Rise of Nations is a PC game in the real-time strategy genre, where you start with a small village and control it from a birds-eye view to make your tiny empire prosper, grow and eventually dominate the world. At first glance, it seems like it'll fit right in with the other hundred or so real-time strategy games based on the same idea. Not so. Rise of Nations offers so much depth and multitude of options, it soars above the competition within the first hour -- and it only gets better the more you play.
In Rise of Nations, you evolve from simple clay huts to skyscrapers as you research new technologies and put them to practical use. You get more options and more units as the game progresses, adding layer after layer of complexity. This gradual ramping-up is carefully balanced to let beginners get the hang of things while not limiting your strategies as you get more advanced. More importantly, it prevents the game from going stale.
But military might isn't everything. For example, those who prefer the peaceful route can start games where they win by building magnificent "Wonders of the World", such as pyramids, the Taj Mahal and global space programs. You also have spies, high-level diplomacy, and other options at your disposal. Another nice twist is that you get to choose between 18 nations to play, all with different strengths and special units.
If this sounds similar to the famous Civilization-series, you're absolutely right: The man behind Rise of Nations was the lead designer of Civilization II. Just think of Rise of Nations as a real-time version of Civilization, and you're pretty close.
You can start quick battles against one or several computer players, engage in the main "Conquer the World" campaign that mixes in elements from the old board game Risk, go head to head against up to eight friends, or design your own map from scratch. The map designer is worth mentioning, since it is very versatile (lets you customize in-game scripts) yet remains so intuitive I didn't have to consult the manual even once when whipping up a working map. Impressive!
On the down side, the one thing that really bugged me was some of the custom solo games where the AI seemed to go a little haywire. You build things by ordering your peasants around, and there is a beginner setting where you can order them to build things the game thinks you need automatically. Well, that's all fine and dandy, except when they decide it's a great idea to build random stuff even though you have disabled the auto-build option. This only happened twice and never in the main campaign, but it is annoying, nonetheless, since there seems to be no way to turn it off.
Still, all things considered, Rise of Nations is a black hole for your spare time -- once you're sucked in, there's no escape. Not that you'd want to. See you on the battlefield!
