Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends

Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends
Developer(s)	Big Huge Games
Publisher(s)	Microsoft Game Studios
Designer(s)	Brian Reynolds
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release	May 9, 2006 Template:Country data World May 26, 2006
Genre(s)	Real-time strategy
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer

Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends is a real-time strategy game for the PC made by Big Huge Games, and published by Microsoft. It is the spiritual successor to the popular game, Rise of Nations released on May 2003. However, rather than being a historical game, it is based in a fantasy world, where technology and magic coexist (reminiscent of the Age of Mythology games). It was released on May 9, 2006 in North America and on various dates around May 26, 2006 in the rest of the world.

Overview

Rise of Legends retains most of the innovative features from Rise of Nations, like city building, borders, attrition, assimilations, non-depletable resources and the CTW (Conquer The World) Campaigns. However, Rise of Legends also introduces new features of its own, such as city districts, heroes, dominances, a more simplified economy (with only two resources) and neutral, capturable units and buildings. The reality-based resources such as gold and wood have been replaced by Timonium and Wealth. Unlike its predecessor, which offered the player 18 civilizations to choose from, Rise of Legends has only three races. These are the technological Vinci, the magical Alin, and the demigod-like Cuotl (who replace the Wealth resource with Energy, offering a new gather strategy). Each race is completely distinct from the others (reminiscent of Blizzard Entertainment's StarCraft), allowing for different gameplay depending on the player's choice. The game has better graphics than its predecessor, resulting in a much more realistic gameplay experience. It also makes use of the AGEIA PhysX physics engine.

Gameplay Features

Rise of Legends has a number of unique features that set it apart from its predecessor.

City Districts and Buildings

Unlike most RTS-type games, in which a player starts with a city center and expands from there, Rise of Legends gives the player a city center, but adds a second, distinct building class: Districts. There are three districts in the game; they vary between the three races, but mostly serve the same purpose of increasing the size of the city, as well as offering benefits that will be elaborated upon later. The other buildings include the standard unit factories and defensive structures, as well as unique buildings for each race. RoL is one of the few games in its genre that does not allow the player to construct walls; houses have been similarly abolished. The following is a list of the three districts inclusive to all of the races:

Military:	Increases the population capacity of the player, as well as adding to the defensive force of the host city. Each Military District also gives the player free Infantry units, as well as one retroactively given per Palace upgrade.	File:Military District.jpg
Merchant:	Used to increase the player's caravan limit, the player's resource collection capacity and trade income capacity for the city. It is only available to the Alin and Vinci. The Cuotl utilize a Reactor district to gather their Energy resource, which negates the need for a caravan unit by directly adding to the player's coffer, according to the total number of reactor districts and the number of neutral sites owned.	File:Merchant District.jpg
Palace:	Used to expand the city in size, which affects the overall effectiveness of all the other city districts. It is also the most expensive of the four districts, with a base price of 250 Timonium (or 150 of each, energy and Timonium, for the Cuotl) as opposed to the previous district costing 75. A Palace District can only be built if at least three non-Palace districts per Palace upgrade level exist for that city. A Palace District turns a City with at least three districts into a Large City (the first of which is designated as the player's Capital city, or home city), and a Large City with at least six districts (plus the Palace District necessary for the earlier upgrade) into a Great City. As well as increasing the aforementioned effectiveness, upgrading to a large or great city unlocks more powerful unit types and research abilities.The first palace district to be built is different from the other palace districts built subsequently in order to differentiate other cities with the capital and it known as the capital district although it is still referred as the capital district.	File:Palace District.jpg

Master Units

A new gameplay concept to Rise of Legends is the introduction of master units; these are enormous compared to standard units, and are extremely powerful. A player may only have one Master Unit at a time. Each unit has its own set of powerful abilities, and is equally effective against infantry, large units, or buildings. Master units can only be accessed after creating a Great City; they also require huge amounts of resources.

The Vinci control the Land Leviathan, also upgradeable to King Land Leviathan. The Alin have the Glass Dragon, also upgradeable to Elder Glass Dragon. The Cuotl hold the City of Vengeance, upgradeable to Great City Of Vengeance. Three other master units, the Elder Glass Golem, the Moon Gorilla,and the scavenger boss can be created by the neutral sites The Glass Lair, the Moon Core, and the Scrapyard respectively. The Elder Glass Golem is a massive beast resembles the Alin's Glass Golem but is much larger, has no ranged attack, and has a mana counter just like an Alin hero's. The Moon Gorilla is a giant relative of the Cuotl Sun Idol with a powerful attack and siege attack ability, supplemented with a strong air attack and devastating trample. The Scavenger Boss acts like a Land Leviathan.

Hero Units

Each race has its own set of Hero Units. Hero units are generally stronger, faster and more powerful than normal units, as well as having their own unique skill tree, which gives the hero powers, or upgrades existing powers. For the most part, powers act like spells, and are cast during the game, though there are some passive powers too. Heroes also level up (the conditions for levelling up varies), with each level increasing their stats. Heroes have to be summoned into the game, which costs a certain number of resources (different per hero), and multiple heroes can be summoned at the same time. As well, if a hero dies, he can be resummoned.

Vinci Heroes
Giacamo inventor of Miana
General Carlini
Lenora
Distruzio
General Battaglion
Pulitoire
The Doge of Venucci (Multiplayer only)

Alin Heroes
Arri
Androlomek
Dakhla the Sand Warden
Damanhur, the Desert Flame
Sawu

Cuotl Heroes
Yontash
Kalkahoola
Czin the death God (Multiplayer only)
Shok the storm Godess(Multiplayer only)
Xil the sun God(Multiplayer only)

Multiplayer Heroes

In multiplayer matches, or quick games, each race has acess to only three heroes. Some of these heroes, such as the Doge of Venucci or the false Gods of the cuotl, are not playable in the single player game, and Ix the moon God is not playable in the game at all.

Single Player Gameplay

File:ScreenShot 2006.10.26 14'46'27.JPG

In-game screenshot.

The single player game is divided into three campaigns, one for each race in the game (although the "player character" throughout all three campaigns is Giacomo, the original Vinci hero, whose appearance and army changes depending on which campaign is being played). Each campaign presents the player with a large map of a region of Aio, divided into multiple city sections (similar to the board game Risk). The campaigns are divided into two segments: managing the Strategic Map and playing individual scenarios.

Strategic Map

The strategic map is an overview of the current region that the campaign being played covers. It is divided into a number of smaller sections, each of which representing a scenario to be played. Each of these sections are colour-coded as well, representing which race (in the Alin campaign), or the army (in the Vinci and Cuotl campaigns) controls it. As well, the strategic map contains a representation of the player's army (represented by an avatar of Giacomo), as well as any enemy armies that are on the map, represented by an avatar of their main Hero unit.

Each section of the region contains a capital city. Similar to cities in scenarios, capital cities can be upgraded with four different districts (Military, Merchant/Reactor, Industrial/Magic, Palace). The capital cities allow for management of four critical resources – Research, Military, Wealth and Hero:

• Research points allow the player to upgrade their unit's abilities. A city will generate one research point the turn after adding a research/magic district. The Vinci use research points to upgrade units to more powerful versions; the Alin use research points to upgrade various statistics across their army or across a unit type.
• Military points are used to expand the army that is provided at the start of a level. Military districts generate one military point per turn, starting the turn after being created, and provide defense from enemy armies. As well, cities with Military districts send free reinforcements when playing in an adjacent territory.
• Wealth points allow the player to add further districts to their cities on the strategic map. Each city upgrade costs progressively more wealth points. Merchant districts can be added to cities, and generate one wealth point per turn, starting the turn after being built. As well, cities with Merchant districts send free caravans to the player's city when playing an adjacent territory.
• Hero points allow the player to upgrade their heroes' powers and abilities. Hero points cannot be generated by cities, but instead are rewarded for completing levels.

Similarly to cities within a scenario, capital cities on the strategic map can be upgraded with Palace districts after three and six other districts have been added to the city. Palace districts supply one of each resource type (other than Hero) per turn.

The player is given access to the strategic map in between playing scenarios (each of which makes up a "turn"). After each turn, new resources are allotted (if applicable) and enemy armies may move or capture sections (including ones under the player's control). The player then can choose which section to move their army into next (thereby starting the associated scenario); often, there is more than one path that can be taken. The player may also move their army into an adjacent friendly territory before launching a scenario. However, if the player makes two moves without starting a scenario, enemy armies will all receive a turn, while the player's resources will not increase.

In order to defeat enemy armies, the player has to either conquer a territory the army is located within, or defeat the army's capital city territory (in this case, defeating the enemy army in a non-capital city territory will cause the army to retreat). In any case, entering a scenario in a territory occupied by an enemy army will cause that army (and its associated hero unit) to be present in the scenario. Enemy armies can also attack the player's territories. Each turn that an enemy army attacks a territory destroys one of its Military districts, if any exist. When no Military districts exist, the attacking enemy army takes control of the district.

To complete a campaign, all territories do not need to be under the player's control; rather, all territories marked as main quest goals (with an icon of a golden chalice) need to be completed.

Scenarios

The single player campaign is divided into a number of different scenarios, each of which being its own level, which are accessible by moving the player's army into a territory on the strategic map. The levels generally are of one of two types:

• Plot driving levels, which advance the plot by having a series of main goals to accomplish (such as capturing enemy resource production facilities, rescuing prisoners, or destroying enemy strongholds), as well as bonus quests which often provide the player with extra resources (often in the form of special buildings or units) to make use of. These levels often have more than one other faction present, either as allies or enemies. Additional hero units can also occasionally be acquired via these levels. The majority of the scenarios are of this type.
• Territory capture levels where the player is pitted against just one hostile faction. There is only one main quest in these levels: drive the enemy out of the territory by capturing all of their cities (capturing the enemy's capital city is an automatic win condition). There is generally just two or three maps per campaign for this kind of level, even though they take place in different territories on the strategic map. Recovering a captured territory on the strategic map whose scenario was already completed always spawns this type of level.

At the end of each level, the player is rewarded with a number of hero points in order to upgrade their Hero units. As well, each scenario is assigned a number of other upgrades on the strategic map, which are awarded upon victory; these include special powers which can be used in future scenarios (a unique set of eight such powers exists for each campaign), extra army units, or bonus Military/Research/Wealth points for use on the strategic map.

Story

Vinci Campaign

Three Mianan heroes – Petruzzo, Lord of Miana; Giacomo, his brother and Miana's most brilliant inventor; and Carlini, Miana's head general – accompany a group of soldiers sent to identify an object in a mine in Vernazza that is making the miners horribly sick. On their arrival they find the Doge of Venucci, a terrible leader with bloodthisty ideals, who has already recovered the object and attached it to his machine. Intent on 'testing' the device, the Doge fires a beam at a rock outcrop, causing a landslide which kills Petruzzo and several of Carlini's men. Giacomo swears vengeance on the Doge and sets out on a quest to kill him.

After discovering the Doge is using Pirata airships for his own gain, Giacomo sets his path towards Pirata. After fighting his way through the land of Padonia his party discovers that as soon as the Doge got what he wanted from Pirata, and has constructed a giant Sky Crusher, a massive anti-aircraft fortress, in order to keep the Pirata Aerodome under siege. Giacomo manages to destroy the Doge's machine and forms an alliance with the leader of Pirata, Lenora. They continue to march towards Venucci, destroying the armies of two of the Doge's powerful puppets, Rocco, the Lord of the Wasteland, and Sclario, Don of Feligno, and recovering the territories of the land for Miana along the way.

At Venucci, Giacomo confronts the Doge, and captures the city-levelling Doge Hammer from him, before turning it on Venucci itself. However, upon searching the city, it is soon discovered that the Doge has escaped, and that the Hammer at Venucci was just a decoy, with the real one already been moved eastward, towards Miana. Giacomo speeds back to the city, but finds it devastated, with no known survivors. Giacomo rallies his few remaining forces, and heads after the Doge into the Kalahese desert, towards Azar Harif.

Alin Campaign

Because of the hasty and unprepared voyage into the Alin desert, the sand wears down the men and breaks the Clockwork Men. Giacomo realizes that if they don't find shelter soon, they will all perish in the heat. But since his last trip to Azar Harif, the surroundings have changed and the unforgiving desert has guided him into the harshest sandstorm.

While seeking shelter, he and his men find Acerbus, a mystic which promises to guide them to the Alin city once they recover an artifact for him. After a brief struggle with Narr Saghir, the lord of Miana retrieve the device from the fallen soldiers. Then the mystic reveals himself to be Marwan the Dark Alin, the one who attacked Giacomo's Walker back in Padonia.

Giacomo's men, as tired and exhausted as they are, attack the genie and his forces. Giacomo's old friend, Arri, shows up and aids him in defeating the Dark Alin.

Arri escorts Giacomo to the king who declines to lend his troops to go and stop the Dark Alin, saying that the Doge has already agreed to do so, though Giacomo believes the Doge has his own reasons. He also promises not to let Arri leave with them. After leaving the city, Arri decided to side with her childhood friend, knowing that she will be exiled for disobeying the king. Lenora then leaves to head for Pirata and repair her flyer, or so she says, after noticing how close Arri and Giacomo are.

To stop the infection of Dark Glass across the desert, Giacomo finds the Two Keys to Mezekesh, the ancient city where the creator of Dark Glass, the genie Sawu, is imprisoned. The Keys are Dakhla the Sand Warden and Damanhur, the Desert Flame. After entering the city and reaching Sawu, Giacomo notices a strange object that is giving Sawu his power. Upon Sawu's defeat, the Doge arrives, apparently to take the object that was corrupting Sawu.

With the help of Lenora, who returns to help Giacomo, the Doge's Hammer is destroyed. In a cutscene, the Doge is killed and Petruzzo was avenged. Then, a strange alien (Cuotl) ship appears to take the object that was corrupting Sawu and the object on the Doge's walker.

Cuotl Campaign

With an alliance of Vinci and Alin troops, Giacomo seeks to unravel the secrets of the "aliens". Upon entering the Cuotl rainforest region, he encounters the forces of Ix, the moon god. In a cutscene, Giacomo get into a fight with Ix, blowing off his arm before being rammed and falling out if his walker. He runs to the device that the Cuotl are looking for to try to fire it but it malfunctions and blasts him instead. Carlini arrives on the scene and throws an artillery shell into the hole where Ix's arm once was, destroying him in an explosion. As he rushes over to help Giacomo, Czin, the death god, appears, seeking the device. Carlini takes out his sword and makes a courageous stand, saying that if Czin wants the device, he'll have to go through Carlini first. Czin, however, is much too powerful simply to be fought with a sword, as he shows by brutally killing Carlini.

A while after (seemingly in the next few weeks), Giacomo is shown in a power plant in the rainforest which he uses as his workshop. Lenora and Arri enter, beginning to describe Carlini's funeral service to Giacomo, who stands unresponsive at a crafting table with his back turned to them. They begin to encourage him to go after Czin instead of playing with his "toys" everyday. He turns around and surprises them, his face bearing cyan-coloured cuts, wearing a monocular. He says the explosion changed him and demonstrates by holding a metal screw in his fist, turning it into a piece of glass. He then reveals what he had been working on in the past days, pulling a lever which turns on his walker, reconstructed with parts from the moon god, Ix, and hybrid Vinci/Cuotl technology.

Due to the plague which the Cuotl are using to halt the alliance's advance, Giacomo must choose between his Vinci and Alin allies. In a way, he would also have to decide which lady was more important to him: Lenora, or Arri. After making his choice, he then sets forth to destroy the three Cuotl gods, one after the other.

Soon, he meets the rightful king of the Cuotl, Kakoolha, who leads a rebellious group called The Fallen. With their help, he defeats Xil, the sun god, Shok, the storm goddess, and reaches Czin, the death god, who was busy with constructing what was described as "a mouth that can speak to the stars" built on a large dish. The two struggle at it's centre, and Czin is killed by being pushed into a chasm but he dragged down Giacomo's walker with him. Giacomo escapes from it in time, and stands marveled at the alien devices surrounding him. At that point, a hologramic image of an alien's head looks as Giacomo, with curious suspicion. At the very centre, there is a rotating mechanism, with energy channeling through a liquid in it. He punches his hand into the device to stop it. There is an explosion, almost the size of the dish itself, and, presumably, Giacomo is killed.

Statues commemorating his sacrifice are built all around Aio. The Alin Kingdom is left restored, while the rest of Aio is disorganized and weakened by the war. Additionally, with the death of Giacomo, Miana is officially gone, as most of the people were killed by the Doge's Hammer, and the rest, save for Giacomo and Carlini, die in the Dark Alin assault on Azar Harif. In the end, Lenora takes control of the Vinci people and aims to rebuild the city and the nation under the flag of New Miana. Template:Endspoilers

Civilizations

There are three unique races in Rise of Legends - the technological Vinci, the magical Alin and the mysterious Cuotl, whose technology is so advanced it seems like magic.

Vinci

Main article: Vinci (Rise of Legends)

The Vinci are a highly technological, steampunk civilization, whose army units and buildings rely heavily on the advent of clockwork and gunpowder. Its designs are highly influenced by the 16th century Italian Renaissance inventor and artist, Leonardo Da Vinci. They are lead by Giacomo, the Inventor of Miana, who provides the Vinci with a wide variety of creations to use on the battlefield. The main Vinci adversary is the Doge of Venucci, who has created a giant city-leveling machine, the Doge Hammer, and was responsible for the death of Giacomo's brother, Petruzzo, Lord of Miana.

The Vinci national power is Industrial Devastation, which causes giant bores and drills to rise from beneath the surface of the earth, displacing anything in their way. Buildings and units caught in the powerful attack take heavy damage, and smaller units are thrown to the ground and stunned. Further research into the Mining research track increases the power and radius of the attack. Also, structures cannot be built on the affected land for some time.

Alin

Main article: Alin

The Alin are a magical civilization, relying on Sand, Fire and Glass to create their infrastructure and army. The civilization is based on Arabian and Middle Eastern mythologies, such as 1001 Arabian Nights, and contains units such as Giant Scorpions, Salamanders and Dragons. They live in the Kalahese desert, mainly in the capital city of Azar Harif, and are led by the King and Arri, the Desert Mystic.

A large portion of the Alin territories have become "infected" with Dark Glass, a powerful magical element, created by the Genie Sawu, that drove him to madness. In order to attempt to contain the infection, Sawu was imprisoned inside the city of Mezekesh, which was subsequently buried within the sands of the desert. However, the infection still spread, causing intermittent periods of Dark Terror, in which hostile Dark Glass creatures became berserk and attacked the Alin without mercy.

The Alin national power is Summon Army, which immediately summons a temporary army to fight for the Alin. The power and size of the army increases with further research along the Evocation track.

Cuotl

Main article: Cuotl

The Cuotl are an alien civilization, inspired by the ancient Mayan civilization and the ancient astronaut theory from Chariots of the Gods? Unsolved Mysteries of the Past. Possessing highly technological devices, indistinguishable from magic, four Cuotl beings installed themselves as gods over the indigenous tribes of the Aio rainforest: Ix, the Moon God, Xil, the Sun God, Shok, Goddess of Storms, and Czin, God of Death. The units of the Cuotl army have both Mesoamerican and alien influences to their design.

The Cuotl are very varied from the other two civilizations in the game. Instead of collecting Wealth via caravans, the Cuotl harvest Energy, which is used to create buildings and use heroes' powers. Similarly, rather than purchasing neutral sites with Wealth as the other two civilizations do, the Cuotl take them over by forceful subjugation, which costs Timonium.

The Cuotl national power, Star Bolt, summons a giant, controllable disk of intense light, which reveals enemy territory and damages any visible units in the process. By researching the Divine Power research track, the size, power and duration of the Star Bolt increases.

Neutral factions

Main article: Rise of Legends neutral factions

Each area of Aio (occupied by the Vinci, Alin and Cuotl) also contain a number of neutral factions, which often have their own unique army units, and can be captured, purchased or subjugated in order to join the player's army. Each neutral faction is only available in one of the three civilizations' territories, and each civilization can obtain the power to create camps belonging to one of their neutral factions.

Trivia

• Timonium is actually the name of the town in Maryland where Big Huge is located.

Awards & Commendations

• Game Informer: PC Game of the Month(Issue #159)
• Voodoo Extreme: Best Game No One Else Like
• Gamespy: Special Achievement in Art Direction

External links

• Official Rise of Legends Website
• Screenshots Gallery of Rise of Legends
• Gamespot Article
• IGN Profile
• HeavenGames Page
• GameReplays.org Portal
• Tales of Legend - RoL Podcast
• About Rise of Legends
• Get into the Game interview
• Official Encyclopedia of Aio
• RoL Unit/Hero Guide

References

Reviews

• Starky, Daniel. "Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends (79/100)". Total Gamer Zone.