Rise & Fall: Civilizations At War

List Price: $9.99 Discount Price: $3.43

Features:

• Build a civilization from the ground up; for 1 to 8 players
• Play as a legendary hero-god of the ancient world in this exciting game
• Command 1 of the 4 mightiest empires the world has ever known
• Fight alongside your troops in the revolutionary Hero Command mode
• Wield a superhuman combination of leadership and fighting abilities

Accessories:

PC Gamer (1-year)

Customer Reviews:

Game Doesn't Run [Posted on 2006-10-28]
Just got done installing the game, which took about 30 minutes. Running a Pentium D 3.0Ghz, 2GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 6800 system with Windows Vista and the game doesn't work at all. Tried running in XP compatibility mode. No such luck.

I even had to install their malicious and infamous StarForce Protection Software - for what? Not only does this game not run, it locks up my system. Don't waste your money paying for this garbage. This is the first and last time I'll buy a Midway game. They clearly have no idea what they're doing.

Pros: None
Cons: Doesn't work. Locks up Windows

Game play is great, stability is horrible [Posted on 2007-04-01]
Rise and fall is easily one of the best RTS games I've ever played. It really does a great job of supporting different playing types and feels like they took the best elements from Age of Empires, Warcraft, and Diablo and put them together with many more original ideas.

I always thought it was sort of odd how in every other RTS I'd played, walls were just these barriers erected to block movement, units couldn't stand on them or go over them. In real combat, walls were an impediment, but not a true block. Enemies thew ladders up and scaled the wall while defenders tried to kick the ladders off, they served as a walkway giving archers a high ground advantage, and they served as platforms for anti-ground unit siege equipment. Finally here is a game that gives walls the strategy and respect they're due! That's just one example of how much thought was put into this game as to how ancient wars were really fought.

Hero mode is also lots of fun and makes the hero more than just a super powered unit you have to focus on while using your army. in hero mode, you can issue commands to make the AI follow you, attack with you, etc so you can focus on making the most of the hero instead of frantically toggling between the army and the hero like you have to with Warcraft.

I've had major stability issues with this game, though. No hardware issues, but I seriously question how much this game was tested before going into production. I finally had to turn off my anti-virus protection to get the libraries to actually install properly. I don't install games in the default directory, and after browsing for the right place, the text box to enter in a directory name for the game to be installed in kept comming out of focus every couple seconds. Not a big deal since you only see that screen once, but I think it's telling that I've never even heard of that happening with another game. I've had the game suddenly crash for no reason a couple times a day, and just mysteriously quit on me several more times. On the plus side, there's an auto save feature that works really well. I highly recommend utilizing this. It makes the stability issues merely annoying rather than downright throw-the-disk-against-the-wall-and-hit-it-with-a-hammer infuriating.

For some reason the quest objectives wouldn't always trigger when they were completed. This is especially true of the second learn to play scenario. When this happened, I tried seeing if it was other things that I'd done that had caused it to fail triggering, and I never could figure out what was happening. My ultimate guess is that the logic tests used in this game were again not fully tested enough. This was highly exasperating though, since unlike simply picking up the scenario at the last save point before a crash, the objective failures cause you to basically have to give up on your scenario attempt altogether.

Overall, this is a phenomenal game with some seriously software problems. The fact that I'm still willing to give it 4 stars is testament to just how much fun it is. The stability issues keep this from being a game that you get lost in for months, but it will be a game you keep pulling off the shelf to play as soon as you forget your grievances. I would love to see Rise and Fall's development team get a chance to produce another game with another publisher and/or programming team. Someone dropped the ball on this game, which is a crying shame. This could have been a classic.

MEDIOCRE RTS - DEFINITELY *NOT* WORTH THE StarForce RISK [Posted on 2007-11-18]
I knew this one sported StarForce (thanks to Amazon Reviewers with brass ones - and not intimidated by the gaming industry hyenas); yet, I found it in a electronics megamarket bin for $3 and could not resist. (Goes to show what the value of ridiculously "protected" games becomes in less than a year).

StarForce aside (and after subtracting 2 stars for its intrusive risk to our systems), this RTS seems undecided as to what it aimed for.
Trying to combine strategy with action is not new, WARCRAFT 3 (for one) did it much better. You have your hero (Alexander or Cleopatra) and then you build up your army to complete the corresponding campaign.
You build your base and your workers gather wood and gold. When strong enough you go (or get thrown) into battle - to earn the third resource: glory. All three are needed to advance to the next eras.

The graphics can be adequately good if run on high settings; low settings are pretty disappointing. The units are well designed though, and their movements and spilled blood give a realistic taste.

The controls will take you some time to get used to as, not only do they take up quite a chunk of the screen, but are temperamental in responding as well. Selecting units, especially in the heat of the battle, can be tricky too, as more often than not, workers receive by mistake the order to run into the front line and fight hand-to-hand with the armed enemy: an expensive short-lived sight.

The only thing that keeps this game afloat is, well, its naval warfare. Most RTS avoid them as too messy and complicated (haven't seen a solid effort since C&C: RED ALERT 2), however R&F:CaW demonstrates well designed ships, historically (more or less) accurate naval warfare techniques and quite enjoyable animations.

All in all: not a bad game that, unfortunately, is hardly worth the StarForce trouble it brings to our systems.

best game ever made !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [Posted on 2008-05-13]
i bought this game off of amazon and it rulz i had to upgrade my computer but my computer was really old but it was worth it when you see those graphics.

Rise and Fall  [Posted on 2008-09-08]
I bought this for my son who had this game and broke the CD. He liked it so much that I had to buy it again. My son is 11yrs old and although I don't get into these types of games he loves it and will play for hours if I am not careful. It helps him build on critical thinking and strategical play. It was a purchase that I am happy with, he plays w/my hubby and his brother every chance he gets. It is similar to Age of Empire. Caution: I had to find a link to enable the game to play on Vista. (I am not computer savy, be sure you have someone who is)

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