Rise of Nations Rise of Legends Preview

Rise and shine

Travel to the land of Aio, a world embroiled in an epic battle between the forces of Magic and Technology. Fight through towering cities, flame-swept deserts and brutal ice plains in battles filled with mystic creatures, impossible machines, and stunning acts of magic.

Rise of legends is the next step in the warmly accepted Rise of Nations franchise. Being developed by Big Huge Games and published by Microsoft, ROL has a much wider scope, tastier eye candy and juicier gameplay than its predecessor.

The Da vinci code

The storys protagonist is a young inventor named Giacomo, who after the death of his brother becomes the leader of the Vinci city of Miana. Vinci city’s technological feats draw upon Leonardo Da Vinci’s drawings and writings to achieve awe inspiring magnificent mechanical feats. You, toil the inventor’s struggle to unravel his world’s ancient past and unite its people against an unimaginable threat.

Black magic r0bot

The focus of the game will be a war between magic and technology driven races. While the Vinci are technologically adept, their counterparts, the Alim, are sand box dwelling magic wielders. The battles which will be waged on the hallowed ground will be a treat for anyone who ever wanted to see giant robot take on dragonus immaculate. There will be two additional races, details of which are not yet available; nevertheless they will only further the magic vs tech theme that forms the dynamics of the games design.

Unlike more recent rts games, Rise of Legends will have a well endowed single player campaign. Players can get acquainted with all races and will need to play from each ones perspective during the course of the story.

MY HOUSE

Much like AOE 3, Rise of legends too is focusing on the base city concept. Players will start of with one city with the objective of expanding it using various types of districts. The Guild district increases resource generation rates of the nation and increases the requisition cap. The Merchant district makes provisions for caravans for trading and technology tracks. The military district provides defense, units and increases the military cap of the nation. The last is the Palace district which requires the previous three to be built. It gives city’s more bloat and hit points while offering an impetus to the other districts.

Rise of Nations Rise of Legends is a natural progression from Rise of Nations, and hence it does retain a lot of the attributes of its predecessor. The tech track concept, national boundaries and weakening of units that go beyond it.

Win conditions involve the player being able to capture more neutral locations on a map to achieve dominance over his opponent. The other is by out resourcing the opponent by gathering more Timonium. Then there is the Tactical way, which is blasting away the opponents structures and units to gain raiding points, which once gathered can be used to unleash a special ability. Researching more tech tracks allows you to take control over your opponent.

Hold thy breath

The various elements that made Rise of Nations an evenly balanced, toughly fought exciting game have been added to ROL. The additional elements are bound to make its world a strategy players paradise with a variety of options and choices possible. The gameplay’s versatility is such that even during the course of battle, the way a loosing player handles his fast depleting assets can change the course of the game, even when he is proverbially on his knees.

Rise of legends graphics aren’t exactly path breaking but impressive nevertheless. Creating a massive world which incorporates all those nifty plot details and draping it in visual beauty is a task that BHG has done before. Scheduled for release sometime during spring 2006, Rise of Nations: Rise of legends is another one for the watch out list.