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Underwhelming

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 72 / 93
Date: June 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I've been a long-time RTS player and can honestly say that I've been around the block a few times when it comes to the genre. When "Rise of Nations" came out, particularly when they added the "Thrones and Patriots" expansion, I thought I'd found one of the best all-around RTS games. The gameplay was smooth and continually interesting. The economy and research behaved in the way that seemed intuitive, and best of all, it had a fantastic Conquer the World aspect that allowed you to engage in the act that fuels the dreams of every RTS fan alive: to unite the entire world under your banner. I probably invested hundreds and hundreds of hours playing the conquer the world game.

When I heard that the same company that created such a fantastic game were creating another title that was hyped as the next step up from Rise of Nations, I was ecstatic. I waited for a year, visiting the official website religiously for screenshots and gaming articles. I purchased the game a few days ago and can sum it up in one word: uninspired.

I'll leave discussions of graphics and sound to other players, but the gameplay is somewhat tepid. Instead of Rise of Nations many different resources, RoL has narrowed the resource count to two, making me wonder whether I was playing a game from 2006, or whether I'd warped back in time to my old Starcraft days. Instead of being able to place fortresses and cities to expand my national borders, I am forced to capture neutral cities at predetermined locations. Instead of an engaging Conquer the World game where I could march numerous armies across the globe, crushing enemies, forging alliances, and betraying old friends, I found a lukewarm single-player campaign with undeniably limited replay value.

The single player campaign decidedly lacks imagination. Whereas in Rise of Nations, if you controlled a very large empire, you could enter a new battle with a decent lead on a smaller opponent, in Rise of Legends, you might enter a battle with the ability to place an oasis on the map. Cut scenes have stilted and lackluster dialogue like "An enemy is near. If an enemy stands in our way, we must eliminate them." C'mon. Is that really all the motivation the people at Big Huge Games can muster for our heroes to march our forces into a country?

As if the cut scenes weren't bad enough in terms of dialogue, the "plot" of the single player campaign is riddled with plot-holes making what might otherwise be a semi-engaging story seem more like an excuse to simply engage in a series of standard Quick-battle games.

(*Spoiler*) For instance, after you march your army (you only seem to get one, even though in RoN you could have a dozen armies) to Venucci to kill the Doge and his Doomcannon, he escapes with the Doomcannon. The Doomcannon is roughly the size of a Capital City, but somehow, despite that it must traverse overland, you are unable to catch up to it in pirata airships.

In each campaign battle, your heroes are given a few main quests to finish, like "Capture the Enemy City" or "Kill the enemy hero." Apart from these tired main quests, there are a few bonus quests that you might stumble across while completing the main quest. While that sounds interesting, they quickly lose their appeal when you realize that frequently, there are absolutely no rewards for completing the bonus quests. In fact, in some instances, completing bonus quests will actually hurt you in terms of overall productivity by wasting men and resources on something that gets you absolutely no closer to completing the main quest that will end the quick battle.

It's hard to muster a lot of enthusiasm for this game after having played it. While still a mildly entertaining game, it brings nothing particularly new to the genre apart from some of the race concepts themselves. Even the 'dominance' system in the game seems suspiciously like a copy of the 'Crowns' system from Empire Earth II. The concepts for the game are good, but I'm fully at a loss to explain why Big Huge Games threw away many of the details that made Rise of Nations such a fantastic game and put this out on the market instead.

Really quite good, rich and beautiful.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 48 / 55
Date: May 30, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I've never played Rise of Nations, so I can only judge this against other RTS games I've played.

This one rocks. The AI is leagues above almost anything else I've seen -- I never end up with units just wandering aimlessly in a corner because it couldn't path around a tree.

The visuals are amazing -- my base down in a valley gets obscured by mist when I go up a hill to move troops. The detail in the units and buildings is AMAZING. I've not seen anything come close in another real time strategy.

The diversity of units is great as well - I get a sense of three distinct cultures and approaches, but it still feels well-balanced between the sides. I also appreciate that in the campaign, there are necessary solutions beyond the usual "build a big army and throw it at them" strategy most other games employ.

The UI was easy to learn - perhaps again because I never played the original Rise of Nations?

I don't know how this compares to the very acclaimed Empire Earth and Total War series, but this is definitely in-line with the great games like Warcraft/Starcraft, Age of 'x' series and Command and Conquer.

I needed a diversion from my WoW gaming, and this is it. My poor guildmates might miss me.

Inspired - and largely overlooked - achievement

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 16 / 17
Date: October 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is an edit of my original review, which I posted soon after acquiring the game. Since then, I've edged a fair way into the campaign and played numerous "quick battles".

What's been said about the campaign is mostly true - it's neither polished nor very appealing. To be sure, there are some good strong characters, but they are not fleshed out very well, and the story feels overall quite by-the-books and predictable.

Not so the world behind the game, though. It takes a lot for an RTS setting to come alive, which has put me off from them somewhat. But Rise of Legends rises to the challenge, with three very distinct cultures, each of which has a well-developed internal realism. The steam and clockwork of the Vinci feels worlds apart from the more traditional eastern-based magic of the Alin, and the strange Mayan-style of the Cuotl is rarely portrayed in recent video games. Along with these are excellent game mechanics, oriented for those who prefer combat to endless nation-building and running after resources. National borders appear as colored lines on the minimap, soldiers take attrition damage when traveling through hostile territory, and the capitol city is one's prime target. Added to this, the units are quite diverse and complex; even basic soldiers have multiple combat styles/abilities, and the many heroes available are powerful and help your nation in various ways. Each culture can obtain a master unit, which is an alternate way of achieving victory - save enough for a master unit, then, if you use it wisely, your game is won. This is often more enjoyable than simply sending hordes of lesser warriors into enemy territory. It takes some time to master these details, but the game's AI choices are varied and quite well-balanced, so you won't be crushed time and again as a beginner, nor wind up trouncing the hardest settings easily.

Graphics are quite stunning, as well. The game camera changes elevation based on terrain, and very realistic atmosphere responds to this. Flora is beautifully detailed, and some of the more exotic maps especially are incrediblly well rendered. Those with a computer powerful enough for maximum settings are in for a real treat. I mostly make do with medium-low settings on my laptop, which is in need of RAM. While the minimum requirements list 256MB, my 384MB doesn't cut it; this game needs about 1GB to really do it justice. Also, a 256MB video card is required for a couple of the highest-end effects. Fortunately and finally, each graphics setting provides detailed information as to what part of your system it will affect, making fine-tuning astronomically easier.

Rise of Legends will probably never be as popular as, say, Company of Heroes, for the sometimes strange fantasy world will not appeal to all. As well, the campaign leaves much to be desired. But if you, like me, buy an RTS much more for the skirmishes than the campaign, you'd have to try hard not to like it. Quick, intense games, good strategic combat, and probably the prettiest RTS world to date, combined with all the originality this title commands, it's well worth trying. You might well be inspired, yourself.

great game, can get a little challenging

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: January 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I extremely enjoyed this game and I think anyone reading this will too. the graphics are incredible, you can see every detail. i am a great lover of fantasy games and have every game from starcraft to star wars. When this came out I needed to see what it was like and now I can't stop playing it. The chalenges on campaign mode are tough even on easy, but they are fun. I love the creatures in the game and how they look on the computer. I enjoy playing this game and using all of the 3 civilizations. I definatly reccomend this game!

Fun campaign battles and gameplay

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: December 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Legends is an 'A' title game, of very high quality. The design of the game from the outstanding interface, to the AI, to the diverse maps, is very well done.

The battles in Legends are very engaging with the cool units, territory bountries and hero abilities. This game has the best battles that i have played since 'total annihilation'. That was several years ago.

The single player game has 48 missions (16 missions per race). The first time you invade a territory you play a scripted mission. After winning the mission you should then defend the territory using reinforcements from the strategic map, or later on the computer might recapture the territory.

If you lose the territory and need to invade it a second time, the mission becomes a skirmish mode type battle. all the skirmish battles use the same lame cutscene, which is why people are trashing the cutscenes.

if you dont want to play the skirmish battle, enter the command (/cheat victory) and you can then play the next scripted mission.

The 3 race design in a 'single time-period' is quite similar to starcraft. But I like Legends more than starcraft, (never finished starcraft, probably due to my 'total annihilation' fascination at the time).

I'm surprised so many people compare this game to 'age of empires' or 'rise of nations', because legends is not an 'advance through history' style game.

I have played Command & Conquer, Dawn of war, Warlords battlecry, Warcraft 3, codename panzers and other rts games. Legends is as good as the best of them.

Pros:
Pause and still give orders
No builder type units needed, yeah!
Change unit build queues --without-- having to click on the factory!!

Neutral buildings to capture for bonus
Territory boundries affect gameplay
Very Cool units.

Excellent interface.
Very Good AI
Board game style strategic map.
2 resources (i don't like more than 2, ideally just 1)

Cons:

Need an above average computer to play. (however you can selectively disable the games extensive animations (units buildings etc) to lower system requirements. there are Lots of performance settings)

Weapon sounds could be louder
Online multiplayer is sparse.

Rise Of Legends

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 15
Date: May 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Rise Of Nations: Rise Of Legend is a multiplayer strategy war game for the PC. While I wouldn't rate it as highly as War Craft or other great games, it has fairly extensive campaigns and an interesting approach in the clash of magic and technology.

Each of the many units and the three playable races requires a slightly different strategy to play and win. The scenes range from cities to deserts to frozen wastes and you battle machines as well as creatures. There's also bonus content online.

shallow and repetitive, but not terrible

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 15
Date: May 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have played many RTS games and compared to Rise of Nations, the best ever, Rise of Legends is shallow and repetitive. I have to disagree with the other reviewers about the interface - I found it intuitive enough, and did not have to read the manual. I also did not have any problem with the frame rate. The problem with the game is that there is just not much to it. You have three races you can play, but except for different looking buildings and people/creatures you essentially play them the same. There are many different maps, but for some reason the different maps do not effect your strategy very much. The city building, tech tree, strategy, and tactics are standard for RTSs but are quite simplified compared to RON, which is not better. The games within the three campaigns are extremely (repeat - extremely) repetitive, as are the single player skirmishes. The AI is really stupid at any level, so beating it does not require any creativity or skill. On the plus side the graphics are good (these days that is expected), the different fantasy elements are cool, and there is not anything actually wrong with the game except the above. If you are new at RTSs this will probably be fun for awhile. If you are an experienced RTS player, skip it unless you are seriously bored.
There are a lot of serious bugs. The one I ran into was that a scenerio wouldn't end even though I had completed all the objectives. I called Microsoft and they downloaded a patch which worked. The patch (or patches) have not been released as of this review, so if anything goes wrong, do call them. I don't think their web site is helpful.
By the way, if you haven't played Rise of Nations, get it. I've played it probably a couple of hundred times and it is not boring yet.

Solid RTS with depth

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: July 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

A very polished game with high production values, Rise of Legends joins Warcraft III, Age of Empires and Dawn of War as a bread and butter multiplayer RTS with staying power.

Gone are the cloned races with a few unique units to differentiate them, as in Age of Empires or Rise of Nations. Instead Rise of Legends features three radically different playable races with totally unique artwork, units, building and strategies. Closer in spirit to Starcraft and decidely not a sequel to Rise of Nations, although it retains most all of Big Huge Game's RTS innovations established by its predecessor. Expect a sequel and you will be disappointed and probably angry. Only Dawn of War and Starcraft approach this same degree of racial diversity. Out of the box, Rise of Legends is a remarkably impressive achievement in game balance. There are no glaring exploits to be found.

Arguably Rise of Legends has much more strategic depth while keeping most of the micromanagement tactical challenge that other RTS games feature. In that respect it offers strong appeal in long term playability to veteran RTS multiplayer gamers. Many new players complain of slow pacing but with experience you'll use just as many actions per minute as with Warcraft III. Most online games average 15 to 25 minutes and much of the game design is focused towards keeping games to this length. So the pacing is virtually identical to Warcraft III.

Online population remains low but the announcement of the $100,000 Rise of Legends tournament will swell numbers drastically.

Single player campaign is disappointingly lacking in replayability. Real time graphics rendered to video for the campaign cutscenes just doesn't approach the amazing quality of the opening CG video done by Academy Award nominated Blur Studio. Further the campaign scripting is repetitive in places and the voice acting can be jarring at times. Overall the campaign seems rushed not only in execution but even in story and plot. Expect to be scratching your head at campaign's end.

Worst of all, not including a free form conquer the world game type was an unfortunate mistake. Hopefully this will be remedied in an expansion pack, it is sorely needed for those preferring single player. Because of this, I can't really recommend the game (at full retail price) in its current form to those with little interest in multiplayer.

The decision to go with the fantasy genre allows for the most elaborate, extravagant cutting edge graphics to date from any RTS but maximum detail performance can be punishing on any hardware. This, and not Age of Empires III, is the showpiece RTS solely in terms of spectacular eye candy.

Sound effects and music are first rate but poorly mixed by the audio engine.

Overall a must have game for real time strategy gamers who value multiplayer or simply fabulous graphics. There are no other recent alternatives with as much professional polish, balance and depth... until the arrival of Supreme Commander anyway.

Minimum system requirements in order of importance. Heed these well:

1GB system RAM. Swap file usage causes some stuttering during heavy game play with anything less.

Fast 256MB graphics card. Although the graphics engine scales very well, some features and effects are disabled with anything less. Full visuals require PS 3.0 based card.

2.0Ghz CPU. Required for physics based effects. Sluggish game play with more than two players (CPU or human) otherwise.

Probably won't shine in performance for most gamers until played on next year's hardware.

Pales in comparison to RON

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 15
Date: July 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Gone are the nations from RON and the VAST number of different nationalities, each with different specializations. Gone is the CTW play that pits not only brute strength but also wits against the AI.

ROL starts off on the right foot, with impressive graphics, and new races to discover. However, there are only 3 main races and gone are the individualised races (like the Brits, or Americans in RON)... and this seriously damages the replayability factor for the single player campaign.

The single player campaign lacks in depth and is fairly shallow, with the plot as thin as a 20GSM piece of paper and is fairly linear as compared to RON in which you could choose which country to battle against and plot to over throw others. The in-game cutscenes come in at the wrong time and are fairly silly, with cheesy lines. The animation during the cut-scenes also disappoint.

This game also lacks the depth of RON, which has many different game types, such as sieges or raids etc...

It's simply too bad that this game is compared against its predecessor, but sadly it lacks in a lot of aspects compared to RON and it's expansion. Sadly, it's not worth the hype and disappoints... 2 Stars from me.

A truly unique and imaginative masterpiece

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: August 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Rise of Legends may very well be one of the most artistic, original, fun, and best looking real-time strategy game that I have ever played. I am an rts veteran, and have tried many different types of rts' for the computer, yet, I am compelled to say this one is definitely the most imaginative so far. The 3 races, while seemingly not a huge selection, are totally unique and seperate from each other, and I mean drastically different. Even with this difference, I still haven't been able to determine which race is my favorite to use, and I play all of them in balance. The gameplay is simple enough for begginers, and familiar to anyone who has played a rts in the last decade. The gameplay mechanics are implemented perfeclty into the experience, and the battle scenes truly capture your attention. No game has ever displayed this many individual units on the screen at once, battling in what I can say to be the first game to actually display battles that can be called epic.

Besides the graphical power this game displays, which is incredibly overwhelming, the musical score is great, the units are very well balanced, and there are many different types of strategies to be found and executed throughout all the campaigns, skirmishes, and online matches that are to be played. Also, this game is available to a wide selection of pc owners, since this game can run on below-standard pcs.

Overall, this game truly excels in the rts genre, which is crowded with mediocre and generic titles. I am glad to say Rise of Legends is far above the standard.

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