Rise of Nations: Gold Edition

Rise of Nations provides good AoE game play with a new Conquer the World campaign which provides real time scenarios with a turn based world map, and with 5 different CtW campaigns to choose from, and each one changing depending on how you play and which race you are, the campaigns can last hours just trying to defeat the other nations.

The scenarios also provide something new to the AoE game play, and with the ability to fire cruise missiles, and also the more expensive nuclear missile, you can eliminate other cities from a great distance, but you have to be strategic as firing of too many causes a nuclear winter to kill off all players instantly, causing everyone to lose, which adds to realistic feel of the whole game.

The game also contains vast research and upgrades, starting in the ancient age and ending at the information age, which adds to the whole game play experience, and also adds nearly limitless combinations of race, strategy and research which stops the game from getting boring.

There is also a map editor which allows the player to create personalised scenarios to share in the multi player option of the game, allowing the player to create maps where the other player is surrounded by walls, restricting the expansion of the city, giving the creator an expansive advantage.

Pros:

• Conquer the World campaigns players hours of scenarios and missions which vary every time played.
• Computer AI is excellent, cowering when it should, and getting to big for their boots when they have the resources to start a war.
• All races have unique units, and are better at economic, defensive or offensive so you the game play is different for each of them.

Cons:

• Graphics leave a lot to be desired.
• The controls can be quite difficult to understand first time playing and the tutorial does not explain things in detail and therefore does not help the player to understand the game play very much