Rise of Legends is the recently (within the past year) released sequel to the popular Rise of Nations. Big Huge Games and Microsoft collaborated to create a playable, enjoyable RTS game. This game is set in a fantasy world, with three races competing for supremacy. First, there is Vinci. They are the most human-like race, known for their inventive genius (named after Leonardo Da Vinci). Second, the Cuotl race. They are a very high-tech, yet somehow strangely natural, race of powerful cyborgs. Third, Alin. Alin is a zerg-like race with a large amount of low hitpoint units that you can happily fling at your opponent, much to his chagrin.

Gameplay: (7). I was pleasantly surprised that the game runs very smoothly. Compared to the newly released RTS game, Paraworld, it is like being on cloud nine. This game offers a plethora of user-friendly options such as completely customizable hotkeys for nearly everything you can think of, making it easy to adapt to your personal playstyle. There is very little delay in units reponses; micro plays a key role in each and every game of RoL. However, as you can surely guess, compared with our beloved Starcraft and Warcraft III, this game only gets a 7 out of a 10 point scale for playability.

Graphics: (8). If you have a $3,000 alienware computer with a killer graphics card, feel free to turn your graphics all the way up and lean back in your chair as you watch a beautiful movie. This game was very well made, with graphic quality far exceeding that of Age of Empires III or Paraworld. The engine used to make this game seems different from the one used to make Warcraft, making them somewhat difficult to compare in this department, but do note that Warcraft III graphics do not have much on RoL.

Online Competition: (3). This is the true downfall of RoL. At any given time during the day, you will find between only 20-150 people logged on to the Gamespy-hosted server. Gamespy does a relatively poor job as the server, contributing to the low player volume on this well-made RTS game. However, there is a decent sized cult following for this game, made up of some decent gamers, so there is competition to be had. Bottom line is, BNet would smack down Gamespy 3-0 in a best of five series. What would we do without Blizzard?

If you are tired of Starcraft (is this possible?) and Warcraft III, this game should be on the top of your list for new games to try. Below are some links for those interested in checking out the RoL scene or purchasing the game.

GameReplays.org - Main Community Site
RiseofLegends.com - Official RoL site
GameStop - Purchase game from GameStop