The clash of civilizations is a common theme in video PC games. There certainly is no shortage of real time strategy games based on this topic nor will there be as long as it remains popular with PC game fans. The fact is many people find the civilizations of antiquity quite fascinating in the way they fought, looked and carried out their lives, so games on these topics will always be available. A new entry is Rise & Fall, the clash of civilizations. It combines tried and true RTS and some new twists - the most interesting is the first person adventure game married to a RTS engine.

Rise & Fall is a RTS and a first person shooter/slasher game combined. Players can play the traditional gather resources and build cities and improvements that have been popular for a decade, but this game adds a little more. In this game system the player can fight as the heroic leader of his civilization in third person perspective and thus greatly alter the fortunes of a given nation. The idea of entering a large battle as a combatant is quite interesting and should generate plenty of buzz for this game system.

The game is set up in a very similar fashion to standard RTS games. As is quite familiar to veteran players there are workers to gather food and wood and coin that will enable the production of better buildings and improvements and aid in the recruitment of military forces. As is also common, new types of units and building improvements can be researched if certain resources are expended. I'm sure at this point many people would be wondering what is different here as this is the standard formula for many games such as the award winning Age of Empires series. Well there are differences and they are quite pronounced, as we shall soon see.

The major new innovation is the ability of players to literally become their hero within the game. The game camera will give you a third person view of your hero while moving in this mode, and it's quite different from the overhead view as well as other camera angles. While in hero mode you can equip several different weapons, and the weapon types depend on the particular hero and his civilization. As the hero kills opponents in battle, he gains glory, and this can be expended to improve the ability of the civilization in general.

The way this glory is used is two fold. It can be expended to increase the level of the hero, giving him (or her) greater health and stamina, or it can be used to hire specialists for the civilization. Many different types of specialists are available at various rates of glory. The simplest types include the rat catcher who helps improve army moral and the Praetorian who helps the army fight. More advanced types include the tax collector who earns more coin, the architect who improves buildings, and the shipwright who helps with ships. These specialists help to make your civilization more effective over all and makes the game a little easier.

There are other differences in this game compared to standard RTS ancient games. One of my favorites is the way sieges and walled cities are handled. Unlike most games, hordes of ground troops and cavalry will not knock down a single wall; in fact they are completely unable to harm walls. You must study and build siege equipment or have special combat units like Elephants to knock down walls. This may seem like a minor matter but it does in fact introduce the correct balance of combined arms in ancient warfare. Like the ancients you must have siege equipment or forget taking cities, and this equipment must be protected from sorties form the city, otherwise the siege will be broken.

From a defender's standpoint you don't have to sit behind walls and make defensive sorties as your only hope. Your city walls can have powerful artillery installed, such as Balista, that defend the walls from attackers. Another nice thing is your army can actually fight on the walls, using ladders (these are available both in attack and defense) to climb up and down. Archers gain an attack advantage from firing down from height just as in real life, so walls defended by archers are a formidable defense against all comers.

The naval battles are quite a site to see as ships clash and archers fire at each other across the waves. Warships of the ancient world were of ramming design and so too are the ships in the game, as sea warfare plays a large part in this game, and is quite fun to take part in as well as it's so unusual to see it done well.

The game has campaigns for the major leaders such as Caesar and Alexander and Cleopatra, in which they must accomplish objectives to advance to the next scenario in the campaign. The game is taught using the Julius Caesar campaign, as Caesar is the best balanced of all the hero units. Players must carry out goals such as building certain buildings and walls, and advancing to taking enemy controlled towns and settlements. You even learn how to swim in the learning campaign, as this can only be done in hero mode.

The graphics of this game are certainly beautifully rendered. The terrain looks really nice, especially when viewed from close range. The combat units are nicely animated and move well, but I have to admit the heroes sometimes move like massive body builders rather than military leaders. The voiceover work and music is carried out in a satisfactory way and the game interface is simple and easy to use, making the game very easy to play.

I found Rise and Fall Civilizations at War to be a fun game to play, and if not completely historically accurate, it did quite well for what it attempts to portray. The civilizations all have unique units and have a feel of their own, so the game has replay value. All fans of RTS games and the ancient world should pick up this little romp in the past.

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