Chronicle of Games

Rise of Nations is a real time strategy game published by Microsoft. It can be considered as a mixture of Age of Empires and Civilization 2. The game is all about managing your cities, constructing various buildings and improving the infrastructure of the cities, researching technologies and expanding your territory by any means.

The key to gameplay is city placement and maintenance. Constructing cities is the easiest way to expand the territory thought there is a limit on the maximum number of cities that can be built. Once a city is captured by an enemy it is not destroyed like other games of age of empires. Instead the entire city comes under the enemy’s control. So it is better to follow scorched-earth policy and destroy your city buildings at times when you are on the losing side.

Another notable innovation is the management of citizens. The citizens normally remain idle after completing a job in other strategic games but in Rise of Nations the citizens are very efficient and look for additional jobs nearby such as construction in a nearby site and so on. However this option can be disabled if needed from the game menu.

The resources in Rise of Nations are food, metal, wood (timber), oil and wealth. An additional resource called Knowledge is employed to research technologies and outsmart your opponents. It is good to see resources like Oil can be harvested only after reaching the Industrial age. This adds a realistic touch to the game.

There are totally 18 civilizations each of which possessing about 3 to 9 unique units. Also the graphics and textures vary as per the civilization (once again some effort to add some realistic feeling). The game is a treat for not only the series lovers but also for any PC gamer. The game is so creatively designed that it captures your concentration for hours. No wonder Gamespot rated Rise of Nations as the best game of the year 2003.