PC Game Review : Rise of Nations

For some of the computer gamers today, the idea of becoming armchair commanders of an imaginary world in the computer does hold an addictive appeal. It is this appeal that explains the popularity of computer game titles that are squarely defined in the real time strategy (RTS) genre like the WarCraft, Command and Conquer as well as the Battle Realms series. On the other end of the spectrum, there are equally a big collection of computer game titles that fall into the turn based strategy (TBS) that employ a wider scope in their gaming experience as shown in the Civilization and Alpha Centuri series. For quite some time, these two distinct camps of the strategy gaming market was set apart from each other and never would the twain be met until the release of a ground-breaking strategy game title that successfully combine the best ideas from both genres. This blurring of the lines bridged the gap between the two ends of the strategy gaming spectrum was realized in game designer Brian Reynolds’ “Rise of Nations”.

“Rise of Nations” (RoN) allows the player to control one of 18 distinct civilization, each with their own unique military units and civilization advantageous, in a journey that spans 6000 years through all the epochs of human history. Players start off in the Classical Ages and work their way up to the Information Age by researching new technologies and collecting required resources while building an army big enough to sufficiently defend and expend their civilization borders. Like any other RTS games in the market today, players are tasked to efficiently manage their city and resources in order to achieve the maximum output in the shortest amount of time before they run into opposition.

While several game features are indistinguishable from other RTS games of its ilk, “Rise of Nation” sets itself apart from the other titles by placing emphasis on the city itself and the concept of city limits. In the cities of RoN, resource buildings are limited in number and must be placed within city limits which necessitates the need for the player to plan to expand the national borders by establishing other cities in the play continent. This makes each city an integral component of the civilizations well being and players can ill afford not to think ahead a little bit in order to ensure the survival of their cities. Cities are also important as a means of expanding the sphere of influence in this imaginary world which in turn generates income in the form of taxation which is proportional to the size of territory held.

It is the inclusion of the idea of national borders where RoN branches out into the turn base strategy game like the Civilization series. While national borders define the amount of taxes the territory will generate, it also demarks the point where forces of attritions began to impact invading armies. In RoN, the idea of attrition is referred to the damage that invading armies take to its units the farther they move into enemy territory. This concept, previously unseen in any RTS titles, is used to simulate the real life need to establish viable supply lines to support armies at war and this adds a new fresh level of realism in the game. Cities that are attacked in this game would also have the ability to defend themselves in the form of militia groups are generated the moment a city is attacked much like cities in real life. To further add to the level of realism in this game, cities that are conquered are not immediately transferred over to the invader but would need to go through a short period of assimilation before their borders are expanded with the inclusion of the invaded city.

In RoN, combat is resolved in a rock-paper-scissor like method. Each combat unit have been designed with a specific counter which it is vulnerable to. Since the size of the army allowed for each player can be limited by the amount of resources the player possess, it is in the player’s best interest to create the most balanced army they can instead of preferring any particular unit to be the majority of their army. Unlike other RTS in the market, aspiring armchair commanders in this game can also employ quite sophisticated flanking and ambushed maneuvers in their plan of attack thanks to the intelligent game AI engine. Players would also notice that the units unique to each civilization are somewhat equally balanced and that the advantage that these units give the player are of limited duration. Experience players would be able to recognize this and fully exploit the advantage when the opportunity presents itself before its time comes to pass.

The user interface for RoN is fairly similar to other games of this genre and quite easy to understand. The logistics of unit grouping and waypoints creations are similar to other games which I believe is fast becoming a standard of this type of games. There are also a lot of short-cuts or hotkeys that would allow the player to quickly control the units and buildings which is a boon for experience gamers who use them for a fast and furious game. Players also would need to set aside resources to be used for technology research in order to advance in the game world. In RoN, the technology ladder is slightly simplified compared to those we see in other turn based strategy games like Civilization but it is sufficiently broad to capture the flavor of technological progress. An added feature that is welcomed in RoN is that all tech research is conducted in a single resource building which avoids the need to keep track of which building to go to upgrade a particular technology that we see in other RTS games in the market.

Graphic wise, RoN is not much different than the “Age of Empires” series produced by Microsoft Games. Most of the resource buildings look the same between one civilization to the other with the exception of some that have an Eastern feel to them. Units on the battlefield are sufficiently differentiated that trying to pick them out in a skirmish is not as bad as an experience it could be. Players are also able to zoom in close into the game with the use of a mouse wheel for surgical placing of units or buildings but for most of the time players would prefer the larger overview of the land. The soundtrack used in the game is sufficiently accomplished and varied that it was not distracting as some are in other RTS games. The sound effects are used to the maximum effect and are appropriate for each unit action.

The only weakness that can be counted against this game is the lack of storyline based adventure for the single-player gamers. Instead of a single-player adventure that we have come to expect for a game of this genre, RoN gives the single player with a Risk board game like of “Conquer the World” segment. In this segment, the single-player chooses to play one civilization against the other 17 with the goal of conquering the world in several episodic sessions. Each session are time-limited which means singe-player game play is time bounded and are comprised of different scenarios. In some, the player needs to defend their city from invasion while in some the players are tasked to invade another civilization. Users get to employ their turn-based strategy in the world map when they try to plan their invasion in order to grab the most territory in the least amount of time possible and switch to their RTS skills of resource management when the games goes into city mode. While this combination is fresh in its execution, it is hardly enough for single-players of the game. Although RoN does have other single-player scenarios, the strength of this game lines in the multi-player appeal much like other RTS games of the type.

As a game, “Rise of Nations” is an interesting and successful amalgamation of two previously different gaming camps in the strategy game spectrum. The introduction of real life concepts not found in other RTS games allows for a new level of realism in the game that puts the emphasis on strategy instead of the normal accumulation of resources. Although it has the potential to be an instant multi-player favorite, the game’s only drawback is the weak single-player offering which lowers the replay value of this game for the lone armchair commander. Other that that seemingly glaring omission, “Rise of Nations” is poised to be one of the more interesting games to be released this year in the computer gaming industry.

Rating : 3/5 stars.

PC Games Review: "Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide"

I have always been a fan of computer games from the very first time I knew about computers. As a child, I was an active member of the computer club at my primary school and was not only exposed to how to operate the computer but also it opened the world of computer gaming to me. Some of the titles I was into back then that I remember fondly to this day are “Prince of Persia”, “Karateka” and of course “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego”. Of course back then we didn’t have the fancy graphics and sound capabilities that many computer gamers today take for granted so a lot of it was left to our own imagination which makes these games, while quaint by today’s standards, quite memorable and nostalgic for us who first found out about computers in the early 80’s.

I am actually partial to the computer role paying games (CRPG) and simulation games when I do get the time to invest my resources to game playing. While many may like the idea of blasting everything they see on the computer screen as they often do in action adventure games, I much rather prefer taking the time to act out my fantasies in the computer generated world as a fantasy character in some imaginary and magical kingdom. Some may find it hard to understand how I could actually spend 20 hours in one sitting to complete a chapter of exploring dungeons and fighting dragons on the computer but sometimes the plot of the game is so engaging that I hardly notice the time pass by.

This was what happened to me this past National Day weekend. I had recently purchased the “Shadows of Undrentide” (SoU) expansion pack to the popular “Neverwinter Nights” (NWN) CRPG from my local computer shop a few weeks ago. I enjoyed the first installment on the game immensely although it took me many months to complete it since I was playing it a bit at a time. I found the storylines from NWN deeply engaging and hoped to learn more about the universe created in that game. The opportunity came to me when they finally released SoU earlier this year. The new expansion pack co-developed by the people at BioWare Corp and Floodgate Entertainments was set in the same game setting of the first game and the story expanded to include places that were mentioned in passing in the first installment.

The game story itself is not a continuation from the previous installment so players would need to create a new character for themselves. For this game as well as the one that came before, my favorite character class to play is a monk with one level of ranger class selected. I found this character class well rounded for most of the in game quests and in fact seems a lot more helpful in some of the quests in SoU compared to NWN. All the character classes from the original game are included as well as new Prestige character classes. I have not tried these new classes yet but from what I can see they seem interesting to try out once I completed the game with my current character. While the graphics, user interface and sound design remains the same exceptional quality as in the previous installment, the developers have taken them to the maximum by using them in new exotic locales such as Deserted Ruins, Desert Oasis and Snowy Rural Countryside newly added to the game.

Since I don’t really have a lot of time to spend on playing computer games, I actually appreciate that I could adjust the game difficulty level while the game is in progress instead of having it preset in the beginning. This feature allowed me to quickly complete some of the more difficult encounters in the game and progress the story. I also found that the game play is well balanced as a whole and that the Level 1 character that you first start off as with has ample opportunities to gather enough experience points in order to advance to the next level. There are many side quests that your fantasy persona can complete and most of them are in a way very much connected with the main quest so finding out about them are not that difficult.

As part of the draw of CRPG gaming, game characters try to collect items that would make them better combatants or at least let them survive longer in the game world. In SoU, many new items not see in the previous installments have been added to help the gamer to build their characters. Those I have seen to date are quite balanced in terms of the pros and cons of using the equipment which makes the inventory management portion of the game quite challenging. One additional new feature of the SoU is that the gamer now has more control of the main character’s quest companion. As in NVN, the player could choose to travel with a sidekick that if well chosen complements the main characters. In SoU, this idea is taken further by allowing to player to manage the companion’s inventory and equipped items to make it a more effective force in dealing with the multitude of new monsters included in the game. Another interesting change is that the companions offered in this expansion pack are all multi-classed which solved the problem of selecting the best traveling companion to bring to the quest that gamers had in NWN.

I’ve only completed the 1st and Interlude chapters of SoU to date but I’m sure that I will be engaged in the game for many weeks if not months to come. With the same quality of engaging game story, graphics and sound designs, SoU is a well crafted addition to the NVN series. Most of the new additions first seen in this installment are welcomed and adds to the enjoyment of the game play. The character development in the game is well balanced that I’m surprised that my game character managed to get up to a 9th level Monk/1st level Ranger by the beginning of Chapter 2 of this game. While I am not sure if there is an experience cap as they had in the first game, this signals to me that the monsters to come would be more challenging and game play would be more interesting in the next 3 chapters. As a whole, “Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide” is a good addition to the CRPG genre and a worthwhile diversion into the fantasy gaming world.

I just hope that I would have enough time to play my monk/ranger character before the release the next installment of the game.