User Rating: 6 | Rise of Nations PC
In short, this game had great potential, but a few glaring issues really limit its success. I always enjoy the game's initial stages of buildup, spreading your territory, and minor skirmishes with enemy explorers and raiding parties, this portion of the game is well done. However, with the onset of the Industrial age, everything hits the fan. The units lose their classic feel, and more importantly, those little raiding parties become invading armies. This could have been done well, but unfortunately, the game immediately renders tactics a very minor part of battle, because the pacing of the game is way off. It takes far too long for battles to play out, and most often, by the time you have destroyed one army, another is waiting. This awkward pacing only continues as the tech tree develops, and reaches its peak with Artificial Intelligence, one of the final techs. At this point, the enemy can build units tens of times faster than you can destroy them, and it will. This is simply poor game design in this area, it simply becomes a battle of attrition until one side runs out of resources. There are no tactics, all you have to know how to do is click on the tank icon at the factory, set a rally point, and you're set. The other facets of the game are beautiful though, but the pacing of the game just utterly destroys any silver lining they could have had. 
