Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots introduces six new nations, four unique single-player campaigns, more than 20 original units, new wonders and new government types. Unlike other historical RTS games, the Rise of Nations franchise allows gamers to quickly play through eight historical epochs of time from the Ancient Age to the Information Age. Americans Immigrant peoples who settled North America and declared their independence in the 18th century. The Americans have the Power
1 Wonderful expansion for a great game (4.75 stars)
I have already posted a full review of Rise of Nations, so I won't go into many details here. However, in terms of what it adds to the original game, Throne and Patriots is probably the best expansion pack I have ever played. The new stuff like governments, new units, the four campaigns, and other options simply make the game feel even more user-friendly and realistic. I never played Rise of Nations without the expansion pack, and it is really hard to tell where the original game ends and the expansion begins. THey fit together that well. I have only played the Napoleonic campaign, and it is excellent. The special units, like the government unit and the generals, add a nice touch to the game without throwing things off balance. If there is anything lacking in this game, it has to do with sounds and visuals, not gameplay. To make the game even more immersive, I wish that the special units had just a tad bit of voice acting, like some verbal acknowledgment as they go into action. Also, the geography could use a bit more diversity--weather changes and day & night cycles would have probably pushed me toward giving this game an outright 5 stars. Nonetheless, Rise of Nations is definitely a top-10 favorite game of all time for me. I highly recommend it (and the expansion) to anyone who likes well-done strategy games.
2 Lots of bugs!, No one online to play!!
I do love this game, it could have been great! There are a lot of bugs, and for a #1 best selling game you would think there are a ton of people online to play, but no at 9pm on a Friday night there are about 50 players online and half of them are just talking smack to each other. It is a shame that there is not more company support for this game. IT is a lot of fun to play once you get past the bugs and wait sometimes 25 min to get a game going. This is not like Battle net at all! IT just seams the game is lost.
3 A great expansion for under $10!
About all the expansion gives you, though, is more balanced gameplay. Not much new in graphics, playability, etc. Same stuff, different disc.
4 Hhmm just the same as any other strategic game mode..!!
I was so looking forward to buying this game when it was put on the shelves here in New Zealand as I love playing games that make you think and strategies. But, now that I have brought it I now think that the money was not worth it and could have gone to a better game. My disappointment only is a reflection of my desire to buy a game that had great reviews to being disappointed when I had finally brought the game and played it and said, this is a remake from another game, but with different effects and characters.
But not to be negative about RON's, the visuals were top of the range and many other aspects of the game were top notch. But I am now thinking that the creators of such games have come to a stop. If you have already played games like Star Wars Galactic Battleground etc, then you might as well say you have played this game already.
5 The bar for RTS games
This game has set the bar for all subsequent real-time strategy games. I tried to play Age of Kings a few weeks ago after playing this game a lot, and all i could do was smile :) the habits i had developed from this game couldn't fit there and the gameplay was just a lot better.
The original was good, but the expansion makes it a lot better. The new nation additions are interesting, with the Americans, Indians, Iroquios, Lakota and Dutch. I like the interactions with realtime history and you can use this game as an excuse for history homework :-D The new campaigns are also a lot more interesting than trying to take over the world one step at a time like Risk.
The one thing I wish they had done is made a campaign with World War 2. Other than that, i highly recommend this game.
6 Great Game
Out of all of the types of games that I have played like this it is one of the best yet. I really can't wait for expansion packs to come out for it. The graphics and gameplay are great. I would recommend this game to anybody.
7 What happened?
The first game was good but - the expansion pack allows you to play as only 6 more nations at the price of $30 - its not worth to buying an over priced expansion pack, and there are barely and new builings...and the persians got messed up cause THEY DO NOT USE WAR ELEPHANTS!!! It was India who used them. And both there buildings look the same persian buildings look more like the turks!!!
8 WoW
This is a great expansion pack. I liked very much the original RoN but there were some problems with it:
1) After some time it sort of became repetitive--either quick tactical battles or the usual R&D for an hour and then attack with full force.
2) The micro-management was, to put it mildly, a bit too detailed--especially when you had to gather resources, build an army, do research, keep upgrading everything, and possibly have to attack (or fend off one) at the same time.
3) The game was also out of historical context with the only possibility being the solo Conquer the World campaign. As I was playing, I kept thinking (which is apparently quite similar to what the developers at Microsoft were thinking)--what if the game had been infused with more history. What would the great generals do in certain situations? And then, what if resources were limited in certain campaigns--what if you actually had to play at the historical odds? Would be fun, no?
You bet. This expansion pack, I think, corrects all of the above weaknesses. There are new units, and new nations--yeah, yeah, variety is good but I think the four new campaigns are the real gems in the crown. It makes playing the real-time part of the game so much more fun and you actually have to think as quite often the standard R&D for an hour and then full attack is either not avaible or simply would not work. And the best part for me--all four campaigns are historically based. Believe it or not--you can get a pretty good overview of military history by playing this game. There is a strategic advisor at the turn-based part who gives bits of advice that nicely immerse you in the politics of the given era. And at the beginning of every historical scenario there is a short summary of what actually happened when the opposing sides faced off.
So for those of you who liked RoN and for some obscure reason have not yet purchased this expansion--shame on you! For everyone else--if you buy one RTS game or if you are remotely interested in military history/strategy--buy the original RoN and this expansion pack!
9 Lots of new features, not quite enough to satisfy.
The hit of the first Rise of Nations was hard to overcome, but this expansion makes the game even better. The goverments that come into play just add to what type of nation you want to become: Military or Economic. But you will have to choose wiseley in order to win in harder modes of the game.
Overall: Brings new aspects to the game, but lack of choosing grows dull, you can only choose three. * * * * out of 5
The new nations brought into the game are the best features by far, unfournatley, only 6 are new:
Americans (very good, ability to entrench is excellent)
Iriquios (decent, just another nation)
Lakota (decent, just another nation)
Persians (very good, top 5 nations)
Indians (almost exactly like the Persians, very goood)
Dutch (unique units are somewhat inifective, decent)
Overall: Wish there were 1 or 2 more nations to have more playing time in future. * * * * out of five
The wonders are, again, seem to be to few: only 3 more, and at that one of them is just a city, and the other a huge castle. Of course they have huge benefits but I can think of a few "wonders" off the top of my head.
Overall: Highly dissapointed in the quantity of wonders: * * * out of five
The campaigns were defintely needed for this game, just because everything else seems limited (but good). The "New World" campaign is my favorite since you can be about 10 different nations, with different goals in mind. The Napolean and Alexander are roughly the same thing except of for different ages. The Cold War is my second favorite since you have to do many things in order to keep other countries conent with yours.
Overall: Adds to the gameplay but in Alexander and Naploean the senarios are repetitive in late game: * * * * out of five
Dont get me wrong, I love this game and recommend it for anyone, but just way a week or so for the price to go down.
10 A Hopeless Game
I liked this game but I feel it is too biased and not historically accurate.
First of all, too much attention and bonus features is given to the Americans.
Also, the producers made the Persian nation too much powerful. Persia did not have any elephants. It was the Indians. and only Indians should have the elephants lineage. Also, the architecture style of persians and Indians is the same. Oh my goodness! It makes a lot of difference. There was no similarity in the architecture style of Indians and Persians.
They made the iroquois and the Indians very less powerful while the Persians and Americans the superpower.
And I believe, if I am correct, there was no "ancient age" for americans and no ages after Enlightnment for the native american nations.
In the new world campaign, the british capital is in eastern Canada. It was not the british. It was the french capital at canada. Do you find "Los Angeles" in canada while playing against Iroquios? It is ridiculus. And Seattle in Virginia?
I did find this in this campaign.
This game is also racist and biased.-- calling Lakota the "backward people" and iroquois the "barbarians" and Indians "the fragile people". I believe, Indians were one of the oldest civilizations on earth and had its unique architecture and army. They had the chariot which is not in the game.
All this facts are correct. I looked these up in books and encyclopedias.
So in my opinion, you should nto waste your money to buy this expansion pack.
11 jumping into RoN with the expansion pack
I'm a veteran off-line RTS player, but I never got around to trying Rise of Nations before now. So I bought the original and the expansion pack, and am reviewing them together.
First thing, the install: I had to clear some space on my applications drive -- adding the two games took well more than a gig (most of my drive is formatted for linux). I'm running under Win98. But the install was flawless, and the program seems very stable. I've only managed to lock it up once in many hours of gameplay.
Learning the game: There is a very handy "quick start" tutorial for people with previous RTS experience. The main difference with RoN from most games is the multitude of resources required. This is a big improvement over the traditional "food, wood, and gold". You start out needing food, wood, and wealth, but quickly you add requirements for metal and knowledge. Later you need oil.
The other big resource is territory. The "national borders" concept is brilliant, because it makes territory a valuable resource. Normally a player can only expand territory by building new cities and forts on the edge of their existing territory. Sitting back and building a big tech base and army will not work, nor will a simple rushing strategy. The game demands balance.
Playing the game: The game is very good at eliminating micromanagement of the citizens. However, there is still a fair amount of micromanagement of the soldiers to do. The game follows the usual pattern of requiring a mix of units (cavalry is good against archers, who are good against infantry, who are good against cavalry, etc.). Since these are supposed to be strategy games, it would be nice to be able to build a well-balanced army and leave it alone to fight optimally, but as usual the units all attack whoever is closest. This can lead to a massacre unless you do some intense battle micromanagement.
Thrones and Patriots adds a great "library tech control bar" which allows you to see at a glance your main technical status. This is a big improvement over RoN. However, you still need to shift focus from one building to the next to upgrade your unit and building technologies.
Thrones and Patriots also adds the "Patriot" general (not a big deal) and some new cultures (a little more varied in powers than the original set). But the big change is the addition of four new "Conquer The World" scenarios.
The original "Conquer The World" is obviously based on the board game Risk, and is a unique melding of board game strategy with computer gameplay. It also makes for a nearly infinitely replayable campaign. But there is no plot element.
The new scenarios use the same Risk-style play (position armies to contest territories) but add historical scenarios, such as Alexander The Great's conquest of Persia. The technology is limited to the time of the scenario.
All in all, a very fun solo game. I recommend newcomers buy and install both the original game and the expansion pack, and jump right in with playing "Thrones and Patriots".
12 Thrones & Patriots proves: Rise of Nations doesn't get.....
Thrones & Patriots proves: Rise of Nations doesn't get boring. I never got tired of this game. The game features new campaigns, nations, wonders, and more.
NATIONS
The game features all of the nations from the original, plus the Americans, Dutch, Persians, Lakota, and Iriquois. The Lakota is cool, because all units in friendly territory are virtually invisible to the enemy, making it so hard to be able to attack. The Dutch have armed caravans, merchants, and supply wagons making them useful in a time of war. The Persians feature war elephants (my favorite) such as Gun Mahouts. The second city you build with the Persians will be a capital (even if you build a Forbidden City). Every new nation has cool features that will help you to win even more.
WONDERS
New wonders include the Hanging Gardens (even though historians have no clue how they look), the Red Fort, and the Forbidden City. All of these new wonders are great additions to the game. Even though none of them have the extreme powers of the Terra Cotta Army and Angkor Wat (is that how you spell it?!?!), each provides a great decoration.
CAMPAIGNS
From Alexander the Great to Napoelon, new campaigns provide a more challenging way to win the game. You also must follow what Napoelon or Alexander the Great did, by conquering the world. You also can choose the Old World and New World. These new Campaigns make a more challenging game.
SENATE
Starting in the classical age, citizens can build a Senate. The Senate enables you to choose your government (Democracy, Republic, Despotism, etc.) By choosing a certain type of government, you will get a leader (Democracy-President) that you must protect. Your leaders can act as generals, if you like them to.
Overall, this game is very cool, and a game you can never get bored of.
Overall Rating: 4.7/5
Pros: Wonderful Features, Senate is Cool, Lakota is wonderful, all the nations provide different ways to help you win, new Conquer the World Campaigns are cool, and provide a large challenge. There is not much to complain about; doesn't get boring...
Cons: With the Lakota: you are extremely powerful leading you to most likely winning the game; some nations will never attack you, and if you want to go to a challenge, you must stay at their pace; for some reason, you can help your enemies out by advancing them ages
13 Oh My Double Cannons
This review is a follow-up to the one I posted for the standard Rise of Nations game titled "Oh My Cannons"...
If you own Rise of Nations don't even bother to wonder if you should by this expansion pack - just get it! In fact if you do pick it up you'll be wondering why you didn't get it sooner - like yesterday!
Even if this expansion only had the new campaigns and nothing else it would be worth it... but it has much more and many improvements to some of the minor quirks in the standard game. It has a neglibile impact on game performance so no worries about needing more PC-Juice...
Playing the Americans in the ancient age or the Iroquois in the Information age might be a bit fantastical, but look at in a "what-if" perspective: for all of Rise of Nations is a "what-if" with you as the great history rewriter!
14 The BEST Strategy Game
This is a great strategy game. Make governments to raise commerce or military strength. I can play this game for hours every day. It is very hard to beat. Games are usually 1:30 long. I strongly reccomend this game.
15 Definately Worth The Money!!!
Good Lord, this is an Awesome game!!!!
If you like strategy war games this is the game for you! It's "Age of Empires II" meets "Command and Conquer".
Buy it, you will not regret it!!!
16 Great package, yet it would be nice if it had more
I am a big fan of Rise of the Nations! I think it combines the best things of Civilization series and the Starcraft series... making me addicted to this darn game.
The expansion pack is great! It comes with great features that make the game more interesting:
1) More units, not puny ones, these new units really get the job done!
2) New civilizations... now you can represent even more countries. Even the Lakotas are there (who in the hell are the lakotas), never heard of them before in any other strategy game.
3) Additional campaings. Sometimes after playing a while, you get bored because you do the same campaings over and over again. With the new scenarios, be prepared to spend some time on the refreshed game.
4) Architecture perks, some new wonders of the world are added. There are only three of them.
By now, you might think that I am crazy for this expansion pack, I am. But I do also realize that there are setbacks. I think that for about 30 dollars, Microsoft could have done a better job. With the thousand programmers that Microsoft company has. Adding 20 units, 3 wonders, some new campaigns seems puny to me and the worst part is that it costs the same as the game itself (even when it involved less time and effort to make the expansion pack). So that is why I give this game a 4 star. Good, but not perfect. Maybe if the expansion pack costs $10 bucks, that would be perfect.
17 So glad they made a great expansion
I really loved Rise of Nations but I wanted more from the Conquer the World Single player. Thrones and Patriots delivers on this. Now the world map is playable in cool campaigns. What's nice is that I've actually learned some interesting things about Napoleans campaign (that's what I'm playing now) and I'm sure it is the same for the other campaigns as well.
The new nations are great. They did some great art for the new civs like making native american archers, riders and cities made with tipis. It's also cool to play as the Americans and use the new capital building, it looks like the US capital. All the others are represented by cool new buildings and they allow for some cool new gameplay.
To sum it up Thrones and Patriots does what a good Ex-pack should, it really expands the scope of play and content of an already cool game. It's also getting great reviews on all the game sites, which I checked before buying. Oh yeah, be sure to run the credits, they made a cool new song for this Ex-pack, it's really funny, but I still like the RON credits song the best.
18 They Keep On Rising
Rise of Nations was a really fun game, but with the addition of Thrones and Patriots the game has gained a great deal of depth. The biggest change is all the cool single player missions. You can play through the game during the cold war as Russia or the USA. Or try conquering the world as Napolean or Alexander the Great. They also added a bunch of new nations like Native Americans, United States and India. The Indian elephants look so awesome crushing the enemy troops. Also look at all the details in the buildings! Some of them have running water!
If you like strategy games and dug Rise of Nations, then you should definitely pick this one up. I just took over the world and defeated the Russians last night, next will be some Alexander the Great action.
19 Not a Necessary Expansion
If you have 30 dollars to kill, then youll still enjoy it. I'm not saying that the expansion is a bad game, I just think that for all the things you get in the amazing basic Rise of Nations, the expansion pack isnt really necessary. It comes with 4 or 5 new nations, 2 of which are native americans, but with only a few new buildings, I think that youll be happy with just the original. Its still a great game nonetheless.
20 Great Expansion
This expasion improved the game alot. The new armys make the take over the world campaigns more interesting. I also like the alt take over the world campaigns. Napoleon, Alexander the great and the new world campaigns are very fun.
21 awwwsome
if there were 6 stars this game would get it. its soo cool. you have to get it. its no ur ordenary game,i've play age of empires, warcraft,and starcraft but, none of those games came close. theres only one thing I DON'T HAVE IT YET but i have played the trial and i can tell you this is worth every penny, you should get the trial first but after you play it you'll be begging ur mom for money
22 A big hit!
Rise of Nations: Thrones & Patriots is a game you can't put away. It's a game that is addictive.
RISE OF NATIONS, named PC game of the Year is a game about building up your own civilization and conquering territory. THRONES & PATRIOTS EXPANSION PACK adds to that idea by adding new civilizations such as Lakona, Iriqouis, Americans, and Persians (my favorite). It also adds new governments such as Despotism, Monarchy, Capitalism, Socialism, Democracy, and a Republic. You can also build a Senate once you advance to the Classical Age.
Also, new challenging campaigns are included. That includes 'Alexander the Great', 'The Cold War', 'The New World', and 'Napoleon'.
All of these new features adds up to make this game the best conquering game I've ever seen. This is one that you can't let go.
23 A world class expansion pack for a world class game.
Like many who have been eagerly anticipating the arrival of Thrones and Patriots, I played a social-life crippling amount of Rise of Nations when it debuted in early 2003. That's why when my co-junkie CIO barged into my office yesterday with this expansion pack I was both elated and petrified at the potential darkening of my social life that might occur if this follow-on was half as interesting as press has made it out to be.
I went home, and savagely thrust the CD into my eager drive, loading....anticipatory sweat began to bead on my backhair....loading...
Fast forward 20 minutes, and if you asked me "how is it", I wouldn't answer you. That would be my answer. Now, sitting here in my office, I'm jones'ing to run home and play again...the crackling of US Marine Machine Gun fire, screaming Persian Elephants....
So much has changed, yet thankfully, for RON lovers, the gameplay is still comfortably familiar. There are however some notable differences in this game.
First off, there are 6 new nations, 20 new unit types, and 4 new maps. But so far, the biggest difference is the ability to choose a government type...
At the Classical Age you establish a Senate and choose a government. Your choices are: Despotism, Socialism, Capitalism, Monarchy, Republic, and Democracy. Your Government gives your nation military and non-military bonuses, and each government type allows you to create a Patriot. The Patriot is a special unit that acts as your leader. They are produced from the Senate and give certain bonuses to units and buildings within a proximate radius of their location. What's interesting is that each of the six governments produce a Patriot unique to their type.
So in choosing government type (which give you global bonuses), you also need to balance that governments value against the unique set of Patriot bonuses. As if there weren't enough choices in Rise of Nations to begin with. But really, as I expressed in my review of RON, that's what I love so much about this game. I know of no "one way to win". Much like chess, there are counters to every efficacious strategy and tactic, "rushing", "turtleing (holing up defensively)", "age leaping"...every game must be played dynamically against your partners strategy. A "thinking mans RTS".
Needless to say, I'm thrilled. I haven't been this excited to game since I was learning Rise of Nations a little over a year ago. If you love RTS's like Civilization, you'll should pick up this habit. If you're already addicted to RON, well, your next fix is on the shelf...
I hope this was helpful.
Enjoy.
24 If the trial version is any indication this Xpack rocks
I just downloaded the trial version and it's great. Definitely recommed Rise of Nations. The Xpack seems to be adding a lot of great new content - including the American nation
