Reviewing games is not an easy job. "Yeah right," I hear you say. "Pull the other one." Well, think of it from the poor old reviewer`s (meaning me) point of view.
On average, I get at least five new titles to review every month. I have to play each title thoroughly enough to write (at least) 500 words on it and then move on to the next one. All things being equal in a newsroom (which they are not), I have to do at least one game review a week to (hopefully) stay on top of the competition. Of course, these reviews need to offer our readers (that`s you) worthwhile content or they go somewhere else.
Add this to the fact that reviewing games is not the primary reason why I get paid every month (yes, I actually write these reviews for the love of it), and you get a whole host of reasons why this is a difficult job.
While this may sound like complaining, I assure you it is not. I see reviewing games (whether it be paid for or not) as a privilege that many gamers would give their right arm for.
Why this mindless preamble to a review on the latest Microsoft real-time strategy title, Rise of Nations, I hear you ask?
A walk through history
Well, given the pressures on my time, it is not often (well, it has never happened before) that I have kept on playing a game for several weeks just to avoid writing the review and moving on to the next title. I have given several games, including The Hulk, to a colleague of mine to review just because I could keep playing Rise of Nations. It is that good.
Essentially, Rise of Nations combines the real-time strategy elements of Age of Empires with the nation building of Civilisation.
Rise of Nations features 18 nations. While most of them are familiar, there are some newcomers like the Bantu and the Nubians. In true strategy style, each nation has its own special skills and units and look different to the others as time passes.
This passage of time is broken into eight epochs, each with its own technology upgrades. These epochs start with the ancient age and ends with the information age. Of course, each epoch has benefits over the previous one with unit and building upgrades being par for the course.
Breaking new ground
The title features many innovations that I cannot even hope to describe here. Some do bear mention though.
While having unlimited resources seem obvious, no other strategy title seemed to have cottoned on to this. The basic resources of the game (food, timber, metal and oil) never deplete once your citizens start to gather them. This is a blessing since you do not have to worry about constantly looking for more forests, mines, farms, etc.
Citizens in the game are also considerably smarter. Idle citizens can be set to automatically start collecting resources and help to build or repair buildings. The game also features national borders.
Essentially, this introduces attrition damage to military units not inside their own national borders and means that you cannot build any buildings in someone else`s territory. You can expand your national borders in several ways that include researching certain technological improvements.
Wrapping it up
Unfortunately, Rise of Nations does have its shortcomings. Graphically, the game is not nearly as good as it should be. This is probably due to the low system requirements the developers stuck to while making the title. However, since I have not yet been able to upgrade my review machine, I will not carp on too much about this.
The game is also a bit too short for my liking. While one or two hours might be sufficient for most, I wanted the option to keep playing the gaming even after beating the computer opponents. After all, having all those nuclear weapons means you want to blow things up.
Alas, as with all Microsoft titles, Rise of Nations is an expensive title to own. While the game is worth the price, it is getting difficult to continually convince people of the merits of buying a PC game that is in excess of R500 when there are other good ones retailing at R299.
However, if you do have the money to buy this title you should do so immediately. This is probably going to stay a favourite of mine for some time to come.
Share