Microsoft rise of nations review

TBS: Puns are the lowest form of humor. RTS: Only when you haven't first thought of them, yourself. TBS: But in this case, I did I'm RTS We've now moved beyond issues of startup and ease-of-use, into the actual gameplay, itself.

RTS: That's right, and something you said earlier struck me; that's there's nothing new in Rise of Nations , just a lot of borrowed ideas. TBS: Well, yes. And most of them come from TBS games. For instance, a host of buildings offer named researches such as Herbal Lore and Pharmaceuticals. These in turn grant your people new abilities or improve existing ones. All this is very similar to Alpha Centauri or the Civilization series, as are the many Wonders you can build, or the anachronistic ruins that mysteriously provide a one-time resource boost.

RTS: So it isn't original. Is originality that important? It's how you use what you've got that makes the difference. TBS: And that brings me to my next point, thank you. Rise of Nations may use various features found in TBS games, but it doesn't implement these features with any real personality. Consider each of your named researches: it has an effect, whether on resource gathering, unit competence, etc. But the research itself remains nothing more than a handy label.

The strategic benefits are made clear, but not the importance of the research itself in terms of civilization's progress. So a player learns Herbal Lore, but never learns what that progress means, its eventual impact on the codification and composition of plants, etc. In the final analysis, Herbal Lore is just a dry, nondescript step on a ladder towards victory, differing from, say, the Taxation technology only in terms of its game benefits, rather than what it actually means.

Other developments in TBS games seem to have been absorbed into Rise of Nations in a rudimentary fashion. Diplomacy is a good example. You can make alliances, but you can't make temporary treaties that involve a group of nations agreeing to battle a specific third party, as in Europa Universalis II.

And a more original one, too. Nor can you threaten neighbors into backing off from alliances made with your foes, or get them to agree to an exchange of maps. If you go to war, an AI ally won't automatically do so, which destroys one of the main reasons for a standard alliance in games!

Exchange units or researches? No way. RTS: I think you're missing the point. Rise of Nations isn't about the intricacies of behind-the-scenes manipulations. Like any standard RTS, its raison d'etre is building structures and units to take over the other guy. Reynolds has created a reasonable compromise in the game that lets you keep your attention focused on the playing field, on a single main screen, while adding an extra dimension through dramatically increased options for research.

It's not too taxing for a quick multiplayer session, yet strong enough to add attractions to standalone mode. First, there's the way research is deliberately spread out among a host of buildings at any given time. This means that instead of researching one particular technology, as you would in the Civilization or Master of Orion series, you have after the initial startup phase a broader selection of technologies and upgrades to learn through simultaneous resource investment, if you so choose.

You can even build libraries in multiple cities that research differing technologies. As all research is resource-driven, however, you have to be selective about the technologies your people study, and balance these against upgrades to resource collection and unit quality. It's all a major part of Rise of Nations strategy. Second, I appreciate the smooth flow of technological development as you move from Age to Age.

This was not something that could automatically be expected, as each of the eight Ages, which are researchable, unlock a host of potential improvements which in turn depend upon, you guessed it, more research. It would have been all too easy in a game that placed so much stock in technology for any given Age to be all too quickly achievable, with a particular technology that provided the nearest thing to a quick victory.

Alpha Centauri 's fighter jets, available upon completion of the Doctrine: Air Power technology, provided just such a boost. Of course, there are bound to be individual technologies that various Rise of Nations players swear by, assuring us all that a straight path towards its completion results in automatic victory; but if so, I've yet to find it, and I've been playing Rise of Nations for more than eighty hours.

There are certainly different overall winning strategies suited to various types of players, but I don't think the game is so poorly balanced as to give one path an easy route to success. National borders: among my faves. Thanks for your feedback.

TY for your suggestions but it didn't work. My previous games purchased from the MS store from last years, that requires and doesn't requires to log in to my Xbox Live acct still works.

Yes, I know this same old procedure you are talking about-end 3rd party programs and see if the thing works and then if all else fails reinstall. I done all that. Reinstall the game 4 times, reinstall Xbox app 3 times and reset MS store app 3 times and it still does not work. This game was originally for Windows 7, 8, Vista, XP and not MS messes it up when they try to twerk it to make it runnable on Thanks anyway.

Average Player Score Based on ratings. Please Sign In to rate Rise of Nations. Score Breakdown Based on ratings. Rating: 8. A true blend of everything that is needed in a strategy game What Gamespot Users have to say about Rise of Nations.

Rating: Rating: 7. Best RTS ever? Rise of Nations is the closest RTS to a historic based empire building 4x game. Since expanding your empire depends entirely on your cities, the game makes you think harder about how and where you should expand. This focus on cities also means that each one will become a distinct community, with its own farms, temples, universities, and so on--actual cities will populate your empire, unlike in other real-time strategy games, where most of your structures are at your main base, while your additional town halls exist in isolation near some resources.

This intriguing concept of national borders works as you might have expected it to in an epic turn-based game, such as Civilization. In practice, national borders add depth to the game without being overwhelming. For instance, since your national borders grow with the number of cities you control, you may wish to aggressively expand your empire by building lots of cities, but you'll be limited by the extent of your research in civics.

In addition, any troops you send across the borders of an enemy nation sustain attrition damage to simulate the difficulty in supplying them over vast distances. It's an intuitive feature, and it also prevents your enemies from rushing you early on in the game. However, both you and your opponents can recruit supply wagons that protect armies from attrition damage. In the meantime, you'll be able to recruit a wide array of different soldiers from different nations across different time periods.

Like other real-time strategy games, Rise of Nations uses a rock-paper-scissors unit balance system--for instance, cavalry are devastating against some archer units, while pikemen can make short work of cavalry. Rise of Nations' combat is fast-paced, though it also features interesting tactical considerations, such as flanking and rear attacks, as well as special abilities that your general units can use to provide extra defense for your troops, cause your troops to move on a forced march, or even hide your army briefly to set up an ambush.

Cities are also crucial to warfare in Rise of Nations, since successfully attacking a city doesn't destroy it, but instead captures it for your own use.

As such, battles over cities are crucial and potentially very rewarding, and they also make the stakes a lot higher in multiplayer battles, which, despite the game's epic historical scale, can often be completed in less than an hour.

In Rise of Nations, the stakes of city warfare are much higher--instead of destroying an enemy city, you assimilate it. Thanks to its turn-based roots, Rise of Nations has other interesting features that aren't common to real-time strategy games, but these features allow the already varied game to offer you even more options.

For instance, you can build wonders of the world just like you could in Civilization , and these powerful monuments can provide bonuses to your troops as they stride into battle in real time.

In addition, Rise of Nations doesn't have any troop transports, so you don't have to micromanage your troops as they march individually onto a boat. As long as you have a docks structure in place and the right technology level, all your land-based units will automatically become transports when they cross water. And as you'd expect from a game designed by Civilization II's cocreator, Rise of Nations offers multiple victory conditions to suit a variety of different play styles.

You can win by conquest, by controlling 70 percent or more of the entire map, by building or capturing a critical mass of wonders, or by capturing and holding an enemy's capitol.