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It’s hard to be an RTS right now. After a bit of a drought the market is now flooded with mouse-heavy strategy games, each adding some new minor feature or graphical trick to set apart from the rest…barely. Most of these RTS games can be divided into two camps: the WWII Nazi-killing games and the elves in tight pants games. Rise of Legends distances itself from the competition by featuring neither Nazis nor elves, instead delivering a wholly unique world and cast of characters in a game that’s very nicely polished…if somewhat nonsensical.

Three is the Magic Number

Any RTS fan knows that a proper strategy title should include three factions, and Rise of Legends does just that with the Vinci, the Alin, and the Cuotl. The Vinci are human soldiers who rely on odd Rube Goldberg-like machines to do their fighting. There are mechanical knights who look like bionic nutcrackers, flying machines that look suspiciously like da Vinci’s prototype helicopter, and a whole slew of other smoking, steaming, and lumbering contraptions.

The Alin are altogether different. Controlling them makes you feel a bit like you’re playing some sort of Arabian Nights game, with genies, giant scorpions, and flame spirits. The Alin’s cities float mysteriously in the air and their warriors emerge from portals. Finally, the Cuotl are a bit of an odd bunch. They’re along the lines of what some UFOlogists would like us to believe the Aztecs were like, relying on mysterious technologies to build pyramids and power their defensive obelisks. They offer an interesting blend of high-tech and magic.

None of these three have anything to do with each other, making figuring out the best tactics for each an interesting experience. However, since they’re so disparate, the game’s main storyline feels a bit forced. Each faction does have its own campaign, but you’re forced to play them in order, which is a bit of a drag.

City Building

Rise of Legends is definitely a straightforward RTS, but like the previous Rise of Nations it has quite a bit more going on than your average C&C-clone. You start with a small city and a mine to gather resources. You can build a barracks (or whatever is appropriate for your faction) right away and start gathering an army, but before long you’ll hit a population cap, meaning no more people, along with a resource cap, meaning no more money.

To raise these limits you need to expand your city (or cities) by adding different districts onto them. You can build a military district that enables you to create more soldiers, a merchant district that enables you to trade more (and so have a higher resource cap), along with other districts unique to each faction. As you add on to your cities they’ll grow and grow, allowing you to build more powerful and more plentiful units.

There’s also an abbreviated research tree included in each match. Yes, you will build things like research labs and such to enable more advanced units, but you’ll also be earn research points as you play that can be spent on things like special attacks that damage all enemies on the screen or abilities that heal all your warriors while they stand on friendly ground.

Ways to Play

The real-time skirmishes are the heart of the game, but as you play through the campaign each skirmish is tied together on a larger map divided into territories. You’ll move your armies across the map one turn at a time, gradually conquering the land and cutting off your enemies’ supplies. There’s not a lot to this mode, really, but it adds a bit of additional strategy and choice to what are usually boring and linear campaigns.

There’s also a skirmish mode, enabling you to play against the AI, and a series of online multiplayer modes that feature gametypes like king of the hill along with your typical slaughter fest. However, there seems to be a real shortage of people online to play against. Perhaps they’re all fighting through the lengthy offline campaigns and enjoying the game’s graphics, which are truly impressive.

Cities are massive and detailed, as are their surroundings, but it’s really the unit design that makes this game so impressive to watch. These are some of the most interesting units ever added to a strategy game and their individual personalities make battles very entertaining to watch. The angry looking Alim fighters for example don’t just hack at their opponents, they draw their swords and charge into battle, making them a lot more interesting than your typical grunts.

It’s a thoroughly entertaining game to watch, but you’d better have a lot of horsepower if you want to see all of it. Run on full detail settings the game will bring modern systems to a crawl; not a good thing in the middle of a battle. There are a few other problems too, like some curiously bad pathfinding, lame voice acting for the cut-scenes, and sound effects that seem to go missing from time to time.

Refreshingly Different

Rise of Legends is a very different sort of RTS game that genre fans will be able to pick up and play but yet will find themselves drawn into thanks to its very different look and feel. The unit design is top notch, and while the campaign may not do much to bring all those units together, that’s hardly a problem. Legends is an interesting change of pace from your average RTS. 

Review By: Tim Stevens
Video Produced By: Matt Keil