Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome

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Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00001LDCC
• Media: CD-ROM
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #14,795 in Video Games (See Bestsellers in Video Games)

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• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

GameSpot Review
Just as the Romans rose up and became the most advanced and powerful nation in the Western Hemisphere at the turn of the millenium, so too do the Romans replace the old civilizations to reign supreme in Ensemble's Age of Empires expansion pack, Rise of Rome.

With the planned sequel to Age of Empires pushed back to the middle of next year, the Rise of Rome expansion pack took on new meaning. Not only is it supposed to enhance the value of this year-old favorite, but it also serves as a bridge between Age of Empires and Age of Empires II. Age of Empires loosely followed the growth of the ancient civilizations, Rise of Rome is set during the reign of the Roman empire in the West, and Age of Empires II is to be set in the dark ages, after the infrastructure established by the Romans crumbled into warring pieces.

As both a dessert for Age of Empires fans and an appetizer for Age of Empires II, Rise of Rome is a series of hits and misses. I am a huge fan of the original game. I played numerous multiplayer games and even gave the single-player campaigns a good, honest try. I didn't really mind the unit limit or the questionable pathfinding. And I forgave the inadequacies of the single-player campaign because I loved multiplayer matches so much.

There were many that loved Age of Empires as much as I did, but there were others that just couldn't play this game because of a few problems. I couldn't really see these problems a year ago when I was first enamored of the game, but today, I finally see just what all the fuss was about: This game is far from perfect, and it has a few shortcomings that detract from the play experience.

The Rise of Rome expansion offers five new units, four new civilizations, four new technologies, four new campaigns, and a few user enhancements like unit queues. As expansion packs go, this one is crammed with goodies. Most of the five units were added in response to balance problems in Age. The slinger is a barracks unit that exists to counter the tool age bowman rush. The camel rider serves a similar purpose against the Bronze Age cavalry rush. The scythe chariot was created for those civilizations that lacked a heavy Iron Age cavalry unit. The armored elephant was introduced because the war elephant just wasn't being used enough. There wasn't an imbalance on the high seas, but the fire galley was nevertheless brought in to expand naval combat.

All the units are useful, but you won't soon forget the old units because these new ones are either highly specialized or expensive to research. The new additions found in Rise of Rome don't really change the game significantly, although they do spice up matches. The slingers and camel riders do mitigate certain rushes, but the game remains fundamentally the same, and some Rise of Rome games will end without the need to ever build an expansion unit.

My one issue with the new units isn't really a complaint, but an observation. The three "counter" units - slinger, camel rider, and fire galley - are highly specialized units that are great against a certain type of unit and pretty much impotent against most of the other units. The scythe chariot and armored elephants are great, although they are expensive upgrades to existing units, in the same fashion as cataphracts and centurions. The scythe chariot addresses some civilizations' lack of heavy cavalry in the Iron Age. All the new units have good animation and sound, although the lanky gait of the camel rider bothered me.

The four new civilizations are good additions to the game, with some nice special abilities to entice you to play them. The two interesting civilizations are the Macedonians (four times as resistant to conversion) and the Romans (master builders). The other two civilizations, Palmryans and Carthaginians, aren't quite as interesting. One questionable thing about the new civs is the increased cost of Palmryan villagers, without significant benefits to justify the cost.

The four new technologies aren't must-haves, but they have their uses. Two make the priest even more powerful, while one adds a nominal bonus to infantry armor against missile attacks, and the other allows you to build barracks units beyond the population limit. I must say that the way Ensemble implemented the priests' new martyrdom ability (which allows you to instantly convert a unit by sacrificing your priest) leaves much to be desired. Instead of adding a button to the interface to allow you to click to martyr your priest, you have to convert normally and then hit delete. The interface of the game is otherwise good, but this seems to me more like a last-minute work-around. Couldn't Ensemble have just spent the time to add a button to the priest interface?

Probably the best thing about the expansion pack is the suite of user enhancements, which includes adjustable unit limits, unit queues, and adjustable pathfinding. These improvements do make the game better.

As in the first, the single-player game is the biggest drawback. The campaigns are unusually short, which is fine. However, there are no cutscene rewards for campaign victories. Many individual scenarios had interesting premises, but there is no purpose for the overall campaigns, just a loose theme and some random missions. I had hoped that Ensemble would make the solo experience more rewarding, but it isn't. The scenarios within each campaign play more like a puzzle game. These new missions are hard, not because the artificial intelligence is more challenging, but because the scenario setup is more puzzle-like and tedious.

The other thing that really diffused my enjoyment of the expansion was the terrible pathfinding. I forgave it in Age of Empires, and even though it has been improved, it is still bad. Invariably, when you tell a group of units to go around a forest to get to another point, half of them will get stuck in the trees, too stupid to know to walk around the foliage.

Rise of Rome is not a must-buy. I like parts of the expansion pack, but there isn't enough compelling content to make me want to go out and add it to my multiplayer matches. All the additions are nice, but they aren't necessary for your continued enjoyment. If you are a big Age of Empires fan, you'll want to check out the new units and civilizations, as well as the user enhancements, but you won't be getting a significant upgrade to the single-player experience or the pathfinding, two problems that Ensemble knew were in the original but somehow didn't address in this expansion pack. --Elliott Chin
Copyright ©1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited.

From the Manufacturer
The Age of Empires Expansion: The Rise of Rome is the highly anticipated add-on to the award-winning, best-selling real-time strategy game Age of Empires. Focusing on the legendary Roman Empire, the Rise of Rome will challenge veterans and novices alike to wage war on an epic scale with four additional civilizations, several unique units, new technologies, and new campaigns, including the showcase campaign that focuses on the Rise of Rome itself. Includes four new civilizations - Carthage, Palmyra, Macedonia, and Rome.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better AOE, January 5, 2000

By	"deke_2503" (Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, Earth, Milky Way) - See all my reviews

If you like AOE (Age of Empires), you should get this. It adds more campaigns, units, and civs. It also adds more to the game itself, like gigantic map. While you would think that they could squeeze more into an expansion, they didn't. But it is still a remarkable addition to a truly great game. However, if you don't play AOE that much, or like it, I wouldn't recommend it, because it is the same game, just bigger and better

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great strategy expansion to an already great game!, April 5, 2005

By	The Game "B" (USA) - See all my reviews

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

I seriousely think that out of all the age of empires games in the series, (not including age of mythology)the first one and its expansion, Rise of Rome are the best. The reason being is that it has the biggest number of civilizations that you can choose from, its a lot cheaper (in terms of how much it costs) then the other AOE games, and also, you can create however many units you want (in the expansion) whereas in age of kings, you are limited to the number of units that you create.

Graphics: The graphics in Rise Of Rome are extremely simplistic, just as most strategy games are now a days. They are not bad, but definetely not graphics that you would want to brag about to a friend/anyone.

Gameplay: Typical strategy game is what is found in AOE Rise of Rome. Your objective is to basically eliminate your opponent or be the first person to build a wonder, which costs a lot of resources. It requires the mouse a lot, and a lot of clicking so your hand can get tired after a while, but still, that is no reason for you not to get this game.

Audio: There isn't really much audio in this game besides the music. The music is actually pretty good, compared to most games now a days.

Online: The online aspect of Rise of Rome is amazing. Hardly any lag, and you will be up and running a game in a matter of minutes. You usually use www.zone.com in order to play online with other people.

In conclusion, i highly recommend this expansion pack to all Age of Empires fans out there!

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A pretty good add on to AOE, November 10, 1999

By	"cojiro" (Earth) - See all my reviews

The Rise of Rome is a pretty good expansion for Age of Empires. It added cool new units like the Scythe Chariot and the Camel. It also gives the new map size and four cool new civilizations. A dissapointment was that they all looked the same. Also the 200 population limit on multiplayer is a nice change. Overall I would give Rise of Rome three stars