He's backed up by the likes of airships, clockwork tanks and helicopters with corkscrew rotor blades. Another nation Reynolds showed off is the Alim, a magic-based civilisation that takes its cue from Arabian Nights. So instead of tanks, robots and aircraft, an Alim general can call upon genies, sandstorms and giant scorpions.
Two other nations will appear in the finished game one magical, one technological , but Big Huge Games is remaining tight-lipped with regards to names or details. The first major adversary you'll face in the game is the Doge, a power-hungry rival within the Vinci nation.
He uses similar troops and vehicles to those available to Giacomo, but has a couple of enormously nasty tricks up his sleeve, at least if the level we watched Reynolds play through is anything to go by.
First up was a gigantic mobile cannon that pelted our home city with huge shells from afar. Reynolds sent a fleet of bombers to destroy it, and the physics were demonstrated nicely as the massive barrel of the now defunct howitzer pitched over a cliff. Incidentally, all the troops in the game will ragdoll when blown up, and can be crushed by falling buildings.
The second surprise was a terrifying mechanical spider. This giant steel beast ploughed through Giacomo's Alim allies like a hot knife through butter, slaying dozens of units in seconds. A manic glint in his eye, Reynolds brings out the Alim big guns: a pair of soaring glass-winged dragons, which proceed to give the mecha-arachnid the sort of roasting that'd put a Premiership footballer to shame.
Job done. Demo over. Gameplay-wise, Rise Of Legends looks likely to pick up where its predecessor left off: the aim is essentially to conquer the world using a turn-based macrolevel mode played out on a gloriously detailed map backed up by the main real-time mode. Resource management will once more play a part - we've seen both gold and a substance called Timonium so far - but as you can see from the screenshots, the lie of the land in the latter mode is no longer flat; this will surely impact on the way you play the game.
We can't sign off without mentioning the plans for Rise Of Legends' multiplayer mode. Reynolds quips that if the fast-paced multiplayer offered by Rise Of Nations was "history on your lunch hour," then what you get from Rise Of Legends is fantasy on your coffee break.
All in all, it's fair to say that we haven't been so excited about a strategy game since the first Age Of Empires III screenshots saw the light of day. And with almost a year of development time left, it can only get better. Original as Rise Of Legends' concept might seem, the idea of a technology-meets-magic background is not a particularly new one in the world of games. Troika Games' Fallout -esque Arcanum was located in a memorable world where flamethrowers, airships and steam trains co-existed with orcs, dwarfs and wizards.
The setting alone made this flawed RPG worth a punt. Guns, motorcycles, trains again , airships again and various other techy stuff was balanced by the use of stupidly big swords, magic armour and some guff about the lifestream. The uneasy mix of the supernatural and the scientific is also seen in several tabletop wargames, most notably Warhammer, where chivalric knights, elves, pikemen and griffons fight alongside steam-powered tanks and helicopters.
Rise of Nations was one of those rare games that comes along and makes everybody else look like slackers. Showing innovation that translates into exciting and balanced gameplay isn't something that happens often and especially to a matured genre like RTS. So does Rise of Legends leave a similar mark? Well it definitely leaves a similar mark, but not in the way of innovate gameplay. Rise of Legends, as far gameplay, is extremely similar to its predecessor with only small modifications to the general flow.
Frankly, I don't see this as a bad thing since Rise of Nations was such a success and carried a long shelf life but be aware that in many ways Rise of Legends is at most given a face lift. The limited micromanagement, city building, heroes, and technology trees all make a similar appearance. However, Rise of Legends visually has very little in common with Rise of Nations.
Rise of Legends is set in a completely new fantasy world revolving around three unique races and many distinct technologies and magical abilities. The creative juices must have been flowing as this alone will help counter the similarities in gameplay. The actual graphics have also been given a significant upgrade and helps to backup the uniqueness of the world. We noticed you don't have JavaScript enabled. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to view our site properly.
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