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Rise of Nations, developed by Big Huge Games and published by Microsoft, is in many ways a synthesis of the top level strategy found in games like Civilization and real-time strategy titles on a more tactical level; Warcraft, Command and Conquer, Empire Earth, so on and so forth. With its emphasis on historical nations, however, and the growth of nations from antiquity to modern times, it will most favorably be compared with Empire Earth and its cousin, Age of Empires.
  
What distinguishes Rise of Nations is its approach to real-time strategy. Instead of having you fight a linear set of maps set in different times, Rise of Nations gives you the key to do this yourself. The main campaign here will place you in the shoes of one nation, whether it is the Romans, British, Chinese, Mongols, so on and so forth. Each nation comes with its own set of unique units, as well as bonuses, art and architecture unique to their society. The single player campaign is more make your own missions. There's a turn-driven world map where you scheme and plot to take over your other neighbors. A territory with a supply center, for example, will grant you an extra army unit and it's from here you can establish alliances, declare war or improve your territories' infrastructure. This part of the map works more like Medieval: Total War or Westwood's Emperor: Battle for Dune. Adjacent friendly territories (allies or yours) will, for example, send reinforcements to help you in your battle. Your nation runs on tribute generated by your territories. This acts a currency, especially in diplomacy where you can bribe attackers to go away.
  
Not every battle involves annihilating the other player on the map either. If you march into a barbarian held territory, sometimes the game will generate a defend mission where you have to hold on for fifteen minutes. Other times, barbarians will yield if you're able to sack a single town. Or in the case of taking a nation's capital, all the other forces on the map and its territories on the world map will yield after the capital falls. While the world map aspect is not as deep as say Europa Universalis (or Hearts of Iron), you do get the option of bonus cards you can apply during battles. Each nation starts off with a unique card and you can purchase or acquire these as you play the game. A bonus card, for example, increases food production for the duration of one mission. Naval units may be cheaper for the duration of another.
 
This all but represents a microcosm of the entire Rise of Nations game. Everything in this game is influenced by tiny modifiers that are delicately checked and balanced. No nation, for example, is supremely more powerful than another. No unit or method of attack is either. Building a wonder, like in Age of Empires, will grant certain bonuses but unlike the bonuses we find in other games, some of the bonuses in Rise of Nations sound extreme, often granting free units and resources on a regular basis. But how does Big Huge Games balance this? They create something entirely opposite of this bonus to counter the effect. In one game, I had access to an arsenal of nuclear warheads which I launched with impunity on my unlucky foe, but I didn't realize they could develop a missile shield, which rendered all my missile silos completely useless afterwards. Similar design decisions were made to prevent premature "rushing" tactics. In the aforementioned scenario, as powerful as the nuclear option was, there were a finite number of times you could use it before the "armageddon" end game scenario happened, effectively slapping your hand if you become too reliant on one tactic. Rise of Nations is flexible enough to cater to other forms of victory as well. The countries controlled by artificial intelligence in this game will actually make peace with you when they sense you can over power them or when they're involved in a costly war of attrition. There are, moreover, other forms of victory. Researching everything into the Information Age and achieving World Government, for example, ends all conflict right then and there. But you have to consciously choose that, since World Government is but one of many epitomes of research you can attain.
 
It also follows that with so much attention to its design, Rise of Nations is also one of the few titles in recent memory where the tribesmen and tanks actually look and feel natural in the same environment. If you've seen Star Wars in the Age of Empires engine, you'll know what I mean. Something doesn't look entirely natural when you put the two together (although, there's no discounting it's not fun). The 3D animations used to simulate everything from tanks to rock slinger here is extremely fluid. The turrets on the tanks will move and for the first time, the infantry units will actually run to keep up in formation. Machine gun units, for example, will spend the time to sit down and setup their machine gun before mowing people down. Airplanes actually grow and shrink in size depending on their altitude. Rise of Nations is no slouch when it comes to graphics. Similarly, most developers tend to slack off when they get into the gunpowder age. I notice because dozens of sounds were recorded for swordfights but only one thud was recorded for the guns. In Rise of Nations, all time periods get equal treatment, making the game fun and involving from antiquity to the 19th century.
  
There's still work to be done with Rise of Nations though. Some more sounds need to be recorded. Some more play testing will undoubtedly be done. But with the single player campaign in place, a fully narrated tutorial and over a dozen multiplayer game modes, including one where a computer co-operates with you on the same nation, Big Huge Games proves they have some big huge ideas when it comes to strategy games; real-time and turn-based. Every bit of the real-time strategy game in Rise of Nations is matched with the careful balance and refinement of games like Civilization II and Alpha Centauri - games that Brian Reynolds had a hand in as well. While we all wait for Rise of Nations to be completed, I know one thing for a fact after playing our preview copy: Microsoft is incubating the rise of another strategy gaming franchise.
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