conquer the World, where you take over the world one territory at a time. The global map portion of the campaign is turn-based; you buy special cards that provide specific bonuses for a battle, upgrade your territories, move armies across the landscape, and so forth. Each scenario is set in a single Age, so you get a great feel for the units and tactics unique to that era.You can set the length of the game to whatever you wish, so you can have a long, drawn-out game or a quick blitz. It's kind of like Risk or Diplomacy meets RTS. Victory in each territory gives you tribute, special resources, or bonus powers to attack a strong enemy. If you do get bored, there's also map editor and a script editor to help build and distribute your own scenarios. Needless to say that Rise of Nations provides an enormous replay value, since no two games will ever be the same.

In the multiplayer mode (up to 8 players through LAN/Internet), you can select a variety of game types, including a peaceful tech game where there is no combat, only a race to see who can complete all the research in the major categories first. Another popular variant is the "no rush" game, where peace is enforced between the combatants for a set period of time. There is over thirteen different game types to choose from. You can configure your starting setups to skip the initial buildup period, or start with nothing at all in your nation if you enjoy placing those early buildings. Starting resources, technology, population limits, start and end Ages, and victory conditions can all be changed. Yeah the multiplayer rocks! However they should improve some things in the next patch. For example, would be nice to see how many people in each channel or how many one total, you also can't tell who is what game, so it's pretty hard to track down a your friend's location.

Overall, I definitely enjoyed the Rise of Nations. It's damn addictive and the more you play the more you like it :) At last an RTS that combines the good things from past games while providing enough innovation to change the gameplay substantially. If you like this genre I recommend to buy it. You can also try this playable demo (194MB).

Minimum System Requirements: Processor: 500 MHz, 128MB RAM, 16MB 3D card*, 800MB HDD space, audio board with speakers and / or headphones, 56.6 kbps modem (or better) for internet play
Problematic GFX chipsets: Intel 740, 810, and 815 Chipsets (black screen followed by a crash to the desktop) , 3dfx Voodoo 3 3000 (RoN will not run), 3dfx Voodoo 5 AGP +Win98 (various graphical anomalies occur on water portions), 3dfx Voodoo 5 AGP (RoN is unplayable when running the game in 32-bit mode on a Win98SE), Diamond Monster Fusion (RoN will not run)
Problematic CDROMs: Acer CD-624a (install protected-mode drivers), Cybermedia 204 (problem - there are no known solutions), Liteon 4265 (problem - there are no known solutions), Memorex CD-RW2224 (problem - there are no known solutions), Sanyo CRD-256P (try ejecting and reinserting the CD-ROM, restart PC), Sony CDU77E 2X (make sure it is configured as a master, and then run the game again), Yamaha 2216E, 4416SX and CDR6416S (contact Yamaha for a firmware upgrade)