Customer Reviews
Overlooking Rise of Legends 
2008-07-17
I would implore those reading this to think of buying this NOT so much for Rise of Nations as they would for buying Rise of Legends, with a throw in of the old "Rise of Nations." Rise of Nations, frankly, wasn't all that great. It wasn't much fun, and indeed was no more than a Microsoft knock off of the Age of Empires series.
Rise of Legends, however, gives you a completely different experience. There are no nukes, three completely different sides, all with different tactics needed, interesting tech trees, a far more interesting economy than Rise of Nations--in fact, if you can get "Rise of Legends" from gogamer.com (if they get it back in stock or if you can find it on a "$5.99 Crystal Only" shelf somewhere). Rise of Legends is a tremendous game and an even better long term multiplayer game. So If you're considering buying this, I would suggest you think of yourself as buying Rise of Legends with Rise of Nations thrown in as an extra, not the other way around. In all of the reviews I read, people review Rise of Nations. Nobody seemed to review "Rise of Legends" where you're given four "Heros" each of which goes up in level, rises in power, can certainly turn the tide of battle and in certain cases (especially with airborn heroes) can occasionally take smaller locations by themselves. It's a vastly different game from Rise of Nations. That's why I rated this 4/4--because it included Rise of Nations. If it were "Rise of Legends alone it would have received a 5 of 5. Here it's a year later and much like Supreme Commander, I STILL play Rise of Legends multiplayer with my friends via Skype. If you can, as I said earlier, try to get Rise of Legends itself and skip Rise of Nations completely, unless you've never played any of the Age of Empires games in which case it's barely worthwhile. But if you want to reach THAT far back in gaming history, find a system that will run the two Kohan games and skip the whole "Age of" series. I would also recommend Majesty and the Majesty:Northern Expansion, both of which have been on my hard drive for eight years now.
Age of Empires prequel 
2008-06-10
This is a 3d-that-looks-more-like-2d prequel to Age of Empires, the game play is fun, though a bit klunky. Good tutorial, and fun if you'd like an AoE sidekick, with a similar though not very eye-popping interface.
Great buy! 2008-04-24
The reviewer who called this game boring totally missed out by playing only 1 out 5 of the campaigns. The Conquer the World campaign is fun, but yes it is the typical run of the mill RTS. But, the other campaigns have very different scenarios! For example, the Cold War campaign (my favorite) brings alot of historical perspective as you choose between propping up puppet governments or supporting rebel uprising, seeking appeasement with the Russians or going for all out nuclear war.
This game is a great buy, especially at the current price. I played it nonstop for 2 months and I break it out for about a week or two every couple of months.
Big Note: Don't lose the product key!
Rise of Nations "Gold" 2007-12-29
This item was advertised as Rise of Nations Gold, but it really wasn't! This CD contained Rise of Nations and Rise of Nations Thrones and Patriots. You would think this was the same as "Gold", but it is a different version and not compatible to play multiplayer "Gold".
Good enough 2007-11-07
Buy this game if you love real-time-strategy, resource gathering and building games. It is one of the better ones available. If you do not like RTS then do not buy this game. Simple enough.
A really excellent strategy game 
2007-08-20
Rise of Nations: Gold Edition lets you dominate 6,000 years of history, from ancient times to the Information Age. Lead your nation to global prominence and experience the thrills of combat and the challenge of managing trade&diplomacy. Features the original Rise of Nations, plus Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots.
Solid strategy game that you can keep coming back to play 2007-08-09
Rise of Nations is mix between city building and historical strategy. You can guide your nation through from ancient time to the present. It doesn't have the full complexity of a Civilization, but it what lacks in complexity, it compensates with the greater control/flexibility in city/civilization building. Unlike most of the Microsoft games of this type, it still was interesting to me after mastering it. If you like strategy and city building games, I highly recommend it.
One of the most finely balanced games ever created 2007-08-07
Rise of Nations is a truly astounding title. Even after a solid year of playing, I am still finding new strategies and new ways to play the game. Of the multitude of available nations, there simply is not one that stands head and shoulders above the others, it is more about the way you play the game and even the territory presented to you on a round by round basis.
The designers of Rise of Nations put an immense amount of time and thought into the game structure and it absolutely shows. The national border and city system is brilliant, allowing you to build only within your own territory (or allied territory) and some buildings only within new cities. The game strikes an astounding balance between economy and military while streamlining the experience at the same time.
Beyond that, the amount of time the game spans in one play session only increases the excitement of playing. From the dark ages to the information age, you will go from having men slinging rocks to nuclear bombs, artillery, stealth bombers and hi-tech fighter jets all in the course of an hour or so.
Without a doubt though, my favorite part about the game is how many strategies there are that can lead to victory. Take the Americans and the Russians, for example. With the americans, building a large military is important from the outset to fend off raids from other countries as well as produce more resources (all american troops produce wealth, timber and steel, three of the game's five resources--the other two being knowledge and oil). This is a nearly essential strategy if you want to win with them, I have found.
The russians, on the other hand, are afforded a completely different approach by the nature of their national bonuses. One aspect of the national border system is that enemy nations take damage when they send their units into your territory through means of attrition. As history buffs are probably already thinking, the russians have exceptional attrition damage and, through the construction of certain wonders (national benefits represented by iconic buildings that any nation can build, such as the hanging gardens--which increase knowledge production--or the Kremlin--which increases attrition), their nation is impregnable to any force not accompanied by an appropriate number of supply wagons, which keep your troops from suffering attrition.
As you can probably tell, Rise of Nations true secret secret to success lies in the incredible balance that it strikes between economy, unit production and specific national benefits. One of the great RTS games of all time, it is certainly a worthy purchase for any fan of the genre.
Fun 2007-05-03
This strategy game combines real time and move-based game.
Map (risiko-based) has nations and armies. When you play your move you enter into 'real time game' that can be in different modes - different goals (e.g. conquer enemy towns, ambush, kill certain # of enemies, defend yourself). Computer can also attack you if he wants the teritory you own. When you get new teritory, you get cards (you can purchase them also) and they can give you extra bonus during the game. For bonus, you can also build wonders within your teritory (when you aquire the card for building the wonder).
It doesn't require high-end machine to play (it will work very good on Pentium III).
It's not very durable - if you play the same campaign 5-10 times (even with different nations) it will become 'seen already'... But it's very fun while it lasts, and I recommend it.
Best Strategy Game in quite a while 2007-02-11
This game is addictive and can really change with one's selection of nation and what game level one would like to play. The graphics are super and the game play responsive. A great LAN party game, as players can compete with either the computer or other players on the network. Beats Civilization for game play and not as "goary" as some conflict games (such as Wolfenstein).
