Today I had the pleasure of experiencing the future of strategy gaming. Seriously, come spring 2006, you're going to want to play this game and bad, my friends. Brian Reynolds and Big Huge Games are at it again and this time they've truly gone all-out with the amazing sequel to Rise of Nations.

My, did the Love Parades take an interesting twist in the future.

Did anyone actually bother to bring a map?

Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends transports gamers into a fantastical world, where they guide a young inventor's struggle to unravel his world's ancient past and unite its people against an unimaginable threat. RoL features four races, each with their own VERY unique culture, strengths and units, a bona fide story, and on top of all that, it will have hero units and the highly engaging gameplay that people have come to identify with this game series. The original made me feel like other developers should simply steal stuff from Big Huge Games and admit that they're the masters when it comes to creating engaging and rewarding strategy gameplay.

The preview code that was on the show floor allowed me to both play the game and have the game's producer show off some of its amazing effects, weapons and just mind-boggling quality of the art and 3D effects.

Not only does Rise of Legends have all these advanced 3D features and amazing physics (rag doll physics and fully destructible environments), it's just gorgeous to look at in terms of how good the art is. It is so detailed and carefully crafted. The artists have created totally distinct and unique settings for the two playable races that were shown at the show. One of the races is inclined toward science and technology and is actually basing its technology on the works of Leonardo Da Vinci. Consequently, most of their buildings and weapons look like something that was copied off of Leonardo's blueprint.

The other race looks Arabic somewhat and, while the "Da Vinci's" firmly believe in the power of science, the other race focuses on the power of magic and mysticism.

The terrain in RoL is done in such a way that it's fully 3D in every possible way. For example, while you're fighting on the top of the cliff, units that are thrown off the cliff will actually tumble down, and you'll see them falling down and eventually hitting the ground at the bottom of the cliff.

Then there are the huge cities of course. You know how in RTS games cities look lifeless in a way - like cardboard boxes that tend to catch on fire when you shoot them with flaming arrows. Well, you can just forget about such poor presentations of urban life in Rise of Legends. The cities are huge and extremely detailed, and if you start bombarding them they will actually collapse in a realistic fashion, with people jumping from collapsing city towers as they turn into a pile of burning rubble, etc.

When I talk about it like this, I simply cannot convey how magnificent everything looks in game. You'll simply have to take my word for it. This is the most beautiful and the most promising strategy gameplay-wise that I saw at the E3. And I've also had the pleasure ... I guess... of checking out Age of Empires 3.

Big Huge Games has done an amazing job so far on the units and structures. They are so varied, fun and imaginative that I truly applaud their move to place the game in a steam punk setting of sorts. It was a bold move, and the introduction of an actual story will make the Conquer the World (CTW) Campaign even more fun to play.

You should also keep in mind that the gameplay itself, the core gameplay, will be just as good as in the original, and even more addictive now that you have all these wonderful and interesting units and huge weapons to toy with; like the city destroyer - a colossal spider-like machine that basically razes an entire town, not even minding all the other smaller units that are attacking it.

In this spectacular final scene of the demo, the "Mystics" were having their capital razed to the ground by the city destroyer, when suddenly huge dragons swooped from the skies to aid them in their fight. Needless to say, the dragons had a few tricks up their wings, and the day was saved for the "Mystics."

From what I've seen so far, Rise of Legends has all the attributes to become a more than a worthy successor to the original. I truly am happy to see that the game has gotten a fresh new setting, because after seeing how the programmers and artists have shaped this new world, I truly cannot help but feel giddy about the sequel.

This is surely one of the best games I've seen at the show so far. Keep up the good work, Big Huge Games.

-- Uros "2Lions" Jojic