Rise & Fall Civilizations at War Preview - PC

“Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War”… Is this yet another Civilization/Age of Empires clone? Heck, it even looks almost identical to Rome: Total War. Complain all you want, but this game has a few things going for it that just might separate it from the rest. The game was being developed by Stainless Steel Studios, the guys behind Empire Earth, a strategy game that spans over 500,000+ years! It was also considered one of the best strategy games released at the time.

Now for the bad news first. Publisher Midway Games stopped funding and Stainless Steel had to stop production and quietly disband. This was very bad news indeed, considering the fact that the game was almost going to go gold. Fear not, Midway continues development in its own studio.

So here is your nice ancient world in a persistent state of carnage, and at the four corners of the ring we have Egypt, Persia, Rome and Greece all fighting for the much-coveted rule of the world. First, let’s start off with what makes this game so different. Yes, it has the usual strategy gameplay mechanics, but a novel addition is the feature where you can control your hero from a third person perspective! With the press of a button, you get the ability to get your hands dirty as you lay waste to the artificially intelligent hordes of enemy scum. In this mode, you control your hero with usual WSAD movement controls and the mouse buttons, each of which holds a different attack.

Your hero also levels up as you go along and enjoy your gore spree. Experience points are called ‘Glory’ and amassing glory makes you stronger, gives you more health and even special powers. Nutritious. Choose from our wide selection of heroes! On our menu today we have Julius Caesar, Germanicus Caesar, Cleopatra, Ramses the Great, Achilles, and Alexander the Great. Each civilization has its own special units. The game will have over 80 unique units, like cavalry, infantry, siege weapons and ships. The missions are largely scripted with a good dose of strategy and combat thrown in.

Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War uses the Titan engine and the game is looking pretty sweet at this stage. The environment is nicely done, with a lot of attention to detail. Buildings and unit models are done up to look just like the civilization they belong to. The engine handles the third person perspective well too, and it still looks pretty that up close.

Rumors abound about the inclusion of multiplayer and even a mode where two players can play together, where one player controls the hero from the third person view while the other plays regular RTS mode. Not much has been said about the game. We will have to wait till June 2006 to find out.

Meshach Thomas