Rise of Nations Gold Edition

Rise of Nations Gold is a double pack of sorts featuring Rise of Nations and the expansion pack, Rise of Nations: Thrones & Patriots(from here on they will be referred to as RONG). RONG takes players through wars from several different time periods from ancient Roman wars where they used primitive weapons such as catapults, to the modern wars where they use tanks and the like.

When you start the game the menu gives you a choice between five different campaigns: Alexander - in which you play through the wars which Alexander fought in his attempt for world domination. Napoleon - in which you follow in his footsteps as you do with the Alexander campaign, except with more advanced weapons. The New World campaigns - These take place in the Americas. The Cold War - where you must take on either Soviet Russia or America. Last is The Entire World, where as the name suggests, you can take on all armies on a map of the entire world and takes you through every age in history from Ancient to the Information age.

Depending on which army you command in any given war, each different army offers different advantages thanks to their particular country, for example; Americans have the power of innovation which makes them have the following advantages over their enemies; aircraft and carriers are 20% cheaper, you get two bombers at each airbase starting in the Middle Age, cheaper military unit upgrades mean you get extra food, timber, metal and money for every barracks unit except for when they are garrisoned. Each country has various bonuses so it pays to try out each one to find the nation that suits your play style the best.

Voiceovers at the beginning of each campaign introduce the wars for the specific time period that you choose to play and the FMV looks good. Once you have started a campaign, you are greeted by a map screen on which you select the country you wish to take control of. Once you end your turn, the other nation(s) will take their turn and you will be updated on their progress via the world events display which shows whom has conquered who. If simply killing your enemies does not work you can try diplomacy and negotiate a deal with one of the foreign nations to become allies and turn on them later down the road, or a simple trade of bonus cards and other items. When using diplomacy you have to make sure you can give the other side a decent deal otherwise they tell you where to go, and it is not a pleasant place.

Battles are played out in a typical RTS fashion using the standard; right click to attack, move and left click to select a squad or building approach. The battles are all in the old top down RTS style, rather than the hardware hungry 3D RTS style keeping the system requirements low. There are 3 basic types of unit; the citizens, the military, and special units. Each special unit has their own abilities, for example; the spies can bribe enemy units to join your nation, plant informers to gain intelligence and use counter intelligence to destroy enemy spies and remove informers.

The graphics in RONG are the old top down scrolling style, which is getting a bit dated. However, the units are animated well; some of them will sit down and rest and there are plenty of animals running around in some countries to use for target practice.

Multiplayer games can be played either via LAN, Direct internet (modem to modem) or via Gamespy using your gamespy ID. Once you have connect to gamespy, you can; go chat with the other players, play with up to eight players against each other, or play a cooperative game against the AI.


Microsoft Windows 98/Me/XP/2000
PC with 500 MHz equivalent or higher processor
128 MB of system RAM
1.6 GB available hard disk space
8x speed or faster CD-ROM drive
16 MB video card required
Sound card, speakers or headphones required for audio
Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
56 Kbps modem or LAN for online/multiplayer