Written by Jeff Buckland, 7/29/2004
Played on:
Windows
Many strategy game buffs consider last year's Rise of Nations to be the best RTS title seen in years. It deftly combines age-spanning gameplay along with elements of Civilization (and even a bit of the classic board game Risk) together, and then tops it off with a ton of options and excellent graphics. It came out of nowhere by rookie developer Big Huge Games - who, admittedly, have been making great RTS games for years at other companies - and now the obligatory expansion pack for their hit game is in our hands.
Like many RTS expansion packs, Thrones and Patriots offers new buildings, units, campaigns, and "races" to play as. But unlike other games, this one integrates almost seamlessly into the original, making the player wonder just why this stuff wasn't in the game the first time around.
The Rise of Nations game engine is back again with basically zero changes, but that's fine when it's one of the best looking strategy games ever made. The frame rates are still great and the visuals are top-notch. The game is played from a decidedly 2D perspective, but the animations of the characters look much more like they were done with some 3D acceleration.
The online component works just as well as ever, with only minimal lag and excellent stability for multiplayer games. You can mix in computer opponents in a bunch of ways, and it all adds up for an extremely solid experience. It's when you forget about the technology altogether that you know it's working best, and Rise of Nations and its expansion pack are a perfect example.
Rise of Nations is a complex game, even in the RTS genre, and players would simply be lost if the game's help and tooltip system was incompetent. Luckily for us, Big Huge Games made sure that every unit, building, and game event is well-documented right in the game. This continues with the expansion pack, as all of the new nations, units, and other tidbits include complete briefings on how they work.
The 2D-styled world interface has gotten a kick in the pants for this expansion, as the game includes four new campaigns that have you doing more than the repetitive RTS pieces we saw in the original game's Conquer the World mode. None of it is really revolutionary or jaw-dropping, but it's easy enough to figure out and get going with.
Rise of Nations sports some of the best visuals in the strategy genre, and the new graphics added with Thrones and Patriots fit right in. The new generals, elephant units, Native American designs, and seasonal settings all look clean and are animated with the same style as the original game. It's slipped in so perfectly that you might even mistake new content for old, or old for new.
The board-game-like 2D interface seen in the Conquer the World campaigns is a bit ugly, but it does get the job done. I'd have liked to see a bit more detail here, but I feel like I'm grasping at straws in looking for things not to like about this expansion pack.
The new content that Big Huge Games has added in this expansion pack subtly adjusts how the game is played, and it works very well. Even in multiplayer games, players who take full advantage of the government system and new generals can win where they otherwise might have lost. At the same time, the new elements aren't overpowering or frustrating to deal with from the other side.
