More Articles on Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War
Video Game BAFTA Winners AnnouncedRise & Fall: Civilizations At WarMidway Reveals E3 Line UpRise & Fall: Civilizations at War - Developer Diary #2Midway Confirms Rise & Fall DeveloperLatest Features
Gears Of War 2 - Cliff Bleszinski Q&AStar Wars: Clone Wars Q&AFable 2: The Molyneux InterviewTom Clancy's HAWX Q&AFootball Manager 2009 - Q&AUser Reviews
There are currently 0 User Reviews for Rise & Fall: Civilizations at WarWrite your own review for this game today and you will receive 100 Gamer Points.
Click here to register
Exclusive: Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War Q&A Feature
Derek dela Fuente
28/04/2005
Shaping up to be a worthy contender to Rome: Total War, TVG chats to the guys responsible at Stainless Studios...
As the RTS scene starts to become on equal pairing with FPS shooters in terms of innovations and stretching the envelope, strategy gamers can add Rise and Fall to the list they must keep tabs on. Although not due for release until the end of 2005, this title is already looking impressive as Derek dela Fuente found out when he spoke with Rick Goodman, President and Founder of Stainless Steel Studios.
TVG: Please refresh our readers and tell them what games Stainless Steel has created along with the renowned game designer Rick Goodman and how the collaboration works?
Our first game was Empire Earth, Game of the Year for 2001, and we followed that up with the critically-acclaimed Empires: Dawn of the Modern World in 2003. With each game, we've further refined our popular gameplay formula that gives players epic, adrenaline-fuelled, single-player campaigns coupled with a stellar multiplayer experience. We're continuing that refinement and evolution of the RTS genre in Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War, our current game.
Stainless Steel Studios has always been a very collaborative environment. We have the best designers, artists, and programmers in the industry, and everyone is invited to offer their ideas about every aspect of the game. In my experience, this kind of open process always leads to the best possible game and is a source of some truly innovative ideas, like our new Hero Command.
TVG: With many great RTS game on the scene what were some of the objectives and visions for the game when the team sat down to design Rise and Fall? Do you see any shortfalls in the current crop of RTS and how will you hope to ignite the imagination of gamers?
One of our biggest goals with Rise & Fall is to create a sweeping, cinematic experience. Gamers now expect that approach in their games, and we're going to deliver it in a big way. When you're in the middle of an epic siege in Rise & Fall, like the Siege of Tyre, it's a visceral, emotional experience. You really feel like you're there, on the ground, in the middle of one of the ancient world's greatest battles. It's like a scene torn straight out of Gladiator or Troy.
What makes Rise & Fall something truly special is that we're doing things that have never been seen in an RTS game. The first time you enter Hero Command and wade into a horde of enemy soldiers, slicing them to ribbons with your sword, itās a thrilling experience that words can't even begin to describe. The same thing can be said of our epic naval battles. Pulverizing an enemy ship with the ramming super weapon is an exhilarating feeling, especially as you watch the enemy soldiers sink to a watery grave.
That said, it's important to remember that Rise & Fall is a fully-fledged RTS game and is not just a series of set-piece battles. You build everything in the game - every soldier, every catapult, every building, and every wall. You decide where to construct your cities and how your civilization will advance. Every facet of Rise & Fall is guided by you, and how you want to experience it.
TVG: How much in-depth research is going into creating a realistic game and did this delving into history throw up any real surprises!?
We have always prided ourselves on making games that are historically accurate, and Rise & Fall is no exception. All of our artists and designers did weeks of research to get the proper look of the units, the buildings, and the weapons.
Beyond the simple aesthetics of how each civilization looks, it's also very important for us to capture the historical accuracy of how each civilization waged war. The Persians, for example, fielded these massive armies, the biggest the world had ever seen, but their units weren't that strong and were generally poorly trained. That will be reflected in Rise & Fall. We're bringing these ancient civilizations to life in a way that gamers have never seen.
The one thing that did surprise me during our research was just how inventive the great leaders like Alexander the Great, Achilles, and Julius Caesar really were. When it came to devising new weapons and battle tactics, they were geniuses. Alexander the Great, in particular, was easily one of the greatest military minds who have ever lived, and we've worked hard to mirror his genius in Rise & Fall.
TVG: Gamers will be able to not only choose from a number of empires/civilisations: Persia, Greece, Egypt, Rome, but also control heroes which include Julius Caesar, Germanicus Caesar, Cleopatra, Ramses the Great, Achilles and Alexander the Great. How does the interaction work between the heroes and empires/civilisations and is there a real discernable difference in the way ā“ skill sets ā“ aggression - that each empire/civilisation operates? (Will this also ensure longevity to the game?)
Each of the four playable civilizations--Persia, Greece, Egypt, and Rome--will feature two unique Heroes. The Heroes are integral parts of their respective civilization's history, so the Greeks feature Alexander the Great and Achilles, the Persians have Sargon and Nebuchadnezzar, the Romans unleash Julius Caesar and Germanicus Caesar, and the Egyptians offer Cleopatra and Ramses the Great. Each of the Heroes is a unique personality and has their own fighting style, and all of the Heroes had a tremendous impact on their civilization.
I've already discussed the differences between the civilizations a little bit in regard to the Persians, specifically how the Persians must rely on large numbers to counter-balance their weaker unit strength. But that doesn't mean that they're a weak civilization. In fact, you can designate certain formations as Elite Formations, which makes them exceptionally powerful. They'll slice through enemy soldiers without even slowing down.
For the other three civilizations, historical accuracy also plays a vital role. The Greeks, for example, have a smaller army, but they were adamant about fielding a well-trained and disciplined fighting force. And it showed, because they were the first nation, historically, to ever defeat the Persians.
We're representing that aspect of the Greeks in Rise & Fall with the Spartan, an elite soldier and drill sergeant. Not content to let your troops stand around idle, once you build the Spartan he'll whip them into shape and constantly drill them, automatically. This way, your troops get experience even when they're not in combat.
The Romans are the classic civilization, the one that everyone expects to see, so their reliance on formations and highly-disciplined troops is well known. It was important to get that aspect of their military into Rise & Fall, so the Romans will have Veteran Formations.
During a battle, once a Roman formation kills a certain number of enemy soldiers, all of the Roman soldiers in that formation will receive a bonus and become much stronger. All experience is shared equally among the units in the formation, so they upgrade as a whole.
The Egyptians were famous for their skill with ranged weapons, so that plays an important role in their strategy. Not only are the Egyptian archers extremely skilled, but you can also build the Chariot Archer, which holds four archers and can move while the archerās fire. This is a great weapon that will utterly decimate enemy troops, and it's one of my personal favourites.
TVG: Many see Rome Total War as the flagship title of the genre, almost unstoppable. It must be in your mindset to offer some new ideas, innovations, to win over fans of this game. One new area on offer is naval battles. Firstly, how much of a concern will be the constant comparisons and what other areas do you hope to extend on?
In the ancient world, a large and well-equipped navy was an essential part of any military campaign. If you wanted to quickly move large numbers of troops, supplies, or any other vital part of your war machine, you had to do it over water. And the epic clashes between ancient navies like the Romans and Egyptians, or the landing outside the city of Troy, is the stuff of legend. Those battles and campaigns would involve hundreds of ships and thousands of soldiers. That's exactly the kind of situation that we want to place you in. You will experience that level and scale of naval combat in Rise & Fall.
There are four primary parts to our naval battles. The first is ramming, which is the super weapon of the sea. If you equip your ship with a Drummer, he'll energize your sailors and get the ship moving at top speed. If you can manoeuvre into position--so the front of your ship is aimed at the side of an enemy's ship--you can unleash your crew, and they will frantically work to ram your ship directly into the enemy's ship, tearing it in half and sending its crew into the sea.
You can also board ships by grappling onto an enemy ship and then sending your swordsmen across a plank, where they will engage in bloody combat with the enemy crew. And since your ships also act as floating barracks, you can constantly pump out new swordsmen or archers and send them off to do battle with the enemy.
Finally, and this is keeping with our theme of letting you experience epic sieges, you can equip your ships with catapults like the Onager and unleash them either on enemy ships or enemy cities. It's electrifying to see your navy bombard an enemy city while your soldiers storm the walls.
TVG: Please can you tell the readers about some of the challenges, features, gaming ideas on offer when controlling one of the big generals/ historical figures?
Rise & Fall is the first real-time strategy game that places you directly in the heart of combat as a General fighting side-by-side with your troops. From that vantage point, you'll get a never-before-seen view of history's most epic and explosive battles.
In ancient times, great generals like Achilles and Alexander the Great personally led their troops onto the field of battle, and in keeping with that history, you'll need to take to the battlefield in person if you want to be successful in Rise & Fall. You will be on the ground, in control of your chosen hero, fighting alongside your troops. Hero Command is a revolutionary addition to the genre that will change the way people think of RTS games, but it's also extremely precious. If you jump into Hero Command and start killing units for the hell of it, you'll lose.
Think of Hero Command this way: It's Rise & Fall's ultimate super weapon. Every game has a key moment when the outcome hangs in the balance, and it's at that moment when you enter Hero Command. In fact, in that instance, the only way you can guarantee victory is if you unleash the full might of your hero.
As awesome as Hero Command is, Rise & Fall is a true strategy game. If you're not successful in the traditional RTS aspects of the game--managing your cities, securing new territories, and creating a properly balanced army--you won't be victorious, no matter how many enemy soldiers you butcher in Hero Command.
TVG: How important is the technology issue to the dev team and game? You are using Titan engine can you tell us how this engines lends itself to an RTS game?
We place a lot of importance on creating cutting-edge technology for our games, and with Rise & Fall, we're really placing an emphasis on offering cinematic-like graphics that are packed with fantastic animations and a stunning level of detail in the soldiers and weapons.
As a part of that process, we're really raising the bar for what RTS games offer graphically and blur the line between RTS games and FPS. Our graphics engine takes full advantage of all of the features that you'll find in next-generation graphics hardware. Things like High Dynamic Range Lighting, which allows you to have lights brighter than white, lighting bloom, which is a glow effect, normal mapping for the units, and dynamic shadows.
TVG: How detailed and realistic will the battlefield be and will it also support varied weather conditions?
We want the environment to look as realistic as possible and really bring the world of Alexander the Great and Cleopatra to life, which is why we created an entirely new terrain engine for Rise & Fall. One of the awesome things about the dynamic shadows is that they actually get perturbed by the waves and the water surface, so it looks extremely realistic. This was especially important to us because of the emphasis that we're placing on creating the best naval combat experience ever in an RTS.
In addition to the sensational water effects, we're using Speed Tree for all our trees, which make all our trees look a lot more realistic and lifelike. We have a dynamic flora system as well, so in the scenario editor users can actually paint the grass on the map, and when you enter the game it'll sway with the wind. As the hero walks through it, the grass and other flora actually parts to the left and right of the hero. It looks like something out of a movie.
TVG: Please tell us 3 interesting facts about some of the exclusive units we will see from the factions?
There are over 80 units in the game, so narrowing it down to just a few of them is a real challenge! The Persians can build the Scythe Chariot, a great melee unit that has blades on all sides and rushes directly into the heart of a battle. The blades shred anyone they come in contact with, something that is very delightful to watch.
The Fire Razor is a primitive flame thrower that incinerates any soldiers unfortunate enough to be in its area. I love using it in our multiplayer tests because it utterly decimates my enemy's soldiers.
One of the defensive super weapons is Archimedes Claw, a weapon that you build on the edge of your city's walls. It fires down a cable, hooks an enemy's siege weapon, and then lifts the siege weapon into the air before it smashes it back to the ground. A couple of well placed Archimedes Claws can really turn the tide of an assault, so you're going to have to really strategize and figure out a way to neutralize the Archimedes Claw.
TVG: Finally, can you, in a sentence or two, sum up your hopes of what the Rise and Fall experience will offer!?
Rise & Fall offers gamers an unprecedented RTS experience--our Hero Command, epic naval battles, and genre-defining sieges elevate the genre to new heights. This is truly the game I've always wanted to make.
Many thanks from TVG.
Rise & Fall: Civilization at War is scheduled for release during Q4 2005; weāll have a closer look and further information on this bright hope within the RTS genre soon.
Anonymous
Date Added:Thu 18th Sep 2008 06:14
Anonymous
Date Added:Mon 15th Sep 2008 02:46
Anonymous
Date Added:Mon 25th Aug 2008 12:40
Anonymous
Date Added:Wed 20th Aug 2008 10:11
Anonymous
Date Added:Wed 13th Aug 2008 17:18
Anonymous
Date Added:Thu 7th Aug 2008 04:50
i need it really badly
Anonymous
Date Added:Sun 22nd Jun 2008 18:06
Anonymous
Date Added:Sat 21st Jun 2008 21:50
Anonymous
Date Added:Thu 21st Feb 2008 15:53
Anonymous
Date Added:Mon 14th Jan 2008 12:40