There's an evil doge wreaking havoc, some weird unknown force supporting rebels, a hot pirate babe, and, well, it's even harder to make sense of all this stuff on paper as it is when you're experiencing it in person. Moments later, you're leading conquistadors and clockwork robots into battle against mechanical spiders and glass monsters. You're just tossed into the 20-hour, three-part campaign with no preamble aside from a brief conversation about a mysterious artifact that seems to be making people sick. The story in the campaign is decidedly convoluted, as well. Each of the civilizations is so offbeat that there are no reference points, no similarities to RTS conventions that you can latch onto and use to dip a toe into the weirdness. This wacky mish-mash of real history, Dungeons & Dragons, and Chariots of the Gods is damn hard to warm up to. technology such as energy shields and flying saucers. And finally there are the Cuotl, Mayan-like aliens with E.T. Then there are the Alin, a civilization of sinister Arabian wizards who battle with magic and fiery efreeti footsoldiers. You've got the steampunk-flavored, quasi Venetian Vinci, who utilize tech derived from the sketches of Leonardo da Vinci, like wobbly gyrocopters and clockwork robots. The three races, each fanciful recreations of cultures from disparate eras and far-flung corners of the globe, seem to have been pulled from different RTS games. The only problem here is that the fantasy and sci-fi doesn't so much blend together as it does clash, at least in the campaign, when a story interferes with taking the races and units on their own not inconsiderable merits.
Instead of rehashing well-worn folklore, Big Huge Games decided to try something new and craft an original setting complete with three unique races and loads of zany units that rework just about every fantasy and science fiction convention out there.īig Huge Games was obviously trying to manufacture one of those "you got peanut butter in my chocolate!" moments where an off-the-wall combination works out perfectly. Although the title of the game leads you to expect some kind of Ray Harryhausen-style extravaganza with Greek gods and gorgons, this is not the second coming of Age of Mythology. Story is one of the big reasons why Rise of Legends feels a bit flat. RTS unit design doesn't get any quirkier than in Rise of Legends, which features lots of hardware even odder than this gyrocopter-like pirata flyer. After a dozen hours or so of the campaign and noodling around online, the novelty vanishes.along with a fair number of the compelling reasons to keep playing the game. Big Huge Games' follow-up to its instant classic from 2003 is a pretty good RTS, but it is also an awfully familiar one that doesn't bring anything new to the table aside from some snazzy new graphics, a few rule tweaks, and a quirky storyline with three oddball races. And you can really see why with Rise of Legends.
While everybody envies developers who make games as great as Rise of Nations, nobody envies them when sequel time comes around.