Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends

Brian Reynolds, president of Big Huge Games and creator of the Rise of Nations series, has always had a fascination with the world of fantasy. “My favorite kind of fantasy is the kind that mixes magic with the world of technology,” Reynolds said while introducing his latest RTS, Rise of Legends, and it looks like he’s prepared to deliver both in spades. Rise of Legends is the next entry to the Rise of Nations franchise, and it is poised to take the series to brand new territory by introducing magical units and drawing heavily upon the folklore of several different cultures. The game will feature brand new gameplay, but will remain surprisingly true to the original Rise of Nations. While not set to be released until 2006, Rise of Legends is shaping up to be just the type of change the RTS genre needs by offering up a compelling blend of exciting gameplay and amazing graphics.

While some of the details on the game are still pretty slim at this point, Rise of Legends will have four distinct nations total each one drawing upon a different kind of well established legend, two of which were revealed at the demo. The Vinci are an industrious people who are heavily influenced by Leonardo di Vinci’s drawings and sketches during the Renaissance period. There units feature the look of some of his conceptual designs, like helicopters and “clockwork men”, or robots. It was remarkable how true the game was to the original works. One of the points that Reynolds stressed was the fact that the game wouldn’t be simply about building units, but that creating buildings and melding them into a cohesive, sprawling city would factor strongly in the gameplay.

The other race was the Aleem, a culture that draws heavily from Arabian lore. Their units were composed of Arabian soldiers as well as fantastical units like genies that could be summoned and mythical beasts. You could even summon huge creatures like ancient glass dragons that can perform awesome abilities like shining the sun through their glass wings and focusing the light against your foes.

Another great concept in Rise of Legends is the physics engine, which acts realistically. When you destroy a building, sections of the building will splinter off realistically. If you blow the spire off of a tower, then the spire will fall to the ground, possibly impaling a unit who was unfortunate enough to be in its path. Parts of structures will scatter and roll down hills, and no unit’s destruction is ever exactly the same.

Graphically, Rise of Legends looks amazing. The game makes full use of DX9, and the individual units are very detailed and the buildings look incredibly lifelike. The environments are fantastic, with tons of detail representing their given nation. The game also has a ton of special effects, with certain units casting awesome magic spells. With an amazing aesthetic and sense of atmosphere, Rise of Legends will most likely be the best looking RTS ever when it releases next year.

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