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Systems > Mac > R > Rise of Nations: Gold Edition > Staff Review
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Review by Felix Arabia
April 25, 2007
Before your city is fully prepared to bare the brunt of the determined foe’s attack, they unleash a violent maelstrom of cannonade fire atop your hapless warriors. Bones are crushed; bodies are battered. Steady streams of arrows and lead from archers and harquebusiers rain down on the invaders. Ubiquitous confusion and harmonious disorder engage both your determined defenders and the overzealous offenders. A mixture of cacophony roars across the battlefield. With casualties too high to continue, the offensive is halted. Your battered city has withstood a mighty opponent, and now the tide has turned. Your move.
Now picture the above scenario in a different time period with nations as archaic as the Greeks to as modern as the Americans. A thousand battles will be waged in a thousand different ways. From the mountainous heights of Anatolia to the vast desert wastelands of the Sahara, Rise of Nations: Gold Edition allows you to build an empire out of nothing. Have your colonial Spanish peasants mine for ore and deforest sprawling jungles in the Amazon as you prepare to build an army that will undo the mighty Inca. Or use the Americans to nuke the communist Russians… or vice versa! Issue ultimatums; annihilate enemies. The possibilities are as abundant as the stars, and they can be as bizarre or improbable as the feudal Japanese fighting the primitive Bantus of southern Africa! They can also be as stupid as seeing Aztecs and Mayans riding horses against colonial European superpowers to as farfetched as playing as Medieval America.
That’s where some of the silliness occurs. Improbability and impossibility become quite possible, but if there is one glaring flaw with Rise of Nations: Gold Edition, it is that some amount of imagination will have to take place. For a game to cover so many ages and so many great nations, it would be impossible to look at each nation in depth. Many different nations have units that are the same. It's strange seeing Persian cavalry looking the same as European. Likewise, it's bland that battlefield maps aren't always intriguing, and at times possess little of geological interest. That is the case here, unfortunately, but a little imagination and a grand army will provide plenty of excitement as you conquer the world with your loyal legions.
There are plenty of reasons to cross the continents numerous time. Not only is there a map editor (an obvious necessity to any RTS game), but each nation has its own unique powers and units. You can use Byzantine stratiotai (heavy cavalry) if you’re using the Greeks to combat Persian elephants, or you can combat British highlanders with American continental marines.
Now, obviously, in order to make units and gain technologies, one must have an infrastructure of civilian workers mining for ore, deforesting woodlands, and sewing crops. Your cities are your most important possessions, and should the enemy manage take one, you had better invest your resources in taking it back.
Whenever you lose a city, a somber chord of soft piano fills your ear. But whenever you are crushing an enemy, epic orchestral flair takes center stage to urge you on. There is a lot of beauty to be found in Rise of Nations: Gold Edition; and even though the music is harmonious and the graphics are detailed, the most beautiful thing to be had is the wonderful disarray orchestrated on the battlefield. There is nothing like seeing an opposing army rotting in a red field as yours marches on.
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Outstanding The majority of games simply aren't this good. It stands aside from the crowd and you'd be crazy to miss it. |
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Staff reviews represent the opinion of the individual staff member that wrote them and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the site staff as a whole. If you disagree with the contents of this review, you may click to leave feedback on our dedicated forum. Thank you!
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Title: Rise of Nations: Gold Edition |
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Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne is another Mac game in the Real-Time Strategy genre that has been attracting activity lately, so you might want to check it out and see what all of the fuss is about!
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