Orange on orbit

Big Huge games has released the second installment for the Rise of Nation series. This time however, the developer ventured to the sci-fi world and brings Rise of Legends. Apparently, their risky attempt turned out great. Heck, I gotta admit that I sometimes get tired of the generic themes.

There are three distinctive civilizations that you could choose, each of course, having their own pros and cons. The Vinci rely on industry and inventions (something liek 19th century inventions) and carry on usual human stuff like trades. The Cuotl is associated with worship and high technology; more like a lost technology, they got egypt-like buildings but has lasers and stuff, similar to Protos in Star Wars. The last one I forgot the name but they have something to do with magics and summonings.

   

   

Rise of Legends also introduces some great innovations. Districts now replace the need of temples, markets, etc. To raise population cap, build military district; Gold income and resource cap, build economy district so on and so forth. Districts are only built connecting to the city, so it actually enhance realism and gives a better sense of big cities. There are also individual buildings like defensive towers, barracks and other specific ones. Some might say that there is lack of diversity on the units and structures compared to the prequel. But I’d say it is reasonable, coz it reduces the complications during micro-managing your army in battle. Not to mention the superb detail of each units - well maybe not that superb anyway.

Graphics are quite demanding, but should be smooth enough on most systems. I could play on the highest settings but due to lack of memory, had some spiky lags. Just for the record, I should mention that my GPU is fully capable of rendering the highest All and all the game is awesome and highly recommended for those RTS fans. 9/10