From the main site:\"Set in the beautiful fantasy world of Equiada, home to magical creatures, mighty leaders, and powerful wizards, Rising Kingdoms, offers players the unique combination of both strategy and adventure modes.In strategy mode the player is able to select 3 major races – treacherous Humans, vicious Foresters and merciless Darklings, and in addition to these three primary races, the player is able to capture, enslave and develop five independent nations – Shades, Nomads, Dragons, Trolls, and Elves. Combined with the player’s main race they provide a valuable asset when clashing with their opponents.In adventure mode the player controls a group of heroes and a small squad of troops uncovering dark secrets and surprising twists as the adventure unfolds. The story spans over several generations portraying powerful ancient artifacts, the rise and fall of mighty leaders and glorious kingdoms, and the birth of new mystic creatures and races.\"Hello all! I\'ve really been on a RTS streak lately. Erik (Stickman373) thinks I\'m starting to like this type of game. I\'ll stick to my FPS\'s thank you very much...:)
This was an interesting and fun demo to play. There was a lot of game time, enough to get someone hooked and wanting to play more. So I started it up and selected tutorial since I don\'t fair well in RTS games. The tutorial was simply perfect. I got a popup each time I needed to do something. That in itself helped me learn how to play this game quickly. There were more than a few occasions when I was to quick to clear the popup box, losing my hints. Not to fret, after awhile the game realized that I didn\'t complete what I was supposed to do and kindly reminded me. So there I went along building up my village, people and army so to speak. After awhile I thought I had a big enough army and went on my way to do some conquering of neighboring villages. Hey, nothing like making your real estate grow bigger right?! Off I went with my army. I found a nice little village with about two buildings and about two to three people. My army instantly engaged the enemy and I conquered the village. Nothing like victory to make a gamer want to keep playing. That\'s exactly what I did. Kept playing. I must have played this demo for two hours! That\'s how much I enjoyed playing it.It really takes a lot for a RTS to impress me and Rising Kingdoms definitely did. Here are some reasons why:Game Play/Controls:All that is needed to control your world and characters in Rising Kingdoms is the mouse. Point and click, that simple. There is a feature where you can click your forces and then right click on the character you want them to follow. No more scrolling up and down and trying to keep track of each unit. All of your units can follow one character if you like. It sure made controlling things a LOT easier for me. Moving over the map was as simple as moving your mouse around. Want to add more or different buildings? A nice and easy right click of the mouse on your town hall and you have a wide selection to choose from. Even with adding new units or upgrades. A simple right click on the correct building will give you multiple choices each time.Sound:I really enjoyed the background music while playing. Although it wasn’t\' many tracks to choose from, they were all pretty upbeat and fit the game perfectly. The music had almost a fantasy rhythm to it. Since Rising Kingdoms also takes place in a fantasy time, they worked very well together.The sound when it came to units interacting was a different story though. The sounds were very repetitive here and during a large skirmish became mixed with each other. Almost to a point where it was a big jumble of sounds. Needs some work here. Graphics:Overall the graphics were above average. Keep in mind this is a RTS and graphics aren\'t it\'s strong point. There was a good amount of fine detail. I enjoyed watching the workers run out into open ground, dig a hole, plant a seed, cover it and then stomp on the ground. You could see that small of detail in Rising Kingdoms.Since the game takes place from a slanted overhead view point, you\'re pretty much stuck looking at things from an angle. It\'s not bad for this game, but those of you looking for more in the graphics department might be disappointed.Overall: I was really captivated by this game. Just ask Erik..;) The ease of learning to play the game, the easy to use and understand controls as well as the sound really have me wanting to come back for more.I was also impressed that in the flurry of RTS games lately, this took a step to the side from all the military types and came up with a fantasy RTS. I think that\'s what made it all the more enjoyable for me. Something unique. Unfortunately, there\'s not much info on the game on the official game site. Hopefully, they\'ll update with game specs, release date and so on soon. Any of you RTS fans better keep your eye on this. Definitely worth a purchase.
"Rising Kingdoms" is on sale May 30, 2005 and is rated . .
