 Review By: David Pulgar |
Developer: | Big Huge Games |
| Publisher: | Microsoft | |
| Genre: | RTS | |
| ESRB: | Teen | |
| # Of Players: | 1 (1-4 online) | |
| Online Play: | Yes | |
| Accessories: | N/A |
Big Huge Games did it again with Rise of Legends (ROL), a fantasy-based RTS built on their successful Rise of Nations framework, as I haven't been this excited about an RTS since Starcraft. Rise of Legends doesn't break any new ground (gameplay is almost identical to Rise of Nations), but why fix something that's not broken? In ROL, expect the same artful blend of features you're used to, like district building and national borders, while exploring new weapons and national powers.
Real-time strategy games have been creatively pigeonholed for some time. History or sci-fi, there's not much variation. Archers, horsemen, cannons, catapults, tanks, bombers, nukes...we've seen it all before. Rise of Legend's three races (the Vinci, Alin and Cuotl) put a new spin into RTS unit diversity. Tanks? Why not giant, stone Sun Idols to burn through the enemy's ranks? Bombers? No, no, I prefer dragons. And horsemen, well, ROL has horsemen, but why use them when mechanical clockwork spiders can trample enemies underfoot? Each race's unique units and gameplay makes slaughtering your opponents fun.
So let's introduce the factions. From the pages of Leonardo da Vinci's sketchbook comes the mechanical Vinci army. These humans harness the power of steam to build massive war machines. Vinci units are well balanced and perfect for entry-level players. Next are the mysterious Alin who use conjuration and other magic as weaponry. Cities dotted with minarets tells me that 1001 Arabian Nights inspired character design for this race. Units come cheap (although weaker in power) allowing Alin players to overwhelm opponents with sheer numbers. Oh, and they build fast too, making Alin the rusher's choice in ROL. Cuotl troops round out the trio. If you like Stargate, you'll love the Cuotl. Their Egyptian-styled cities and weaponry bare a striking resemblance the popular Sci-Fi show. While expensive, Cuotl units are powerful and even basic infantry units remain valuable throughout the game.
Each faction has it's own master unit, national power and set of heroes. Master units aren't something you'll see much of in ROL. These epic units dwarf everything else and are practically indestructible. Their massive cost and deployment time, however, makes them impractical. Because it's cheap, you'll see the Alin's Glass Dragon more frequently than other master units. Glass Dragons shoot a concentrated beam of energy capable of leveling cities and killing most units instantly. The Vinci's answer to this monster is the Land Leviathan, a crab-like clockwork creature with two massive drills - giving it the ability to tunnel between two points instantly. Cuotl have the City of Vengeance, a floating fortress that doubles as a transport ship for invading Cuotl armies. Each master unit can heal itself by going into a stasis mode. While in stasis, master units take less damage, but cannot move or fight back.
Heroes are cheaper than master units, but not as strong...at first. An upgraded hero does enough damage to destroy a master unit. Some Alin heroes can even conjure their own master units, like the Glass Spider, that are summoned brief periods of time. Players can upgrade their heroes by spending resources to research new hero abilities.
Adding to ROL's depth are National Powers. Amassing research points allows you to spend them on upgrades that can increase your borders, speedup unit production and more. Among these upgrades are National Powers. Industrial Devastation allows the Vinci to summon massive drills from the ground. These drills cause massive damage to buildings and larger units. Smaller units receive less damage, but are stunned for a short time. Alin players can use Summon Army to conjure soldiers from thin air to fight for them. Finally, the Cuotl can activate a controllable Star Bolt that burns through enemy buildings and soldiers while revealing their map area. Increasing your National Power's strength, size and duration is accomplished by spending more research points.
Campaign mode is straightforward. Missions are linked by rendered cinematics and voiced over, in-engine cut scenes telling each race's story. On standard difficulty, computer A.I. is a pushover. Like all strategy games, the computer excels at build speed, but that's it. Challenging missions occur when you're at great numerical disadvantages. Even then you can still win by fortifying your troops, waiting out the computer's attack and counterattacking with your army. Despite the computer's intellectual deficiencies, ROL's strategic gameplay is entertaining. Players choose the game's direction from a world map displayed between battles. Each territory you invade has resources its conquest awards you with. These resources allow upgrades to conquered territories, new weapon research and new hero powers. Upgrading conquered territories also provides bonuses to adjacent campaign battles, like troop reinforcements. Starting armies for each mission can also be upgraded, so by campaign's end players have a good mix of tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3 units.
The world map gives ROL a sense of freedom. Because you choose what territories to attack, your game will be harder or easier. Cutting off bosses from supply or eliminating key targets before attacking others affects your opponent's combat ability. This consideration for choosing your next target, combined with world map building, research and reinforcement gives adds dimension to the RTS combat we're used to.
Rise of Legend's online community is small when compared to other RTS games. Still, interested players will have no problem finding opponents. Just create an account and you're ready for battle. However, be mindful. Rise of Legends records ranked and unranked games, but only factors ranked games when tabulating levels. If you're that one disturbed player looking for a perfect score, be sure to create a trash account you can practice on while learning the game. The level matching system is also flawed. Initiating quick battles often matched me against newbie-slaughtering, high-level opponents. To ROL's credit an intricate handicap system is available, evening the playing field between new and experienced players. It's an option though, so remember to enable it before a match.
Bottom Line:
Overall, Rise of Legends is refreshing. It's an interesting blend of real-time and turn-based strategy with many unique gameplay components. It looks great and units have an incredible sense of depth and scale. The story's interesting too, for an RTS. Though not a popular game by some standards, there's no doubt ROL is an instant classic.
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
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| 8.5 |
Posted: 2007-03-24 09:27:03 PST