13-Dec-2006 The RTS Rubicon has been crossed Three years from now the term 'RTS' isn't going to mean what it means today. In 2009 every build-and-battle strategy game on the shelves is going to come with its own version of Rise & Fall's fantabulous Hero Command Mode (HCM).
Yes, I know. Back in 2002 I predicted voxels were going to make a comeback; in 2004 I suggested that all games would soon follow the lead of Romanian FPS Kingdom of Bullets and ship with talking ravens instead of printed manuals. I admit my prophesies haven't always come to pass, but this time it's going to be different, it really is. The strategy games industry is going to fall in love with HCM because HCM is the best thing that's happened to it since Earth 2150 augured in the 3D revolution. Once punters have seen what a dollop of third-person action can do for Age of Empires (Rise & Fall = Age of Empires + pinch of Prince of Persia), they're going to insist on similar dollops being added to their Command & Conquers, their Warcrafts, their Blitzkriegs and their Cossacks.
Don't believe me? Consider these following two battle anecdotes. The first one is me playing Rise & Fall as if it were a conventional RTS. Are you sitting comfortably? Then let's begin.
"Salutations, my name is [glances around room] Domestos. I'm a Greek general famed for his siege skills and sparkling toilet bowl. This morning, after weeks of waiting, recruiting, and drilling I ordered my army to attack the heavily fortified Phoenician city of Tyre. From a lofty vantage point high above the battlefield (Thank Zeus I thought to pack my invisible Hellenicopter!) I first sent battering rams to assault the city gate. These ponderous juggernauts were quickly destroyed but their sacrifice bought precious time for my brave ladder teams. With a few clicks of my magic general's clicky-thing, I soon had Grecian hypaspists scouring the ramparts of Persian archers, and my trusted hero (also called Domestos) hacking away at the gate mechanism in the courtyard beyond. Soon the giant studded barrier swung open allowing the bulk of my force to enter the city."
OK? Right, here's that same battle section, this time played with generous use of Rise & Fall's wonderful HCM.
"Salutations, my name is Domestos. I'm a Greek general etcetera, etcetera. This morning, after weeks of preparation, I ordered my army to attack the heavily fortified Phoenician city of Tyre. After issuing a few initial orders with the aid of the invisible Hellenicopter (that's a metaphor by the way), I activated HCM and took my rightful place at the head of the attack. Jogging forward with ladder crews trotting beside me, my blood, I confess, ran cold. From high in the sky Tyre's walls had looked intimidating enough; from ground level they towered above me like the very Pillars of Hercules. But there was little time for trepidation. Stout Greek soldiers were already crumpling in the growing storm of Persian arrows and ballista bolts. As I ran I drew my bow and loosed shot after shot at the bearded archers on the wall-tops. Apollo must have been smiling on me for a good number of those arrows found their mark.
"By the time I reached the foot of the wall the first of our ladder teams were in position. I made for the nearest and scaled it faster than an Assyrian date monkey. In seconds I was standing amongst startled Persians, and all was bronze blades, blood and mayhem. Foes slumped to the flags or plummeted screaming into the courtyard. Only the arrival of a horde of wicker-shielded levy troopers slowed the slaughter. These fellows knew how to fight, but were soon hopelessly outnumbered by the hypaspists streaming up the ladders behind me.
"Seeing the skirmish on the battlements was now in safe hands I found a staircase and headed for the gate. A phalanx of spearmen who attempted to block my path regretted it when a brace of flaming pitch arrows kindled them like temple torches. Those were the last to die by my hand that day. Half a dozen swift sword blows severed the gate chain, allowing hundreds of eager Greek warriors to pour into the city. The rest of the battle for Tyre I directed from afar."
See the difference? The first version of the battle is Marmite sandwiches, it's the bus ride into town, the oh-so-familiar Blu-Tack stain on the wall beside your bed. The second version is wild strawberries, escaped lions, and your first day in Morocco. With a relatively simple innovation, Stainless Steel Studios make the weary RTS genre seem fresh and exciting again. They've realised that most of us never wanted our strategy games to be more like RPGs or TV history documentaries; all we really craved was the chance to shrink like Alice and wander about among the silicon souls that slave and soldier for us.
If wreaking havoc in Rise & Fall's third-person mode is so bally enjoyable, why play any other way? Three reasons. Firstly, when you're down on the deck, it's easy to lose sight of the big picture. Have my onagers breached the southern wall yet? Did my trireme crew in the bay successfully repel those scurvy boarders? How many men in my highly trained Noble Guards formation are still breathing? You can hotfoot it to high ground to get the answers to questions like these, but switching back to the classic RTS mode is really much simpler. Secondly, in HCM your command instruments are also fairly limited. Though you can encourage troops to charge or follow, there are no Brothers in Arms-style crosshair controls here. To assign new targets, destinations and behaviour stances to your men, a spell in the trusty Hellenicopter is essential.
The last way in which Rise & Fall ensures the third-person savagery doesn't eclipse the eyein-the-sky strategising is a simple yet ingenious hero stamina mechanism. In HCM every sword swing, arrow release and wound sustained nibbles away at a stamina bar. Even if you periodically recuperate by smashing the energy jars scattered about campaign maps, you will eventually get ejected from the body of your hero and hurled back to an aerial vantage-point. Out of HCM your avatar is controlled just like any other unit. Over time his or her stamina slowly replenishes, so, once a few minutes have passed, you're ready to rejoin the fray once again.
Even if Rise & Fall didn't have the wonderfully liberating and beautifully integrated HCM it would still have a unique claim to fame. Without question this game boasts the best briny battles ever seen on a PC screen. Stainless Steel have taken possibly the dullest aspect of the traditional RTS and turned it into something beautiful and important. In place of the out-of-scale ghost ships we've grown accustomed to, they've provided giant gorgeous galleys with decks bustling with crew and human cargo (when a soldier boards an R&F vessel he doesn't disappear, he remains on deck, a crucial part of the boat's defences). In place of dull-as-ship's-biscuits cannon duels, they've cooked up a rich combat chowder thick with ingredients like ramming, boarding and deck-to-deck arrow trading. The first time you encounter an enemy vessel and see its sailors hurling grappling irons in your direction, you know your expectations have been permanently altered. The same thing happens when you first witness the archers aboard one of your tubs coolly picking off the swimming crew of a vanquished vessel.
Here are two nautical things you should definitely do during your first weekend with Rise & Fall. Load up a trireme (the biggest of the game's three boat types) with a good-sized crew of troops and tars (see 'Never mind the rowlocks' below) and go prowling for enemy shipping. When you locate a likely victim, give the order to grapple, then dab the magic HCM button. If you've timed it right you should have time to loose a few volleys of arrows at the opposing mariners, before unsheathing your sword and bounding down the gangplank on to the enemy's deck. There's nothing quite like slaughtering 50 seasick Sunday-sailors, then steering their ship back to a friendly port, to give you an appetite for breakfast.
Here's the other thing you just have to try before you pass judgement on this game. Again you're going to need a trim trireme loaded to the gunwales with bronze-armed fighting men, one of which should be your avatar. Cruise the coast until you find a sleepy little enemy settlement - there's generally one on every map - and give the order to beach. As your oarsmen pull for the shore, hit that lovely HCM button, and position yourself in the bow. When the hull hits the shingle, tap F ('follow me, lads!') and charge up the beach cutting down anyone that gets in your way. Pure 24-carat gaming gold! Midway, if you don't reform Stainless Steel this instant, and give them a blank cheque for a Viking-themed expansion pack, I'll tell an ALF mate of mine that Rise & Fall was tested on beagles.
Actually, you don't really have to make a special effort to do the activities talked about in that last pair of paragraphs. The designers behind the two 12-episode campaigns were obviously well aware of the unique strengths of the Rise & Fall design. They've packed both the Cleopatra and the Alexander story sequences with cartloads of memorable moments. In amongst the usual bunch of competently contextualised assault, defend, escort and liberate tasks there are a smattering of entirely third-person outings. A couple of these send you off into the Sahara of frustration without map, hat or water, but most make for pleasingly unexpected interludes. When was the last time you played an RTS campaign episode in which all your time was taken up bow-sniping from the prow of a cruising galley, or sparring with Romans at night in the grounds of an Egyptian temple?
There's a reason I haven't said much yet about the RTS that sits serenely at the core of Rise & Fall. That reason is there really isn't much to say beyond it's good solid stuff with a strong whiff of Ensemble's best work. Four civs - the Romans, Persians, Greeks, and Egyptians - can be guided to greatness via the skirmish generator. Each ravishes Mother Nature with axes and gold picks. Each produces their own versions of swordsmen, spearmen, archers, cavalry and siege machines. Each generates Glory through martial endeavours and construction and uses it to pay for unit upgrades, hero levelling and advisors (the game's charmingly logical interpretation of a tech-tree). There are culturally unique structures, units and abilities, but dazzling diversity is not one of R&F's strengths. Choose Rise of Legends for that.
Samey factions - is that really the only crow in the Rise & Fall dovecote? Of course not. Stainless Steel definitely could have made more effort to differentiate the eight heroes. As it stands, most of the possessable protagonists do their death-dealing exclusively with swords and bows, and have just one unique power. If you come expecting Prince of Persia levels of melee sophistication you'll leave sorely disappointed. There are no acrobatics here (the heroes can't jump at all) no fancy attack combos or grisly limb lopping. The AI is pretty primitive, too. It will put up a decent fight in the campaign episodes and skirmishes, but it doesn't show much wit when pelted with arrows from afar.
The untimely demise of Stainless Steel also seems to have taken a modest toll, Midway's internal devs unable or unwilling to crush small scarab bugs like the dodgy slipways (sometimes boats will beach themselves while launching), the levitating galley slaves (after ramming, rows of oarsmen can be left hovering above the waves) and the handful of fragile mission scripts (I managed to break a couple during my adventures). None of these are good reasons for boycotting this glorious genre-rejuvenating ray of sunlight, but don't say we didn't warn you.
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, UK BA1 2BW England and Wales company registration number 2008885
Not over-complicated
