From the Manufacturer
---------------------
The Age of Empires Expansion: The Rise of Rome is the highly
anticipated add-on to the award-winning, best-selling real-time
strategy game Age of Empires. Focusing on the legendary Roman
Empire, the Rise of Rome will challenge veterans and novices
alike to wage war on an epic scale with four additional
civilizations, several unique units, new technologies, and new
campaigns, including the showcase campaign that focuses on the
Rise of Rome itself. Includes four new civilizations - Carthage,
Palmyra, Macedonia, and Rome.
Review
------
Just as the Romans rose up and became the most advanced and
powerful nation in the Western Hemisphere at the turn of the
millenium, so too do the Romans replace the old civilizations to
reign supreme in Ensemble's Age of Empires expansion pack, Rise
of Rome.
With the planned sequel to Age of Empires pushed back to the
middle of next year, the Rise of Rome expansion pack took on new
meaning. Not only is it supposed to enhance the value of this
year-old favorite, but it also serves as a bridge between Age of
Empires and Age of Empires II. Age of Empires loosely followed
the growth of the ancient civilizations, Rise of Rome is set
during the reign of the Roman empire in the West, and Age of
Empires II is to be set in the dark ages, after the
infrastructure established by the Romans crumbled into warring
pieces.
As both a dessert for Age of Empires fans and an appetizer for
Age of Empires II, Rise of Rome is a series of hits and misses. I
am a huge fan of the original game. I played numerous multiplayer
games and even gave the single-player campaigns a good, honest
try. I didn't really mind the unit limit or the questionable
pathfinding. And I forgave the inadequacies of the single-player
campaign because I loved multiplayer matches so much.
There were many that loved Age of Empires as much as I did, but
there were others that just couldn't play this game because of a
few problems. I couldn't really see these problems a year ago
when I was first enamored of the game, but today, I finally see
just what all the fuss was about: This game is far from perfect,
and it has a few shortcomings that detract from the play
experience.
The Rise of Rome expansion offers five new units, four new
civilizations, four new technologies, four new campaigns, and a
few user enhancements like unit queues. As expansion packs go,
this one is crammed with goodies. Most of the five units were
added in response to balance problems in Age. The slinger is a
barracks unit that exists to counter the tool age bowman rush.
The camel rider serves a similar purpose against the Bronze Age
cavalry rush. The scythe chariot was created for those
civilizations that lacked a heavy Iron Age cavalry unit. The
armored elephant was introduced because the war elephant just
wasn't being used enough. There wasn't an imbalance on the high
seas, but the fire galley was nevertheless brought in to expand
naval combat.
All the units are useful, but you won't soon forget the old
units because these new ones are either highly specialized or
expensive to research. The new additions found in Rise of Rome
don't really change the game significantly, although they do
spice up matches. The slingers and camel riders do mitigate
certain rushes, but the game remains fundamentally the same, and
some Rise of Rome games will end without the need to ever build
an expansion unit.
My one issue with the new units isn't really a complaint, but an
observation. The three "counter" units - slinger, camel rider,
and fire galley - are highly specialized units that are great
against a certain type of unit and pretty much impotent against
most of the other units. The scythe chariot and armored elephants
are great, although they are expensive upgrades to existing
units, in the same fashion as cataphracts and centurions. The
scythe chariot addresses some civilizations' lack of heavy
cavalry in the Iron Age. All the new units have good animation
and sound, although the lanky gait of the camel rider bothered
me.
The four new civilizations are good additions to the game, with
some nice special abilities to entice you to play them. The two
interesting civilizations are the Macedonians (four times as
resistant to conversion) and the Romans (master builders). The
other two civilizations, Palmryans and Carthaginians, aren't
quite as interesting. One questionable thing about the new civs
is the increased cost of Palmryan villagers, without significant
benefits to justify the cost.
The four new technologies aren't must-haves, but they have their
uses. Two make the priest even more powerful, while one adds a
nominal bonus to infantry armor against missile attacks, and the
other allows you to build barracks units beyond the population
limit. I must say that the way Ensemble implemented the priests'
new martyrdom ability (which allows you to instantly convert a
unit by sacrificing your priest) leaves much to be desired.
Instead of adding a button to the interface to allow you to click
to martyr your priest, you have to convert normally and then hit
delete. The interface of the game is otherwise good, but this
seems to me more like a last-minute work-around. Couldn't
Ensemble have just spent the time to add a button to the priest
interface?
Probably the best thing about the expansion pack is the suite of
user enhancements, which includes adjustable unit limits, unit
queues, and adjustable pathfinding. These improvements do make
the game better.
As in the first, the single-player game is the biggest drawback.
The campaigns are unusually short, which is fine. However, there
are no cutscene rewards for campaign victories. Many individual
scenarios had interesting premises, but there is no purpose for
the overall campaigns, just a loose theme and some random
missions. I had hoped that Ensemble would make the solo
experience more rewarding, but it isn't. The scenarios within
each campaign play more like a puzzle game. These new missions
are hard, not because the artificial intelligence is more
challenging, but because the scenario setup is more puzzle-like
and tedious.
The other thing that really diffused my enjoyment of the
expansion was the terrible pathfinding. I forgave it in Age of
Empires, and even though it has been improved, it is still bad.
Invariably, when you tell a group of units to go around a forest
to get to another point, half of them will get stuck in the
trees, too stupid to know to walk around the foliage.
Rise of Rome is not a must-buy. I like parts of the expansion
pack, but there isn't enough compelling content to make me want
to go out and add it to my multiplayer matches. All the additions
are nice, but they aren't necessary for your continued enjoyment.
If you are a big Age of Empires fan, you'll want to check out the
new units and civilizations, as well as the user enhancements,
but you won't be getting a significant upgrade to the
single-player experience or the pathfinding, two problems that
Ensemble knew were in the original but somehow didn't address in
this expansion pack. --Elliott Chin
Copyright ©1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction
in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written
permission of GameSpot is prohibited. -- GameSpot Review
