User Reviews (11 - 21 of 34)

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Disappointed

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 16
Date: May 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The graphics are very good, but by this point in game development I nearly expect great graphics from any new RTS. The game play leaves much to be desired. I have been playing RTS games for well over a decade. Usually I enjoy getting straight to game play for a few days, then studying the instructions at some later point so that I can master the game for multiplayer use. RoL however is extremely unintuitive. Hotkeys are changed from RoN, the economy is a little difficult to figure out (specifically the nearly instant economy cap necessitating "markets" at every "town" you capture), and the research is just odd.

Although I did enjoy the heroes for a little while, too many units have special powers. Further, top level units are far too powerful (a few can level cities and armies with the exercise of a single "spell.")

To avoid a completely negative review, I will say the solo campaigns are interesting enough to keep you busy for a while.

I applaud the developers at Big Huge games for their creativity and willingness to take a risk. That said, I didn't get more than a week's play before I was tired of this game. Luckily, I still have RoN to play.

This one is a must have

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: January 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The grahics and playability of this game are outstanding. You have to carefully choose you upgrades to move from scenario to scenario. The game is always challenging but can be a bit difficult in the early stages of a new campaign.

Very fun game with a few problems

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: May 30, 2006
Author: Amazon User

When it comes to sheer fun factor, this game is up with the best. The graphics are spectacular at their highest settings, with loads of special effects and detailed models. The gameplay is great, mixing the best parts of games such as Starcraft, Warcraft 3, Age of Empires, and of course, Rise of Nations. The "ultimate" units are absolutely incredible looking, the Vinci Leviathan in particular. Seeing the Leviathan and King Leviathan in action is really, really, really cool, with gigantic explosions and a shadow that envelopes units below it. The other units look and play well too, every unit having a good amount of personality. However, the issues this game has at the moment can't be ignored. Even on high-end systems the game stutters at high or sometimes even medium and low settings. The online connectivity lacks a lobby and chat channels outside of a game, which is disappointing considering multiplayer is supposed to be a big part of the game. Although I'll admit I haven't played the campaign (I've never cared for single player games), I've heard that it is somewhat underwhelming. The sound is also weak. While the music is okay, the sound effects are very sparse. Strangely, when the game is zoomed in, the sound effects aren't nearly as muted. You can't stay zoomed in all the time though, so hopefully the developers will realize this and fix the sound. Also an issue are crashes. I've tried playing multiplayer and the people I'm playing with crash out often, ruining our games. There are also some connectivity problems. Hopefully, there will be a patch soon that fixes the issues the game has, but overall the game is very fun. It just came out a bit too early.

This is a good game for $20...no more.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 16
Date: June 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I am a fan of the Rise of Nations game...in fact, if you have never played the game, don't buy this game...buy Rise of Nations & the expansion pack for nothing...MUCH BETTER GAME.

Graphics mean something the first 10 seconds...after that, game play is imo the most important thing and this game just did not do much for me.

In fact, after the first 3 levels I felt like I got ripped off and the this game was simply marketed to be bought by suckers like myself that love Rise of Nations and would buy this game just because.

Wait until the price goes down if you really want the game...the only thing you will be missing is the extra $$$ in your wallet that you will be missing after playing the game.

Great Game.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 20
Date: May 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

It has the best parts of the first Rise of Nations and is unique compared to other fantasy games out today.

The single player campaign is atrocious.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 10
Date: November 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Rise of Legends has three unique, visually spectacular factions, and each one differs substantially in concept from the others and from other real time strategy games.

The gameplay in single skirmish battles is reasonably good. I play strategy games for fun, and if I need to hotkey between units and select special abilities three times a second in battle, it's too much work. Each faction in Rise of Legends have hero units with a number of special abilities. Most of the other units do not have special abilities, or the abilities are automatic. This makes control much easier. Each side has several hero units they may recruit, between 10 and 15 (maybe more) combat unit types, and a number of special abilities.

But writing a convincing or interesting story with Aztec Stargate on one side, Ali Baba, Aladdin, Sinbad, and Arabian Nights on the second, and Leonardo DaVinci steampunk/steamtech on the third is tough. Big Huge Games obviously didn't try. The campaign is boring, repetitive, and predictable with terrible voice acting.

If you're the type to play an RTS in a versus mode against the computer AI or your friends, this could be a great buy. If you're looking for a nice single player campaign, it is the worst game I've ever bought in that regard.

This is some fun game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: August 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I am a C&C, AoE, and Warcraft addict. So with some hesitancy I decided to try RoL. Boy am I glad I did. The game is intuitive, well balanced, beautiful, imaginative, and best of all addictingly fun. I can not comment on the multiplayer, because I am finishing the single player first. But without reservation I would recommend this game.

Decents RTS game,with a good online multiplayer server

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 17
Date: May 31, 2006
Author: Amazon User

For a very new game I like it. Has many options and maps, with lots of upgrades, and any strategy player will enjoy this one, MS has been good about regualr patches, the online multiplayer is good, just needs some more players.

Very disappointed.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 17
Date: July 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Microsoft Games has proven they can make excellent RTS games. My two favorite RTSes, Age of Empires 2 and Rise of Nations, were built by them.
Like many, I bought this game because I adored Rise of Nations. I knew it'd be different, but, wow, I did not expect this. The gameplay is completely different. The removal of gathering different types of resources is discouraging. The three teams are relatively uninspired. Graphically, it's beautiful, but great gameplay is infinitely superior to good graphics.
The game is not inherently bad, but it isn't very good, especially considering all of Microsoft Game's potential and the high expectations for this game.

Hovering Around "Average"

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 13
Date: May 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Rise of Nations was great. The gameplay was fluid and intuitive, the open-ended "Conquer the World" scenarios were great.

So, I bought Rise of Legends. Everything about it seems half-baked. They did away with the "Conquer the World" scenarios in favor of single player campaigns with "plots". Too bad the plots and characters are uninteresting.

The build system is quite unique, which is commendable - never hurts to try something different, but it's totally unintuitive and took me hours to get used to it.

I'm running on a fairly high range system (3Ghz CPU, 1GB RAM, GeForce 6800GT 256MB) and the framerates are awful - especially in large battles. It gets so bad that it's virtually impossible to keep track of your mouse pointer around the screen. And it's not like the graphics are THAT much better than Dawn of War, which runs beautifully on my system.

All in all, not worth the $50. Maybe $20. If you really really want to play this game, wait for the price to drop and play Rise of Nations or Dawn of War or StarCraft or WarCraft 3 or Age of Empires 2 in the meantime - all these RTS games are better and much cheaper.

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