Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends Hands-On

I have no idea what this is, but it looks neat.

Sting them, my scorpions!

Possibly the biggest improvement over the previous game in terms of gameplay is the heavy emphasis on hero units. I had several hero units at my disposal: Giacomo, Inventor of Miana (the main character in the story), Lenora, Pirate Captain (air unit), Carlini, General of Miana, and Venza, Lieutenant of Miana. The beautiful thing about these hero units is that their importance to the war effort is comparable in many ways to that of the Commander unit in Total Annihilation. If you add to that the fact that the game is balanced in such a way (in terms of the challenging nature of the AI) that it also somewhat resembles Total Annihilation... well, true RTS fans should know by now why from those statements alone, they should be excited about this prospect.

Oh yeah, and I almost forgot. What might seem like a purely visual novelty, the fact that the terrain now has depth (with gorges, canyons and such), actually makes quite an impact on the way you play the game. For strategy games this makes a hell of a difference; you'll see your spider units crawling down cliff walls, while the infantry units that are blasted into the air might end up falling off the edge and nose-diving to the bottom of the canyon.

The rest of the core gameplay has remained much the same as in Rise of Nations. Meaning that the holding of conquered territory and the ability to pull off effective strikes while not spending too much time in the enemy territory is still the key to winning (also, the 'pause' key is your friend). Rise of Legends plays like Rise of Nations, but with the addition of more features, very effective hero units (which you can summon at the cost of resources during the game) and a visually stellar fantasy setting. Oh yeah, and a decent story I hope, which I haven't had the chance to check out.

I am not exaggerating when I say that Rise of Legends might be one of the early Game of the Year candidates in 2006. Ok, I *am* exaggerating, considering that I've played a pretty early build, and only a few missions, but *if* Brian Reynolds and Big Huge Games manage to stay on the right track, I guarantee that Rise of Nations fans will be very pleased with the final result.