Rise of Nations firstlook on GameSpot

[jones]

Looks like GS just posted a preview.

http://gamespot.com/gamespot/filters/products/0,11114,556040,00.html

[General Ludd]

Jesus, how much longer is the age of empires concept and style going to be whored?



This looks like a much better attempt then empire earth, though.

[Kyle]

My question is, is it more Age of Empires or more Seven Kingdoms?


Age of Empires I have no use for, Seven Kingdoms, then we might have something.

[mactbone]

Actually, this looks a lot like Cossacks inbred with Empire Earth...

[ixnay]

This looks EXTREMELY similar to Empire Earth...I'm interested as to whether they can pull it off and make a good game...

[yin26]

The use of morale from Gettysburg looks really interesting. The scout and spy options also look intriguing. The devil, of course, is in the details. Best terrain I've seen so far, however. I hope elevated terrain gives bonuses, etc.

Well, congrats to BR and the team! I think my hardcore RTS days are likely a thing of the past, but if this title can take what EE *wanted* to be and mix in some of the best elements of Civ and Gettysburg along the way...well, it could really make an impact on a pretty tired genre.

Best of luck, BR!

[The diplomat]

It does seem to use the same engine as Empire Earth and Age of Empires.

However, you will notice that there are several cities and national borders. So I am hoping that the game is more an empire building game rather than just the one-city-crank-out-units which is all AoE or EE are.

I am hoping that there is a real empire feel to it and very little micromanagement. I am hoping for civ3 with AoE graphics.

[Cookie Monster]

I shouldn't say anything before at least playing this game when it comes out but.......


I'm kind of disappointed. Another AOE/AOK clone? Ok borders and other subtle differences but not another RTS clone.


Still before you bash me I'll definately give it a chance when it comes out. After all it's by Brian Reynolds. I'll eat my words later if this game is indeed great.

[Cookie Monster]

Just one more thing.


For me personally, and I hope I don't offend anyone, I don't like clickfest rushing games.

I've played AoE/AoK and while they are both excellent games they get old for me fast. Gather a bunch of resources, build a bunch of buildings, build a big army really fast and then rush your enemies.

[Jac de Molay]

I would agree. The pacing of those games has always scared me away. Hopefully this game will be more of a hybrid between rts and turn-based.

Dave

[Alex]

I don’t think that Brian Reynolds would start his own company with a AOE clone. He would be spelling death to his plans if he would do it.

From what I could see, it seems that they are going for a hybrid approach. Some elements would be essentially TBS (empire management) and others would be RTS (combat on a tactical level). In fact, this is what BR himself seems to indicate:

"It's not so much that we've taken real-time strategy and jammed the kitchen sink into it. We looked at real-time strategy and took what we thought were the really fun things."

I’m sure that BR can bring new ideas and features to an already exhausted genre. So far, I like the graphics, and some of the ideas seem pretty interesting. Of course, as Yin said, the devil is in the details, and I would have to play the game to see how it performs.

But one thing reveals a good sign of things to come: the game, as it is now, seems playable, and won’t be released until 2003, which means that the development team will have probably an entire year to fine tune it. And this means a game with fewer bugs and properly finished.

Sure, I never liked RTS games. Maybe I’ll give Rise of Nations a try. We’ll see.

[The diplomat]

Folks, let's give the game a chance! Just because it uses the same graphics as AoE does not mean that it is a clone.

It appears from the preview that the gameplay will be much closer to civ, with less clickfest and much more empire management.

[Hrnac]

Yawn...another RTS game...yipee!

This thing has AOK written all over it. It doesn't surprise me since BR has sold his sould to the Devil, er Microsoft. They probably included the AOK source code as part of the publishing deal. They could at least make a better attempt to disguise this mess.

If they hope to add any TBS elements to RoN, they had better start playing Kohan real soon and learn from that game. Kohan is the only RTS game I know of that actually has empire building elements in it and doesn't play all that much like your standard clickfest, er RTS.

To those who enjoy this type of game, may it be everything you hope it will be. Me, I'll take a flier on the demo if there is one and save my money and buy what the "Hard to please crowd" designates as good.

-Hrnac

[Sarxis]

lol

I hope this game kicks the socks off of every other RTS out there!

I think the fact that, yeah, it looks like it is ripping off the best of Empire Earth and Age of Kings, is what makes me want Rise of Nations to do so well.

I mean- Empire Earth failed, and AoK has its shortcomings; why not glean (steal) the best of those games and actually make a great one?

[Alex]

Ok, now I'm worried.

This is from the official Microsoft site about RoN (you can check it on the Miscellaneous page here at 'Poly):

Designed with the casual audience in mind, gamers will be able to move through the game timeline quickly and have a satisfying game experience without playing for hours.

"Casual audience"? "Move through the game quickly"? I know that RTSs are not known for its strategic depth, but this is not promising at all... On the RoN section at the BHG site, someone talks about "streamlined gameplay" or something like that. Seems like hardcore strat gamers will be disappointed once again. Yeah, I know, RoN is RTS, one cannot expect strategic depth from an RTS blah blah blah... But I was confident that BR could bring new life and intelligence to this genre. I cannot judge the game, of course, and I'll have to wait and see, but...

... this "casual audience" thing is a big huge letdown to me.