Rise of Legends however definitely had more real time elements to it which took away from the uniqueness of the design.įirst was that cities could no longer be placed anywhere you wanted and had to be put at specific points on the map. Rise of Nations was pretty much a real time take on the turn based strategy genre, something that was never seen before with a design that meshed perfectly with what Big Huge Games was aiming for. So how did a studio go from making one of the most celebrated strategy games of all time to one that put them out of business? Style over Strategy: But as a great shock to everybody, Rise of Legends was a complete and utter flop to the point where it became the death nail for Big Huge Games. And the unique factions stood out and gave the game a great aesthetic. The elements Rise of Legends took from Rise of Nations in the area of combining real and turn based design still worked. Certain maps had story elements to them and presented a special battle as opposed to the standard you vs. Split into three acts and world maps, each act had different territories and Meta rules for the player to deal with. The 'Conquer the World' mode of Rise of Nations was replaced by a story campaign. This also added a level of micro management which I'll be coming back to in a minute. These units could level up, unlock new abilities and could lead your armies. Keeping with the personalities, you also had hero units that appeared both in singleplayer and multiplayer. Rise of Legends, originally posted on Elements like super units and heroes altered the pacing and flow of Rise of Legends compared to Rise of Nations The Alin could place summoning circles down on almost anywhere on the map that would act as unit spawns and the Vinci would be able to unlock machinery to help them. Instead of having all the basic unit types and researches the same for each side, Rise of Legends when with completely unique units and researches for each. So there were essentially two upgrade paths: The more districts you put on a city and what kind of districts.Īnother major change from Rise of Nations was the greater personality of the sides. Each city could be upgraded with districts that represent different aspects of growth which in turn unlock new functionality or advantages. Research which was handled from the library in Rise of Nations was folded into the city designs. However the three races each twisted them to their own design providing more strategic options. So the mechanics of territories, attrition and using research were the same.

What's interesting about Rise of Legends is that the developers used their design model from Rise of Nations as a template for this. And just like Starcraft each race was completely different in art style, unit design and strategies.

Taking place in a fantasy world where three different factions vied for control: The Vinci, the Alin and the Cuotl. While Rise of Nations was based on real world civilizations and growth, Rise of Legends went in a completely different direction. A real time strategy game that took a lot of the mechanics and flow of turn based strategy games to create something entirely new. Rise of Legends, originally posted on the įor those that didn't read my previous post on Rise of Nations, Big Huge Games founded by ex Firaxis employee Brian Reynolds struck a chord with RTS fans with the amazing Rise of Nations. And Rise of Legends is one of those games: A completely underrated title that was more interesting and innovative than Starcraft that failed due to issues within and beyond the developer's control. And from that list there are only a handful that if I could use magic powers I would give them a second shot to see the game be a success. I've played a lot of video games in my time and have seen everything from niche successes, colossal winners and absolute failures.

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