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Do not buy this game...honestly

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 18 / 46
Date: June 04, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I cannot believe this game is still on the shelves. I read the great reviews and decided to try it. I have a brand new computer that met all the req. Unfortunately it won't run. According to the tech help guy, it just doesnt work on alot of computers.
"Do you have an onboard video card?"
"yes"
"oh thats' the problem. It won't run on those."
"how many people who buy this gamne have onboard video cards?"
"85%"
"Why are you selling a 50$ game that won't run on most peoples computers? There isn't anything on the box."
"people who can play it really like it."

It was a frustrating call. Buy this game and find out how fun that call can be.

Disappointed

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 16 / 54
Date: June 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I am an Age of Empires fan and I have all of them. When Empire Earth came into scene and considering that its creator is the same of AOE I bought it inmediatelly and I do not regret it. At that time I read Msoft was creating rise of nations and with the reputation of Msof I couldn't wait to get it...Well I regret have spent 50 on this Rise Of Nations game for the following reasons:

The game specifications say 128 MB of RAM and 16 of video card, but my computer is by far more than that and the game still runs slow.
The graphics are good when you use the zoom feature but that's annoying when you are in combat against other nations.

You will miss AOE when you play this game.

Buy Empire Earth if you want a RTS game to play the modern era. Unfortunally, Microsoft has let us down this time with this game(rise of nations).

Ridiculous to call this strategy.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 16 / 46
Date: April 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Okay, so I'm supposed to build buildings and units. Got it. Wait, I'm also supposed to walk around and discover rarities that merchants can harvest. Got it. Wait, I'm also supposed to accumulate wood, food, & gold. Got it. Wait, I'm also supposed to study in the library AND (and this is the part that bugs me most) in every other building. AND. I'm also supposed to build an army/navy and deploy them in a micromanaging way. This game has some great parts - I am not denying that. However, it is a horribly flawed nightmare. I loved to micromanage in turn-based strategies. It is next to impossible to accomplish this in a RTS. I feel torn between wanting to research, build, gather, and explore. I defy anyone finding an enjoyable balance. Rise of Nations would be far supperior if it were turn-based. As it is, I constantly feel as though I'm neglecting one of my four desires. Also, it is ridiculous to be required to research advancements in multiple buildings. It sounds organized at first but it becomes a nightmare when trying to stay on top of technology advances. Developers should make ONE research interface! Second, units should not build buildings! Cities should build buildings! Do not make me responsible for creating a citizen. This makes no sense. Buildings a military unit makes tons of sense, but not normal citizens!!! I am begging the developers to redesign the city interface to encompass these changes! These minor changes would make this game fanastic.

A return to vapor ware

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 9 / 25
Date: June 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I looked forward to loading and running this game. Reynolds' contributions to Civilization made it a must buy. And Microsoft sort of indicated that it would be produced well.

I never found out.

After three minutes of tutorial the game froze. Had to unplug the computer to restart it.

So I tried playing the game, instead of running the tutorial. Got just about as far and it froze again.

I tried this four times and four time I had to unplug my computer. (I'm running WinXP on a Pentium 4 from IBM.)

So I tried the newsgroups at Microsoft. Lo and behold there are at least a dozen comments on the news groups about system freezes and this game. So I write Customer Service at Microsoft. (Costs $30 to call them, so you email them.) So they run a diagnostic on my system. And they tell me to install a new driver for my video card. I'm a little hesitant to do this, given that IBM routinely sends me notice when new drivers are available. But I download and try it. Guess what setup tells me: "This is not an appropriate driver for your video card."

I'm running an ATI video card. Others I saw with problems were also well known, like nVidia. Microsoft's next suggestion was that I buy a new video card! Nah. I'm afraid I have to return the game.

horrible

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 33
Date: July 10, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game would probably be a 5 out 5 game.....if it worked. I have windows xp and it dosent work.....please.....it froze 5 times before I gave up I even tried all the tips that people have put on the internet,I changed the settings and changed the resolution it never worked. I thought this would be the answer to all the bad srtategy games I have played,but I guess I will never find out.

Total ...& Unoriginal

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 19
Date: May 27, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game was a lousy RTS and was simply another ... of Microsoft's to copy other games and sell them for [$$$] a pop. Have you ever played 'Age of Empires' or 'WarcraftII'? Well then you've also played 'Rise of Nations'. I wonder how the programmers of this game can sleep at night knowing that this game is simply a copy of other RTS games that came before it. But this game is MUCH WORSE because its graphics and gameplay suck for a game that just came out in 2003.

I'm dumbfounded by the lack of originality in this game as well as all the other [copies] out there.

I'll end by saying that this game is like a bad sequel. You expect it to be as good as the original but it ends up being disappointingly worse.

Crashes on Non-Administrator Accounts

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 21
Date: July 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Beware: This program, like many other recent games, will ONLY run properly on an account that has administrator privileges on Windows XP or 2000. That means that in most common home settings, school settings, or in public facilities with shared computers most users will not be able to play this game. If you have configured your home PC, for example, so that only you can perform potentially damaging administrative operations and have protected it from accidental damage by your kids by giving them "limited" accounts (a recommended "best practice" you should certainly be following), your kids will not be able to play this game. Similarly, if you have configured computers in a school in the obvious way, with only certain staff given administrative access and all others limited to "user-level" access, then only the administrators will be able to play the game.
Note that although I agree with the general consensus that Rise of Nations is an excellent game, my feeling is that it this limitation is a fatal one that should have been noted on the box (it is not) and thus I cannot give this product more than a single star, because it simply does not work in scenarios that it should be expected to work, and there are no warnings to this effect anywhere on the box or in the documentation.

More information on this issue is available. ...

Needs a usable interface

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 15
Date: September 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Ack! So many of the RTS games have the same interface. Its horrible. The multiple city aspect of this game only makes it worse. Its nearly impossible to fight a major battle as well as keep your cities producing because you have to go and find each city, click on each building and upgrade/build with it. A simple sidebar that allows you to keep your cities running without leaving the battle would be awesome. As it is its just a frustrating experience. The addition of the researching just makes for one more thing you have to try to keep track of in this jumbled game.

Obviously this game is a meld of Civilization and Age of "Whatever". It fails at both and leaves you in a click fest where you have no time to think and no time to act.

I hope these games move away from the frantic clicking to a more thought out strategy game, but I dont see it happening because people play these game like they're going out of style. I for one hope they are.

Rise of nothing!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 26
Date: October 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Rise of the nations does not suck nor it is a superhit.Starting's ok but then,BORING.It's just one of those stragety games which have gone bum after a few days.The controller is pretty sluggish.The countries are almost the same.There is not even one part in the game where 'oh!It's so exiting' comes to your mind.Warcraft is much better.Beleive me

BEWARE OF THIS GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 39
Date: February 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Please be carefull w/ this game. i have a pentium4 2.7ghz 512 ram and geforce 32mb g-card and the game doesnt run!!!!!!! this game isnt bad but just be carefull.......i recomend EMPIRES instead.

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