Rise of Nations

Rise of Nations is a real-time historical strategy game published by Microsoft. It was developed within Big Huge Games by Brian Reynolds, designer of classic PC classics such as Civilization 2 and Alpha Centauri. It was released in May 2003. This game is very similar to the famous Empire Earth of around the same time period. The player must develop his nation to conquer the world, and advance through the ages of humanity (unless you rush your enemy in the dark age!) from ages of antiquity to the age of information.

In Rise of Nations, the player takes the role of a leader of a nation, and must micromanage numerous aspects of his/her civilization, such as economy, research, population growth and military. In standard mode, there are several ways to win: eliminate all enemies, conquer 70% of the map, or build enough wonders of the world. Although the player can control numerous nations, each with their unique military powers and units, they can be grouped into four main groups: European nations, Asian nations, Islamic nations, and Native American nations. It is also possible in the game to build wonders that have already, in the real world, been built by Man. Although Rise of Nations is an innovative game, there are quite a few similarities with the Empire Earth and Age of Empires series, and in fact playing this game, I really sometimes felt I was playing one of these other games.

There are four main types of research which your nation can undergo in Rise of Nations. In some cases, this research makes it possible to build new types of buildings. The main types of research are:

1. Military research which is represented in red, allowing to increase the population limit. As you advance in age, this will eventually allow you to develop an anti-missile shield.
2. Civic researches which are represented in blue, allowing players to widen their National Borders and to increase the number of cities. As you advance in age, this will eventually allow you to develop the Domination of the World.
3. Economic research, which is represented in green, allows the play to increase their trade capacity and the number of caravans for trade. In the age of future technologies, this will lead to an increase in World Prosperity.
4. Scientific research that is shown in yellow, is used to reduce the cost of other research, and in the 2nd technology, units to cross a body of water. In future ages, scientific research allows artificial intelligence to be developed (i.e. robots which can fight for you).