Rather than Rise of Nations with its basically similar mass of nations, each of Rise of Legends' races has radically different propositions, performing similar tasks in different ways. Not that Rise of Legends helps its position by its choice of mechanics for each race. But even ideas which step away from the expectations this little are somehow a little outré for mainstream videogames. Or, in more modern terms, the bad guys from Stargate, but Incans instead of Egyptians. The Cuotl are the Incan-Gods-were-actually-aliens of '70s early pop-conspiracy book Chariot of the Gods. The Alim are a middle-eastern-flavoured magical desert race, riffing tightly off the Arabian Nights. The Vinci are a steam-punk retro-technological race, roughly inspired by the doodles of Leonardo Da Vinci. But why on earth are we all so stupid? The three sides in Rise of Legends are the Vinci, the Alim and the Cuotl. Oh, what on earth are we saying? Every bloody review of Rise of Legends has said this.
Which of the Alim's dragons does what precisely then? It's a hurdle before you can start to tear apart the mechanisms, which drives you away with the game and. Similarly in Rise of Legends, where rather than the usual Tolkein Assortment we have three sides each with an array of creatures whose purpose may not be immediately recognisable. Choosing to research the Proton-proton proton-blob (Proton) IV? Not a chance in hell. well, if you choose to develop the Wheel, you'll have a rough idea what it does. Civ-in-Space it may have been, but it was immediately a less accessible thing just because. Regularly argued as one of the greatest turn-based games of all time, it got dismissed by people unwilling to wrestle with these enormous science-fiction tech-trees. Of course, Big Huge Games' Brian Reynolds has made this mistake before when he lead the design efforts of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. "Yeah," he notes, "I'm really glad they tried, but I wouldn't recommend this to many people."
He thinks that its fiction gets in the way of the mechanics too much. He's just spent the evening playing it and isn't quite convinced. It precipitates while I'm sitting and trying to work a way into the review, when a friend IMs me, asking if I've played it yet. Thinking about Rise of Legends makes me think that maybe we're just doomed.
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