Reviews for Microsoft Rise of Nations: Gold Edition

Fun game!

Strengths: easy to learn, different "ages" with historical units, conquer the world campaign

Weakness: nothing

This version combines two great games into one - the basic Rise of Nations game and its expansion pack - Thrones and Patriots. The installation loaded both - you can't just play the original games without the expansion.

This game is similar to the age of empires games, you start with basic units and buildings, you gather resources, you advance along a technology tree learning new skills. As you advance, you can get more units, more buildings and more resources. The technology tree is divided into different catgories - military, civil, science, commerce.

You can play different nations and each nation has bonus characteristics and their own unique units with unique capabilites.

You can play a random game or you can choose one of the "campaigns" - Alexendar the Great, the New World, Napolean, the Cold War, Conquer the World.

I can't really comment on the graphic since I play it mostly on an old 400 Mhz P2 so I had to lower the graphic quality - but it plays on it even though its lower than the minimum specs!

I enjoy this game and recommend it to anyone who doesn't have the original Rise of Nations game. By buying this version you get the original and the expansion pack in one bundle.

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Excelent Game

Strengths: I love the conquer the world option. It can keep me busy for days. The advancements in technology is cool. You can advance up to the information age/space age.

Weakness: Not the best graphics

The game is simple to learn but there are a lot of small details to learn in the game. It may take a while to actually getting used to the whole tech tree.
This game was the game of the year for 2003 so I just had to get this game. I don't have a P3 and a Radeon 9250 and this game plays very smoothly.
Just like Age of Empires but better because of the conquer the world option and the technology advancements.
If you have an expensive computer Civilization IV is a lot like this game (the only difference is that Civ IV is turn based) so you may want to try it out.

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Microsoft Rise of Nations: Gold Edition

Strengths: Hours of single player missions in addition to online play

Weakness: None that I've encountered

One of the best RTS games I've played. I downloaded the demo and was hooked instantly. There are a number of single player scenarios which can be played a number of different ways which add up to an incredible amount of game play for a pretty cheap price. Great graphics, good tutorial and a fun, addictive game. Highly recommended.

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Rise of Nations: Gold

Strengths: Seven levels of AI player's inteligence, easy "tutorial", can turn off and on certain graphics instead of just getting high, medium, and low resolutions on the entire aspect.

Weakness: None

I purchased the original at first and was hooked on that entirly. When the expansion came out, I still hadn't explored all the original had, so I waited. Then they brought out the Gold Edition and I jumped.

I have only played the single player mode but it's still very challenging playing against the AI. Starting from the anchient age, and working your civilization up through history to the modern age, is harder than it sounds. You have to wisely manage your resources. Will you invest in military might and destory your opponents right away, or save and build enough wonders to awe your enemies into submission? Your decisions might make or break your chances to make it into the history books.

The game might run a little slow on some processors but it's worth it.

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Rise of Nations Gold

Strengths: One game and one expansion in one package. Many nations and units to choose from.

Weakness: None at the moment.

Microsoft puts the original Rise of Nations and Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots expansion into one package and sell it as one.

Original Rise of Nations features somewhat different approach than the Command & Conquer series. It takes longer time and better management for the player's chosen nation to prosper and develop more advance weaponry and technologies than others. There are many nations and units to choose from, though some nations and its units share similarities with other nations. Expansion reinforce it with additional units and few nations.

Rise of Nations try to take RTS with different approach than just futuristic stories, weapons, and technologies, it tries to make the player build a nation from ground up. The process is somewhat slow moving, but it appears to appeal to players that want to try different stuffs. Even though it only uses simple 3D characters and environment, it is still fun to play. Games, especially RTS games, that want to try different style of RTS games should give it a try.

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Good Game

Strengths: Interesting campaigns and rule changes associated w

Weakness: I wish that they had better tutorials. Once you set the difficulty level at average or above, the computer can be devilishly difficult to beat.

This is a good RTS game. I like how there are so many technologies to research, and that the game covers such a long time period. You can go from the Iron Age until the Information Age. Unfortunately, there is much simplification involved to make the game still playable. Like, there are only two different types of fighters that you can launch from aircraft carriers--Corsairs and later, Hornets. This game is missing physical barriers that players can construct. It would be helpful if you could build walls. I like how there are different campaigns, and that the rules vary for each campaign. This is most evident in the Cold War campaign. It's not all divide and conquer. Some missions require converting enemies into friendly units, some missions are raids, and others are strictly defensive. There is a good variety of scenarios.I wish that this game had better tutorials. It has some, but none of them describes what the government is good for. The scenarios cover most of the technology ages, but they don't cover advanced strategies. For some of us dummies, we struggle fighting the computer when the difficulty level is just at average.Overall, this is a great game. I've spent countless hours on it, and I haven't gone through all of the scenarios and campaigns. It's a more satisfying feeling to conquer the world in this game than i

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Rise of Nations - Gold Edition

Strengths: The gold edition comes with the original Rise of Nations and the expansion. Excellent gameplay and balance between the different nations.

Weakness: Gameplay is unrealistic when ancient units deal the same amount of damage to modern units.

Definitely one of the better strategy games, especially among the history based ones. Being able to play as a historical figure and recreating history is one of the best aspects of the game.

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RON-good RTS game

Strengths: as good as AOE, but you can play for thousands of years (in game of course), you can operate your tank to kill the weak horseman.

Weakness: too too many units, pretty old

I know this is a pretty old game, as old as AOE, but it is also a good game, as good as AOE.
the biggest difference is you can only play for some ages in AOE, but you can play for thousands of years in RON. Different nations, different tactics, different priorities let you choose different ways to win.

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Battle type strategy game using a large Risk type...

Strengths: Strong AI to play against, it isn't as good as the starcraft AI but comparible. Loving the Risk type world map, much better than Command/Conquer since it is part of the game strategy. Good Multiplayer

Weakness: Tech tree is minimal and annoying to deal with; units from the Modern Day tech could still be crippled by units from the Mediveal age? Can't name your own civilization.

I usually wait till things go gold before buying the game; the bugs have usually been cleaned out and the entire series is at my fingertips. After playing this game, I wondered why I had waited so long!

I was immediately attracted to the multiple strategy layers of the game. It was a two-part long distance goal and short-term battles. A map layout allows the player to view where they should strike next, or perhaps where they will be hit! And don't think you won't be hit by the AI computer, whose level of play can be increased to quite an aggressive challenger.

Otherwise the battles are the standard light versus heavy units with various artillery units to swing the battle. A player could be very methodical about all of their battles, but this game also forces the player not to lose sight of a 'bigger' picture on the world map.

Definitely recommend now that the game price has dropped; these days, I will usually find myself playing this game rather than Age of Empires 2.

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Rise of Nations Gold Edition

Strengths: Must have for any RTS fan. If you like Age of Empires, Starcraft, Warcraft 3 and the like, you'll certainly love this game.

Weakness: Graphics is not as good as Civ IV.

When this game first came it, it was definitely the game to beat. If you're a war game fan then this ones for you. It's similar to StarCraft in the sense that you go out and resources, build up your army, and then the fun part is go out and annihilate your enemy.

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Microsoft Rise of Nations: Gold Edition

Strengths: Great game with easy controll. I love how there are so many advancements you can go through. Its a great mulitply game as well

Weakness: none

Its a great classic game and well worth the 20 bucks it costs. can keep you going for weeks.. AS far as graphics go RTS games dont need the best graphics just good contoll

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Rise of Nations Gold Edition

TestSeek.com has collected 1 expert review for Rise of Nations Gold Edition and the rating is 100 of 100. Click below and use TestSeek.com to find all ratings, product awards and conclusions.

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Rise of Nations

Rise of Nations receives an overall TopTenREVIEWS rating of 3.64 out of 4.00. It is ranked the #211 game of all time, #6 game of 2003 for the PC and #44 PC game of all time. The rating and ranking is based on an average of 65 critic scores, awards and other criteria. To see a breakdown of the game ranking, read individual critic reviews, or see how other games ranked, click on the link below.

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