Very similar to Rise of Nations in presentation and graphics, but great in its own way.
For RoN: Rise of Legends, you follow the path of a Vinci inventor named Giacomo. When one of his friends is killed by a Vinci Doge, he rallies up his people to go after the Doge. On the way, he meets other allies that joins him. As the game progresses, Giacomo finds that his path goes well beyond vengeance.
As it is with Rise of Nations, there is a RTS mode of building your capital, grabbing resources, exploring, building/buying/capturing defensive structures and other structures, expanding your borders, then building a large army to take enemy cities and their capital; and a turn-based mode where you can fortify frontal districts and decide where to take your single army. Unlike RoN, there are hero experience points to spend to improve your heroes' special skills, and army points to add units to your starting army. This starting army, from time to time, become your starting set pieces in some scenarios. There are timed scenarios, and side missions you can take to help an ally so that they become available to you in future scenarios. As with RoN, your ultimate task is to capture all districts.
The graphics are an improvement from RoN, as you'll see smoke from the firing of Vinci weapons, the area going dark and misty as a Dark Alin force unleashes the Dark Terror power, Alin forces suddenly appear from nowhere, and Cuotl forces unleashing "futuristic" weaponry with powers of light. Cities and capitals crumble as armies and siege units attack, basic units storming in when city defenses are weakened, and reinforcements and mercenaries coming in depending on the conditions.
The audio is nice, right on pair with any Microsoft Game Studio game that comes out today. The BGM is very solid, that changes when a battle heats up or the downtime to allow for building structures and fortifying current borders. Basic units get hit and scream out in death, building materials shatter, and the sounds of aerial units attacking can be heard as well.
Technically, there are a few minor issues, although most of them are neglible based on the latest patch. Sometimes, though, the game bogs down when a very large army storms in on a capital city, and opposing forces swoop in to try to hold them off. This can be fairly acceptable for players playing on lower-end systems, as you can see hundreds of units on a single screen, battling for a spot of land.
Otherwise, the game is very solid, albeit very similar to RoN. RoN fans will find this spinoff to be very solid, and others may find this a good game to play. If not for the familiar RoN controls, then the fine story that comes with the SP campaigns, and the solid MP.