Once again, the epic sounding title...maybe it's a natural affinity of mine.
New Sig also ^^
Today we will be visiting the most recent and final installment(ACTUALLY a spinoff) of the
Rise of nations franchise,
Rise of Legends.
Released in 2006, Rise of Legends was one of the only RTS's and quite frankly one of the only GAMES to implement some hardcore
steampunkism. It was actually well presented too and not just slapped in as if it was a fleeting attempt to break into that market, a bit smaller at the time than it now is(A subculture). Some nice presentations of the art style of the game are prominent in these covers:
The game plays much like your standard RTS- fans of such games as the older Rise of Nations style pseudo-civ gameplay as well more streamlined styles such as command and conquer and dawn of war can get in on the action this game provides, seamlessly integrating elements of a turn based strategy, Civ, and RTS into one gameplay mode for a truly unique experience anyone can eventually enjoy.
THE RACES:
rise of legends takes place in an alternate world called
Aio where three factions battle for control:
the
Vinci, an interesting blend of industrial age and renaissance aesthetics, field heavy artillery and large mechs with their infantry being fragile but hard hitting.
The
Alin, essentially fantasy arab middle-easterners, utilize many different magical beasts including very unique and powerful glass golems and other creatures of similar construction. They focus more on large hordes of infantry backed by smaller creatures with very specialized abilities and a few larger creatures such as drakes with powerful AOE attacks.
The
Cuotl are the technical "aliens" of the game world, crash landing and re establishing their empire on aio. They are Sci-fi Aztec in feel and with their hero units, and are very hard hitting with their hero units dictating the playstyle of the rest of the army more so than the other races. I often compare them to the
Go'a'uld of
Stargate.
Overall, This is a very well done game that had much potential but fell apart pretty quickly. The Dev team at
big huge games was recently saved from bankruptcy by
38 studios and is working on the much talked about
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning which should be very interesting- perhaps there may be some subtle shoutouts to this other great masterpiece of theirs within, time will tell. This is to be updated my friends, but for now you have a rough idea of what Rise of Legends is like, and it gets a STRONG recommendation from me!
Till next time!