military and historical

I find it hard to believe that several people on here thinks Rise of Nations is just another strategy game. It is not. It's better than Age of Empire, it's better than all of strategy games i have played.

You get to control a nation with special attributes (there are 18 nations total). You can play from any age to any age (i.e. from ancient to enlightenment or to information technology or to medieval, whatever you want).

This is not a game where you can win by throwing everything at your opponent. Most strategy games can be won this way, but not this one. I have beaten opponents with much smaller army,than theirs (at least in the enlightenment age) using good strategy in combat.

Multiplayer games are a blast. This is where it really shines (the computer AI is also much more intelligent than most games - it finds the weakest part of your overall strategy and tries to exploit it. It does decoy attacks and launches its main attack elsewhere, brilliant). National borders is also a really nice feature, as it is far more strategic now to place your cities, than AoE ever was.

The graphics are incredible, though you may experience compatiblity problem with older video cards. And you really do need a fast computer for the game to shine.

You should at least try their trial version -- goto http://www.bighugegames.com, and play it for a while.

Yes, Rise of Nations is an AMAZING RTS endeavor that allows you to accomplish what every single gamer has desired at some point in his/her life...CONQUER THE WORLD!
Take Age of Empires, add to it some cutting-edge graphics, (a combination of 2D and 3D that look so GOOD that they threaten such games as Warcraft 3), add to it some unique units and hundreds of more diplomatic options, and what do ya have?
VOILA! welcome to the RoN.
There is NOTHING bad that can be said about the game itself, from graphics, to sound, to playability...this game makes itself known as a top competitor in all those places.
However, if there is one thing that COULD be missed...especially by fans of AoE...are the Walls! yes, the one thing that made AoE so popular was the option of constructing massive walls, iron gates (that could be raised) and all.
Although Walls would make this game perfect in every aspect, it does not take away from the AMAZING RTS it already is.
The game to end all games, RoN does more than just redefine an already overpopulated RTS genre.

After reading these reviews I was a little let down. This game is not extaordinarily complex nor does it really break new ground. It is essentially another blizzard game like warcraft or starcraft. Mine a large range of resources and upgrade your structures to create the best army you can.

The coolest part of this game is by upgrading your civilization into a more recent time, all your structures and armies get improved. Wooden farms become industrial metal units. Guys on horses become tanks. There is quite a wide range of possible units to create your army with. You can make nukes, aircraft carriers, knights, barbarians, all kinds of cool stuff.

The worst part of this game is that it went way overboard with the upgrades and resources. You literally spend the first 20 minutes of every game frantically upgrading every one of your structures while trying to mine all different kinds fo resources. Even worse, you need to build multiple cities to maximize the amount of upgrades and mining potential. Youll be upgrading your structures throughout the entire game. Ive had games last and hour and still havent even been able to upgrade everything. I would enjoy this game much more if there was only one resource to mine and one structure to select for upgrades.

Once your city is decently upgraded however, the battles are pretty nice. They lag more than I would like but its great seeing a city nuked, or sending planes over a base, or invading a town with barbarians.

If your a fan of RTS' you should check it out, but its not as fun as Yuris Revenge, Starcraft or Warcraft3.