Rise of Legends™ Observations

Rohag, 7 August 2006

This is not a review of Rise of Legends. Really. Professional critics have already authored plenty, and no need moves me to add to their number. Besides, I'm a Rise of Nations fanboy who expected another great game from Big Huge Games. They delivered. End of story.

OK, there's more to it than that, and I guess this essay-with-an-agenda could be read as a review. If it convinces someone who doesn't already have Rise of Legends to either purchase or pass, great. I've been playing and replaying BHG's latest game with other questions in mind:

Can I get into RoL's fantasy setting?
Did BHG improve on RoN's gameplay?
Does RoL lay solid groundwork for a RoN II or facsimile thereof?

In short, BHG brought something more to the game's strategic overlay, streamlined the tactics and tactical economy, kept the brilliant UI, and made a brave if not 100% successful attempt to impart a role-playing character to the franchise.

I Tasted, I Ate, I Gorged

Hi, I'm Rohag and I'm a casual gamer. Hi, Rohag. I'm micro-challenged and have a distinct preference for historically-themed games. Personally, I have nothing against mages, orcs, and ogres. Why, some of my best friends are of the fantastic - and anime - persuasion, but they all inhabit media other than electronic games.

When BHG first announced the development of Rise of Legends as the sequel to Rise of Nations, a shiver of disappointment dimmed the news for me. RoN and Thrones & Patriots were such delights with borders, multiple technology tracks, governments and all; they made me feel as if I were crafting something more than just a one-dimensional military machine. I feared Rise of Legends' odd fantastic melange and hints of "streamlining" would confuse me and diminish the franchise's content.

My fears proved almost entirely unfounded.

Among the complaints most often leveled against Rise of Nations was Conquer the World's lack of personality. CtW provided the game with a strong strategic, contextualizing layer - a Risk/Diplomacy-type overgame as a setting for tactical RTS scenarios. Many, however, felt CtW lacked a personal touch. Rise of Legends addresses this perceived fault with an intricate role-playing mythology built around the game's three factions: the steam/clockpunk Vinci (including the highly fractious, mercenary Condottieri), the magical Arabian-Nights Alin (both Light and Dark), and the faux-Mayan alien-dominated Cuotl (and Fallen Cuotl). This mythology serves as RoL's role-playing centerpiece and the unifying thread of its single-player CtW campaign.

This modified form of RoN's CtW held my interest to the end, where it fell to its knees and begged, "Expansion!"

Rise of Legend's Conquer the World campaign introduces something new in the form of upgradeable provinces. In RoN's CtW, everything was nearly given on the strategic map. Some provinces granted you extra armies à la Diplomacy and others special resources that activated once you reached a certain Civics level in the tactical scenarios, and others gave you Wonders or cards granting special bonuses for you to use entering those scenarios.

Rise of Legend's Conquer the World retains much of that formula yet goes beyond it by making most provinces upgradeable macro-cities in themselves. Holding or gaining certain provinces grants different types of developmental points you can use to build on the strategic map the same types of districts available for cities in the tactical scenarios, or points for upgrading the armies initially appearing in scenarios, or upgrading units, or upgrading heroes. Provinces may also grant you access to special "dominances" to activate in tactical scenarios. This new CtW creates the in-game possibility of shaping the strategic map itself.

On the other hand, BHG now limits you to only a single mobile "army" (Giacomo). Giacomo's initial provincial position governs the first move or two of each stage of the tri-fold campaign, but then your options widen, to again narrow at the conclusions. I have to suppose that limiting the player to a single maneuver element (hero) on the strategic map caters to the design decision to impart to RoL a robust RPG character.

This new Conquer the World presented me with what may have been the first example of adaptive difficulty I've encountered in a PC game. I played through the whole campaign on the "moderate" setting, but the ultimate scenario of the Alin sub-campaign and the next-to-last scenario of the Cuotl proved exceptionally challenging. I threw myself against the target provinces repeatedly, and eventually I noticed the scenario confirmation screen had bumped down the difficulty to "easy." I changed it back to "moderate." Perhaps the program senses how many times a certain strategic situation is retried without success by the single-player and, after several tries, reduces the difficulty level automatically. I guess they didn't want to frustrate me or others into abandoning the game. (Anyone else encounter this?)

Unfortunately, the RPG campaign is the only way you can play Rise of Legend's Conquer the World. Sure, after completing the three parts of the campaign one could try it over and over again by taking different intermediate approaches, upgrading different heroes, and developing controlled provinces variously. Those added options and possibilities were very welcome, but the Giacomo limitation and knowing the story greatly diminished my motivation to seek a rematch.

Having used the campaign as an extended tutorial, I tried out several of the skirmish ("Quick Battle" in BHG's lingo) maps. These happily transported me back to my Total Annihilation days. Most enjoyable!

I like to choose the "diplomacy" option to see how the AIs relate to me. I was happy to find a five-minute "timed peace" added to the traditional mix of war, peace, and alliance offers. Occasionally an AI faction will capitulate rather than continue fighting at impossible odds. No vassal status appears yet, and such remains on my want list for the franchise. But they did cross out another of my want-list items by adding an intriguing assortment of "neutral sites," which can be acquired by trade, purchase, or conquest.

The skirmish maps are assorted but fixed, randomizing algorithms apparently employed only for shuffling around the various neutral sites. Disappointing? Yes and no. I find RoL's lack of a naval dimension much more disappointing. To say, however, that the lack of random maps is disappointing begs several questions, including, "Just how random are RTS game random maps in general (continent, archipelago, etc.)?" On the plus side, both BHG and community modders are at work on new maps for free download.

A Fantasy Game?

Having bitten the genre bullet and played this thematically curious RTS, I admit I thoroughly enjoyed it. I played it, though, with the experience of RoN and T&P behind me and hopeful expectations of some sort of RoN II to come. That certainly could have influenced my enjoyment. Nevertheless, attempting to peek beneath the fantasy veneer of RoL, I ask just how "fantastic" it really is? Unwrap the story-packaging of the Vinci, Alin, and Cuotl and you can easily see them as different cultures with varying approaches to development, expansion, and combat. Whatever their names and graphics, each possesses heroes with a wide array of selectable powers (some damage enemy units en masse, some direct damaging power against individual units or cities/buildings, some convert units to your side, some freeze or diminish the offensive or defensive capacity of enemy units for a time, etc.), close-combat units, ranged-combat units, those that fly and others that march, the faster and the slower, and those intended for sieges. Each economy revolves around two resources. The unique border mechanic remains from RoN and reflects the non-military aspects of national strength.

Consequently, my initial fears of confusion vanished. In time it became clear that just about every non-hero unit in the game mirrors the functions of some military unit or formation rooted in real-world history. For example: the Vinci Clockwork Spider is comparable to a light/medium tank formation with intrinsic anti-air assets; the Alin Glass Golem is easy to re-imagine as a heavy tank formation with intrinsic heavy artillery assets, etc. Even better, some units can behave in exceptionally historical ways: fully-upgraded Vinci Imperial Musketeers may assume Skirmish, Volley, and Assault stances, each with its own advantages and disadvantages (somebody at BHG must be into miniature wargames!).

It would not break the game to stretch a more earthy, historical skin across RoL's fantasy skeleton. A RoN II, however, would deserve more.

BHG also decided to simplify the game by dropping the tactical geometry. No longer does unit facing play a role as it did in RoN. I missed this, but again have to ask myself if I really used it as intended in RoN. Unit facing and flanks are, in my opinion, a really cool idea, but they are better suited to a more tactical game, whereas RoN is ultimately a game of civilizations and grand strategy rather than tactics. Certainly, I never exploited the possibilities of flanks in RoN due to poor micromanagement skills.

Speaking of micromanagement, one of my greatest disappointments in this new game is its retreat to the RTS standard of loading terrestrial units onto and off transports to get them across impressively modeled obstacles. RoN spoiled me with that naval dock upgrade allowing land forces to automatically cross seas, graphically transforming into ships and landing craft en route. I much prefer the strategic challenge associated with deciding when and with what to cross the obstacle to the arcade challenge of manually executing loading and unloading ops.

To a lesser extent I also missed the epochal advancements of RoN. The march of time makes the march of armies much more interesting for me. Fortunately BHG retained some science and culture so wonderfully represented by the border-push mechanism, something I hope always remains part of the Rise magic!

Conclusion

In the modeling hobbies, veterans often advise newbies to save the really cool projects for later on, after they've honed their skills on simpler, more common subjects. For example, assemble a solid-hulled wood sailboat before attempting a plank-on-bulkhead HMS Victory, or gain some experience painting drab WWII soldiers before attacking that dashing Napoleonic era hussar.

As good advice as that is for modelers, professional game developers have to leave the gate with stellar products to establish a profitable reputation. That's what BHG did with Rise of Nations.

I don't know the BHG team's intentions, but I tend to view Rise of Legends, their second of three-games-plus-expansions for Microsoft, as the kind of experiment they couldn't risk for their freshman effort as an independent game developer. Having nailed the critical elements of gameplay and UI in RoN, in RoL they allowed themselves freedoms to play with new ideas and graphical enhancements.

Some may not be happy with BHG's toying around with their winning formula; I'm not perfectly satisfied and still prefer RoN's gameplay. RoL is nevertheless terribly fun, graphically stunning, and is not an unsuccessful experiment. RoL's place in the history of the Rise franchise may only be rightly judged once we have the next game or game-after-next from BHG.

RoL sidesteps into fantasy, but it does more than that; it transforms Rise of Nations to expand its possibilities. As such it lays the groundwork for an even more satisfying RTS future.