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ℝ𝕚𝕤𝕖 𝕥𝕠 𝕓𝕖 𝕖𝕞𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕠𝕣 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕚𝕣𝕖 𝕦𝕟𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕤𝕖 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕘𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥 ℝ𝕋𝕊 𝕗𝕣𝕠𝕞 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕄𝕚𝕔𝕣𝕠𝕤𝕠𝕗𝕥 𝕤𝕡𝕖𝕔𝕚𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕤 𝕚𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕘𝕖𝕟𝕣𝕖

An RTS game by Microsoft, "Rise of Nations" will take you on a journey into history, ultimately making you emperor of the entire universe. This game was made in the early 2000s, with a heavy focus on Naval Combat, diplomacy, warcraft amongst other things and although at first will sound greatly complicated, getting the hang of it is simply a learning curve that won't take you much time.
The Extended Edition, alas, adds little to the table! There is a widescreen display support with this new version, but the graphics remained the same... The sound effects are still basically white noise when you're controlling people who should basically have a voice (as in Age of Empires games) but whatever. Audio is next, and the game is quite lacking in that department, why you ask? Because there are basically only a few songs that loop onto one another for the entirety of your match.
Let's talk about gameplay mechanics and this is where this game really shines; you basically pick a civilization and start with a Town Center, just like Age of Empires games... but unlike Age of Empires games, there are 5 super important techs that your match will revolve around, accessible through a building you start with: The Library. These five techs are: Military, Civic, Commerce, Science and The Age Up Tech... There are a dozen age ups to go through and, if you've played any RTS game before, the higher your tier the better are your troops and the best chance you'd have at winning. The Ages range from the prehistoric age all the way to the Nano age (fans of Empire Earth will rejoice). You'll also have to take into account your civilization's frontier as enemy armies inside of it will suffer major penalties and will most likely end up failing their invasion: You increase your frontiers by building other city centers or forts and you can only build more through researching Civics! By making your city LARGER, you'll have access to more city centers your caravans can travel to to gather gold, and the higher your COMMERCE tech score is the more caravans you can recruit... You get the picture! The Five Techs stated before really make up for your entire experience as your civilization... Your opponent will undoubtedly win if they succeed in researching them before you do. It sounds complicated at first, but it's not as difficult as it may seem. Researching these techs also requires Knowledge, which is gathered by your scholars at a university.
There are various campaigns to go with that take place first in a strategic map before they take you to actual battles: Alexander The Great, Napoleon Bonaparte, Cold War and the highlight of the game: WORLD CONQUEST. This latter will test your mettle against some of the most powerful forces on planet earth and you can also pick your own civilization... with this game, it's not hard to imagine that somehow Aztecs took over the entire world and had a naval army and freaking Aztec Plane Bombards.
All in all, the game doesn't compare to any other RTS games you've played before, so it's hard to compare it to anything but "Empire Earth" as they follow the same gameplay mechanics... and if you've been following the RTS scene, you'd know that "Empire Earth" has been dead and burried for a very long time now. "Rise of Nations" is, in my opinion, a great RTS game! Not the best, and not as bad as the latest "Empire Earth" games... and since the online is kind of dead (When you're lucky to get into one online game, it's laggy as all hell), I'd rate it 7.5/10 for the amazing campaigns.
Rise, EMPEROR!