Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome

Release Date - October 22, 1998 (NA)

Developer - Ensemble Studios

Publisher - Microsoft

Platform - PC

In 1997, Ensemble Studios released the first game in a series that would span decades as one of the most popular real time strategy (RTS) series ever; Age of Empires.

In 1998 Age of Empires received The Rise of Rome expansion pack, giving the game a brand new lease on life with lots of new content and tweaks to the core gameplay that won over a legion (no pun intended) of fans.

Humble beginnings lead to a powerful empire. (Screens taken from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKozSekfrr8 unless otherwise stated).

The original Age of Empires tasked players with guiding a small group of hunter-gatherers from the Stone Age, eventually leading their civilization into the Tool Age, Bronze Age and finally into a powerful Iron Age empire. Age of Empires was the first game ever produced by Ensemble Studios and proved to be a huge hit for the new studio. Players fell in love with the game’s historical setting, a rarity compared to the science fiction and fantasy based RTS games of the era. The historical authenticity of the game was a major concern for the developers, with units and technologies being mostly period accurate. Arm-chair empire builders could command everything from stone-age club wielding brutes through to archers, chariots, cavalry, elephants (Hannibal would be proud) and even ancient siege weapons like ballistas and catapults. Let’s not forget the ability to recruit priests who could heal your army and even convert enemy units to your side with the now legendary ‘Wololo’ chants ringing through the battlefield.

The ancient cities you can build in Rise of Rome are really impressive! At least until they’re burnt to the ground by the army of the opposing city…

All these units were rendered in a stunning isometric view, with lovingly detailed buildings, lush and varied environments and fearsome looking military units. The action was a lot closer than the likes of games like Command & Conquer, which meant you could really soak in the atmosphere all the better.

Each civilisation has their own strengths and weaknesses, with each having a different tech-tree, units available to recruit and unique bonuses. Players would have no trouble finding a civilisation that matched their playstyle, and it created some interesting match-ups.

Civilisations would have different architecture for their buildings, depending on which region they are from. (Screen taken from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2pPsuOB4JQ)

Even the famed soundtrack for the game was designed around and recorded from period accurate instruments. While it’s difficult to impossible to know what the music from this era actually sounded like, the accurate instruments at least evokes the feeling of the ancient world.

Coupling lengthy and varied campaigns with factions made up of ancient civilizations from all around the globe with a hearty multiplayer experience, the game would become a critical success as well as a commercial one. An expansion pack was sure to follow.

The campaigns came complete with a lot of historical context for each mission, and even a strategic map to display the player and enemy locations.

Expansion packs were common fare in the world of PC gaming, adding further content, balance changes, and quality of life improvements to existing games. Rise of Rome would help form the definitive Age of Empires experience.

Rise of Rome unsurprisingly centred around the addition of Rome as a playable civilisation to the game but also included the Palmyrans, Macedonians and Carthaginians, bringing the total count of playable factions to sixteen. Each of these new factions brought their own unique tech-trees and gameplay style to the tested Age of Empires formula. Importantly, with these new factions came a new architecture style to reflect the Roman aesthetics. New units were added to round out the rosters and allow for better balancing and more varied gameplay. Among the new additions to your army were camel riders, scythed chariots and even slingers.

Watch towers provide helpful line of sight, and also some front-line defence for your growing civilisation. Note lovely detail on the trees!

Along with these new factions came all new single player campaigns too. Most would focus on Rome itself, but covered a lot of the empire’s history, from the very beginnings where players must scramble to form a republic on the Italian peninsula, through to the gruelling Punic Wars, and all the way through to the formation of the Roman Empire with campaigns focusing on Julius Ceasar and Augustus. The other, opposing civilizations got their own campaign with an ‘Enemies of Rome’ series of missions too, focusing on the rivals of the Roman Empire.

The expansion also featured a number of gameplay changes, including new technologies to research, and a wealth of new interface and quality of life features that would become standard for subsequent entries in the series. It may not sound exciting, but the ability to double click to select all units of a single type, or to queue multiple units in one building was a god-send for players, particularly in the competitive multiplayer scene. The strict population limit of the original Age of Empires was also now able to be increased, leading to much larger, grander battles and opening up potential new strategies with more units at your command (assuming your PC had the power to handle the larger populations!).

Terrain was varied, with green fields giving way to beaches and even rocky deserts.

Coupled with the new technology and units, the enhanced quality of life and new balance changes made the game a joy to play against the CPU or against friends via local area network (LAN) or online. For those who were single player focused, the expansion pack also contained four new campaigns, centred around Rome and its rise to power in the ancient world. 

The lasting appeal of the original Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome is apparent by the release of 2018 Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, a stunning remaster of the original, twenty years after initial release.

It’s enough to make anyone a little drunk on power…