Rise of Nations (PC)

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Rise of Nations' unusual resource model is also noteworthy. Unlike in other real-time strategy games, resource-rich areas don't get depleted. Instead, in order to gather the game's basic resources, you need only place the appropriate gathering site for each resource and assign villagers to these sites, and they'll begin gathering on their own. The knowledge resource, which is vital for most technologies, comes only from the universities that you build for your cities. You can also find rare resources--such as precious minerals, crops, or furs--around the map. If you station a merchant at these sites, they'll give you bonuses to your resources and other benefits. Rise of Nations makes it easy to understand how many resources you are getting and how additional villagers can help you get more. Each building can have only a certain number of villagers in it, and the interface clearly shows how many resources you get per villager working there, though you can research improvements to make your villagers even more efficient.

Of course, with so much of the game's design rooted in the Civilization model, it's no wonder that Rise of Nations' research system also stands head and shoulders above the systems featured in other real-time strategy games. Although it isn't as comprehensive as the technology tree of Civilization III, Rise of Nations' research fields are still broader than those of just about any other real-time strategy game yet. There are four main areas of research: military, civil, commerce, and science. Each area has eight levels, as well as a top-level technology for each area once you reach the eighth stage. However, each of these technologies is balanced fairly well against the others, so you're free to choose the technological path you most prefer without worrying that your unbalanced research might leave you vulnerable in some way. Additionally, you'll conduct most of your research in a single building: the library. The consolidation of most of the game's technology under one roof is a breakthrough in logistics--you no longer have to go hunting for different buildings to conduct research.

Like Age of Empires, Rise of Nations features eight different ages: classical, medieval, gunpowder, enlightenment, industrial, modern, and information. Even though game's timeline begins in the Dark Ages and ends in a futuristic era, it manages to strike a perfect balance between the different ages and the breadth of technologies available in each. And despite all that depth, Rise of Nations is paced well and isn't overly complex--the game's interface makes it easy to understand what you need to do to advance to the next age, and the resource costs of advancement are challenging to meet without being ridiculously expensive.

The only really serious complaint that hard-core strategy fans could level at Rise of Nations is that the game doesn't have a story-based campaign like so many other recent real-time strategy games. Instead, Rise of Nations features a single-player "conquer the world" campaign in which the world is divided into sections, like in the classic board game Risk. You start out as one nation on this map and attempt to literally conquer every other country in the world. Controlling your nation on the world map is turn-based, but when you enter into territory you don't control, the game changes to real-time mode. Interestingly, the campaign offers different scenarios for different territories. In one territory, your mission might be to withstand a barbarian raid for 30 minutes. In another, it might be to race across a map to destroy a barbarian encampment. In a contested territory, you might have a normal conquest game in which you must eliminate the enemy. Capturing and holding additional territories gives you benefits, such as an extra army or resource bonuses you can take with you into every tactical battle. However, this campaign, which is really just a glorified version of Risk, isn't as developed as the actual real-time game. Still, it's enjoyable, if a bit simple, and it adds a substantial single-player component to the game.

In many ways, Rise of Nations is better than the strategy games that have come before it. It's smarter. It's more challenging. It gives you more to do. It also has a highly customizable multiplayer component, as well as good tutorials that will help new players get started quickly. The game even has fairly detailed graphics, especially for the different civilizations' architecture, as well as good sound effects and a dynamic music score that changes to reflect what's happening on the battlefield. But what really sets Rise of Nations apart are all the new concepts it introduces--cities, attrition damage, commerce caps, caravans, rare resources, a broader and more distinct technology element, national borders, and more make the game deeper and in many ways more enjoyable than any other real-time strategy game to date. For years, real-time and turn-based strategy games sat at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of their gameplay and audience; very few games have even tried to bridge the gap between them. But now, these two distinct styles of strategy have come together in the form of a truly excellent game.

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