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Imagine Civilization crossed with Age of Empires II. Actually, you don’t even need to imagine since it exists: in the form of Rise of Nations. As a real-time 4X-ish game that progresses through the ages, it seems pretty solid. Remarkably solid, even. The thing is, I’m not a big fan of that sort of game. I’m definitely more of a Sim City or Sim Tower (or, if we’re sticking with strictly RTS, Homeworld or Masters of Orion) sort of person. So while this game seems mechanically sound and pretty deep…I can’t really say I was having fun. That being said, this game does combine a lot of the better features of both Civilization and Age of Empires. Maybe if I was playing over LAN with a few friends I would have a more favorable opinion. Since I can imagine picking this up again someday, I’m going to stick this into Tier Two, with a distinct possibility of an upgrade if it’s the right group.
