AOE: The Rise of Rome

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Review: AOE: The Rise of Rome

I guess it was just because I'm a tad bitter we're gonna have to wait until next year for Age of Kings, the full-fledged sequel to Microsoft's Age of Empires, but at first I wasn't that impressed with the Rise of Rome expansion pack-even though it's got new units to toy around with, enhanced features (the queuing ability is a huge time-saver), appropriate new technologies, and a whole new campaign.

Then on second look (and third and fourth), I changed my mind. For less than 20 bucks, you get quite a bit of RTS bang. First off, there's a new Gigantic map size that'll totally change your gameplay. Unless you're an aggressive attacker (or playing in multiplay), on this map size you'll have plenty of time to build up your forces and advance through the ages before you even see any opponents.

There's also the ability to queue your units. Even if the unit can't be produced immediately (you're short on resources or need to expand the local housing), it will be queued anyway and created at the first opportunity. Now, if only you could set rally points

The five new units available are the Armored Elephant (as if the originals weren't tough enough to take down!), the bleating Camel Rider, the Fire Galley, the Scythe Chariot, and the Slinger. Most of these fall easily into other tactical categories-e.g., you'll want to group the Slingers as you would archers for more effective range damage-except for the Fire Galley. This short-range ship packs quite a wallop-it'll fry almost any vessel in short order-but it takes some maneuvering to bring it close enough to broadside other ships and keep it close enough to deliver its fiery payload.

Two of the four new technologies, Medicine and Tower Shield, just enhance existing aspects of the game. (Medicine increases the priest's healing rate and Tower Shield provides added protection for infantry against missile weapons.) But the other two add a whole new layer to gameplay. Logistics allows your barracks units to only count as one-half of a normal unit, essentially allowing you to exceed the population limit. And after researching Martyrdom, your priests can instantly convert an enemy unit by self-sacrifice. It's amazing the havoc you can wreak by throwing several of these kamikaze priest bombs into the enemy camp with their automatic-conversion ability.

There's also four new map types-Continental, Mediterranean, Hill Country, and Narrows. About the only terrain that affects gameplay is the cliffs that block your advances and serve as excellent defensive positions.

The four new civilizations (Roman, Carthaginian, Macedonian, and Palmyran) have unique attributes that need to be considered in single and multiplayer campaigns. But there's also a new random-civilization option, so you won't know who you're playing until the game starts.

Some nice features have been added to the interface: you can now select all units of a particular type by double-clicking on any individual unit. In addition, you can automatically zoom to a trouble spot by hitting the Home key or the middle mouse-button when an attack warning goes off.

While it's no sequel, this "middle age" between Empires and Kings is good enough to sustain us until AOEII arrives.-- Joel Strauch / GamePro