Review by: Pete Hines
Published: October 22, 1998

When Age of Empires (AOE) burst upon the scene, I expected big things. While it was an enjoyable game in many respects, it had a few components that I thought needed some fixing or adjusting. Still, the game seemed to be popular and the following for AOE grew to sizable numbers. Rise of Rome is the expansion for AOE that adds more gameplay and some functionality to extend the life of AOE until AOE 2 is ready next year. I know that patches have been released for AOE that addressed some problems and added features (i.e., population limits). However, for the most part I’ll be referring to what’s new in Rise of Rome as it compares to the original AOE. Those of you who have the patches know what they fixed, and those who don’t, should get them.

Gameplay in The Rise of Rome is really no different than the original as far as the basic elements are concerned. There are 20 new single player missions divided into four separate campaigns: Rise of Rome, Ave Caesar, Pax Romana, and Enemies of Rome. The campaigns begin with Rise of Rome, which picks up around 400 B.C. and follows the efforts of the Roman army as it battled the Greeks and Hannibal. That campaign ends where Ave Caesar picks up…fighting pirates and strengthening the might of the Roman Empire. In some of the missions you get to play as other civilizations and in general the missions offer some nice variety. You may be leading your men through the Alps in one mission, fighting a slave army in the next, and smack in the middle of a large naval battle in still another.

Multiplayer games have also been enhanced on a number of fronts. There is now an even larger map size that is truly gigantic and dizzying. There are also four new map types, including hill country and Mediterranean. Each offers a different challenge and some variety for those looking for a new multiplayer experience. Before starting a multiplayer game you can set the population limit and you can even change this during the course of play. Some of the other, general changes to the game include a few new features in the interface and a full set of buildings for the Romans, including their famous Colosseum (their wonder). We’ll talk about some of these other new features in the criteria section on the next page.

Rise of Rome includes five new units. The armored elephant is an upgrade to the war elephant and is more powerful and heavily armored. They make great siege weapons. Camel riders are intended to offset the strengths of cavalry, scouts, horse archers, and chariots and earn attack bonuses against these units. They’re one of the two units Ensemble included in the expansion to help provide better defenses against the all-to-common rushes performed by the computer and human players alike. The other is the slinger, a lightly armored unit that throws rocks at high velocity at the enemy with a sling, a la David (vs. Goliath). They’re cheap to produce and do well against archers and when attacking walls and towers.

The scythe chariot, which has more hit points, armor, and attacking ability than the chariot, can do additional damage to enemy troops with the blades attached to its wheels. Last, but certainly not least, is the fire galley. These ships are good for close range combat with a single enemy ship. While it takes extra damage from most units that use ballistic weapons, it can quickly turn an enemy trireme into ashes by smashing it with pots of fire that do heavy damage. The role of these new units is not just to give players something new to build, but adds some more balance to the game by offsetting some of the strengths of certain units and giving you another option for defending or attacking different units.

Four new technologies have been added to the technology tree. Researching logistics allows you to have a higher population than the limit because all units created in a barracks count as 1/2 a unit, except for slingers. Basically, it allows you to have twice as many of these units without reaching the limit. Researching martyrdom in your temple allows you to convert any single enemy unit to your side by sacrificing one of your priests. You can also research medicine at your temple, which speeds up the rate at which your priests heal your units. Finally, the tower shield technology gives your infantry and academy units added protection against attacks from ballista, helepolis, and missile weapons.

It just so happens that there are four new civilizations as well (somebody at Ensemble likes things in fours). Of course, the biggest is the Romans around whom the four main campaigns in the game revolve. Romans have a different set of buildings, although they are the same in form and function as the others in AOE. Romans can build most structures 15% cheaper than everyone else and towers cost half as much. Also, Roman swordsmen attack 1/3 faster than they do for other civilizations, making them a staple in any Roman army. The other three civilizations have different ties to the Roman Empire. Carthaginians were one of the civilizations that challenged the Romans for supremacy in the Mediterranean. They have faster transports, fire galleys that do more damage, and academy and elephant units with higher hit points. The Hellenes helped the Greeks fight Rome in the third century B.C. Among their attributes are a units with a strong resistance to being converted and hand-to-hand units that can see farther than their counterparts. Last but not least are the Palmyrans, who were once aligned with the Romans but then decided to go their own route. Among the special attributes for the Palmyrans are double gold for each trade trip they make and have faster camel riders.