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AGES OF NATIONS A LOOK AT RISE OF NATIONS AND THE THRONES & PATRIOTS EXPANSION
With its
Age of
Empires and
Age of
Empires II: The Age of Kings games,
Microsoft
established itself as a leader in the field of real time strategy [RTS]
games. Then came
Rise
of Nations in 2003, a game that builds on these designs. The next year too, the company followed the
standard practice for RTS publishers in releasing an expansion, titled
Thrones & Patriots. At first glance, Rise of Nations looks very much like
its predecessors, and especially those experienced with Age of Empires II will take to it very easily. It has the three-dimension look and feel to
the map, appearing as a flattened diamond.
The interface is nearly identical too, relying on the right mouse
button to pull up ranges options and choose destinations for movement. In function as well as
form, there is a lot carried over too, only expanded. Most importantly, Rise of Nations keeps the divisions of history into ages, and
since now the game covers everything from the dawn of history to the near
future, there are eight in all. Likewise, the game
comes with a lot more contesting peoples than eighteen of the Age of Empires games, even with their
expansions, eighteen in all. This
leads to some strangely anachronistic situations; one could see the Chinese,
Egyptians or the Greeks emerging from the neolithic
era, but the British, French or Aztecs are do not quite fit this
pattern. Modernization plays games on
the other end of history, with Roman panzers, Egyptian dreadnoughts and air
forces flown by the Inca and Iroquois.
Then again, RTS gamers should be used to this sort of suspension of
historical belief. For all of the
similarities with the Age of Empires
family, Rise of Nations is defined
more by its differences. To start
with, settlements and resource collection are handled in entirely different
ways than previously. In the older
games, there was no sense of national borders, so that a player could place a
building anywhere he wanted. In
addition, there was no rule against erecting a building adjacent to an enemy,
leading to one of my favorite tricks in Age
of Empires II; placing castles and towers right next to enemy building,
and using them as hardened bombardment platforms. No longer. Rise
of Nations defines the borders of the combatants, and construction is
limited to those realms. Some,
especially cities and defensive works, expand the areas under control,
thereby giving the player more freedom to develop new assets. Further, civilian economic and social
construction has to take place in the proximity of cities. In the Ages
of Empires games, there were no such limitations, so that besides
building close to the enemy, settlements tended to sprawl. Those in Rise of Nations have to concentrate. Finally, there is now a
limit on the numbers of buildings that can be placed around a city. No more than one market, temple,
university, granary, lumber mill, metal smelter or oil refinery is allowed,
nor can a player have more than five farms per city. Mines, lumber camps, and later in the game
oil wells are under no such limitation, and can in fact exist beyond the
urban orbit. Cities thus take on new
levels of importance that the civic centers in the Age of Empires series lack.
Rise of Nations makes them a
lot cheaper to build, which makes strategy easier, but what the developers giveth, the developers also taketh
away. The game limits population
according to the level of economic knowledge, and extends this to limiting
the number of cities permitted. A country can actually
exceed that number through conquest. A
city so reduced by combat and bombardment that, were it another building it
would be destroyed, is not eliminated.
It can be seized by enemy infantry and assimilated so that it
functions identically to those built by the player himself. When this happens, the buildings nearby
also pass to the conqueror’s control, and he extends his borders from it too. Not just in the Age of Empires series but also in such
RTS classics as Blizzard’s Warcraft II and Starcraft,
resources are finite. Moreover, they
have to be carried to a settlement or industrial asset in order to be
processed; whether it is wood, gold, oil or food, a point in the hand does
not count until it is actually taken to where it can be used. They also run out,
which has several important consequences.
First, a player has to go out and find more resources. Second, the distance they have to be
transported increases, decreasing efficiency and giving the player a reason
to build new processing plants closer to the remaining raw materials. Finally, land cleared
of resources becomes available for new construction. For example, deforestation is a recurring
theme of both Age of Empires II and
Warcraft II. None of this applies to
Rise of Nations, as resources are
inexhaustible. Indeed, technological progress makes the
extraction of existing concentrations all the more efficient, with no danger
of running out at any time. However, a
player cannot allocate an infinite number of citizens to harvesting a forest
or mineral resource concentration, as the richness of the resource is expressed
in the maximum number of workers who can extract it. There is also no
provision for transport. When
something comes out of the ground or falls in the woods, it is immediately
available. A player still has to
find new resources even if his old ones last forever, if for other reason
than because newer structures and units tend to cost more than old ones. Additionally, prices are fluid, and except
for special exceptions granted for certain cultures, rise each time a new one
is created. The first is always the
cheapest, and the last the most expensive. Wood and food are
available throughout the game, but metal is not until the player progresses
to a point at which he can use it, and oil is not even visible until the
industrial age. The military side of the
game is, surprisingly, simpler than its predecessors. Though the long time frame mandates that
there is a much wider variety of unit types, from men with slings to stealth
bombers, there is not that wide of a variety possible at any one time. For the most part too, there are certain
units common to most of the nations, though the game presents variations on
them for national character and as a reflection of the history that provides
the game with its point of departure. Sometimes though the
national characteristics do not ring true.
The greatest examples are the Maya and Aztecs, who when introduced to Age of Empires II had no ability to
raise or use cavalry. As peoples
without the horse, this is entirely correct.
However, in Rise of Nations
everyone has cavalry, including the Mesoamericans; it is just that some are
better at it than others. Maybe the most
noticeable simplification concerns siege engines and artillery. In Age
of Empires II, there could be three kinds of siege engines produced at
any one time in a workshop, with technological improvements possible with
research, plus trebuchets that could be produced by a more advanced power at
a castle. In Rise of Nations, there is one siege unit or artillery unit that
can be produced at any one time, and fortifications no longer turn out
bombardment units. Rise of Nations has a couple of new units that represent a major advance
over the Age of Empires
series. Generals are generated at
fortresses, and are necessary for a rudimentary command and control. Supply wagons cut down on the attrition
that otherwise takes place when armies leave their own national territory. Wonders are even more
important to Rise of Nations than to its predecessors. In the earlier games, if a player can build
a wonder and keep it intact, he wins.
All it takes is one, and that requires a commitment of manpower and
resources commensurate with a pyramid or at least a cathedral. In Rise of Nations, wonders are cheaper and easier, and can be built
during most stages of the game. Logically,
no single wonder can win it outright for the builder, and a side can and
should build several. Nor are they generic,
as is the case in the Age of Empires
games. Depending on the era, a player
could build a pyramid, an ancient Chinese terra cotta army, the Colossus or
Coliseum, the Statue of Liberty, or even start a space program. All have a practical application beyond the
old and accustomed awe, such as extending borders further or, in the case of
the terra cotta army, contributing real armies of free infantry. Once a side builds a
wonder, no other people can replicate it.
There can be only one The tradition in real
time strategy gaming is for publishers to follow up popular titles with
expansions, some of which constitute critical updates that refine the system
as well as offer new units, buildings, and often entire new sides. The best example of this is
The
Conquerors, the expansion for Age
of Empires II, which greatly improved the game’s approach to farming as
well as gave players some extremely distinctive new nations, including the
Huns, Aztecs and the most fearsome conquerors of them all, the Mongols. Thrones & Patriots enhances Rise
of Nations, although not nearly as dramatically. There are four new peoples to it: The
Americans, the Lakota Sioux, the Dutch, and Again, there are some
grounds for head-scratching among the historically-concerned, as the
Americans field hoplites two thousand years before the There are also a number
of new wonders for players to build, a welcome bit of color. The expansion has a
major supplement to the basic system, with the introduction of
government. A player can, and should,
build a Senate building, after which he has his choice of government types,
starting with despotism or democracy.
From there it can evolve along lines that might involve monarchy, capitalism
and socialism. All have their own
benefits. For example, despotism aids
military production, and capitalism works better for economic ventures. There is a new unit
too, one that helps give it its name: The patriot. This is a ruler/president/supreme comrade,
who enhances the functionality of units and buildings around him. Rise of Nations is one of my favorite real time strategy games, along
with Age of Empires II and its
science fiction export,
Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, especially
as expanded by
Clone Campaigns.
At first, I have to admit, I was a little disappointed that Rise of Nations was not a straight upgrade
and enhancement of its predecessors, something that I discovered the first
time I tried to build two temples in the same city. Furthermore, if Rise of Nations exceeds the graphical standards
of these other games, it is not by very much.
Then again, familiarity leads to accessibility, and Age of Empires II and Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
still look very good today. Rise of Nations is not as much of an improvement as it is a very good,
enjoyable variation on an established theme.
It has much in common with its predecessors, all of it good, while
presenting the player with variants on the original challenges. To win, a gamer must construct multiple
cities, often a half dozen or more, to get out of the economic doldrums,
instead of relying on one or two core settlements. The expanded time frame
presents another set of decisions too.
In the other designs, the further a side advances, the more capable it
becomes. This remains true in Rise of Nations, although now the
unique capabilities can peak at different times. For example, the Romans are best relative
to other peoples earlier in the game, when they have legions at their
disposal instead of more generic infantry, and the Americans and Russians are
more likely to be dominant at the end.
Thus a player should not always assume that the future will bring a
greater chance of beating an opponent; sometimes the future is now. Rise of Nations definitely offers a fresh perspective on classic real time strategy. As with its illustrious predecessors, it is highly recommended. |