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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed games.
Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 36 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 18 votes
Read user comments
Rate this game >
Game Info
Publisher: Midway
Developer: Stainless Steel Studios
Genre(s): Real-Time Strategy
Players: 8
ESRB Rating: T (Teen)
Release Date: June 12, 2006
Summary
Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War is the latest creation from award-winning developer Stainless Steel Studios and renowned game designer Rick Goodman. Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War is a detailed real-time strategy game that lets players completely command one of the four mightiest empires of the ancient world: Greece, Rome, Egypt, and Persia. Rise & Fall allows players to fight alongside their troops as one of history's eight greatest heroes, and bring victory to their nation on the battlefield. [Midway]
Cheat Codes & Hints: GameSpot Hints & Cheats
Also On The Web: GameSpot Preview Official Game Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
PC Gamer UK
There's a reason I haven't said much yet about the RTS that sits serenely at the core of Rise & Fall. That reason is there really isn't much to say beyond it's good solid stuff with a strong whiff of Ensemble's best work. [July 2006, p.85]
PC Gamer
As of press time, several negative Rise and Fall reviews have cropped up online. Mine is the dissenting opinion; in my mind, this RTS' fun and innovative gameplay far outweighs its minor faults. [Sep 2006, p.57]
Digital Entertainment News
The movements of the characters are nigh hilarious and detract from a true serious experience. If you don't get hung up on that, you will probably have just a grand ole time.
Read Full Review >Total Video Games
A good enough looking title (if your PC can cope with all the gloss turned on), an intuitive HUD, and epic music all helps with the immersion. There are a couple of niggling glitches that could be improved over time through patches, Civilizations at War nonetheless remains a solid title, and one that non-RTS action heavy gamers should check out.
Read Full Review >PC Zone UK
Rise & Fall manages to bring some welcome action to a normally slower-paced genre, but it sometimes feels like this is at the expense of tactics.
Read Full Review >Pelit (Finland)
A game that had it all, great design, excellent graphics. All it lacked was time. [Aug 2006, p.36]
Game Chronicles
With the many varied objectives and the third person mode there is a nice change in gameplay that is quite refreshing from the usual kill all the enemies or get to a certain point on the map.
Read Full Review >Game Over Online
More could have been done with this game. A little more creativity, a lot more programming, and I believe they could have had something quite good on their hands.
Read Full Review >PC Format
Ignore the lumpen campaign and you have an RTS with some big ideas. [July 2006, p.91]
Next Level Gaming
If you have always wanted to control a main unit on the battlefield in an RTS game then I recommend getting this title. If you are a die-hard RTS fan and you only want that then I have mixed feelings about this game for you.
Read Full Review >Strategy Informer
I am particularly a fan of the naval battle, actually the ramming of another ship and seeing my enemy’s armies flying high up the sky.
Read Full Review >games(TM)
It soon becomes clear that not only is this a deep, well-crafted and carefully balanced RTS, brimming with features, but also that the developer is desperately trying to encourage a wider audience than the core strategy crowd. [July 2006, p.114]
Games Radar (in-house)
Ultimately, Rise & Fall is about pretty units killing each other in a beautifully drawn environment and little more. It's a good strategy skirmish, but it falls short of eternal glory.
Read Full Review >Yahoo! Games
Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War is a passable hybrid of a console action game with a PC real-time strategy game. And while it's not terribly good at either genre, it's interesting enough as a combination.
Read Full Review >DailyGame
Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War isn't a bad game; rather, it is a noble effort that simply falls short of its goals.
Read Full Review >Games Master UK
For all its strengths, in the campaign mode it's hardly making history. [Aug 2006, p.75]
GameSpot
In the end, Rise & Fall attempts a few innovative things with the real-time strategy genre, though it's hurt by the fact that it wants to be both a hardcore real-time strategy game and a fast-paced action game. Unfortunately, it's hard to have it both ways in this genre, as the action mode is bound to frustrate and disappoint strategy fans.
Read Full Review >Jolt Online Gaming UK
As an RTS it’s as entertainingly humdrum as any of the sixteen billion others, but the Hero Command innovation is so wretchedly underdeveloped it mostly serves to annoy and all but ruins the game’s single player campaigns. It’s fun in multiplayer and skirmish modes for a while, but Rise & Fall is far from the classic game that it could have been.
Read Full Review >Edge Magazine
It isn’t perfectly realised, but the subtleties of tactical planning and the bloodiness of frontline slashing combine to suggest a new way forward for realtime strategy. [Aug 2006, p.90]
Armchair Empire
If the Action / Real-Time Strategy hybrid seems like an interesting one you might like to try "Sacrifice" (which is about six years old), because while Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War tries hard to bring something new to the crowded RTS genre with it's Hero mode and naval battles, there are just too many downsides to the game to make it worth playing.
Read Full Review >Gamer 2.0
Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War is a great experiment but a mediocre game, too broken to be enjoyable for any length of time.
Read Full Review >eToychest
An interesting idea, yes, but perhaps more interesting in its failures rather than its much-too-rare highlights.
Read Full Review >IGN
Sadly, there's very little reason to recommend this title fans of the strategy or action genres. While there are some decent features, there are too many mistakes built thrown on top of an altogether bland design.
Read Full Review >PALGN
We can’t put our finger on it, but Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War just isn’t that fun. Despite having some fantastic features, it’s confusing to see so many games repeat the same mistake over and over again. Poor AI is a curse for RTS games, and Rise & Fall doesn’t do much to avoid this. It’s disappointing that such a fantastic concept falls flat on its stomach due to some minor, but unforgiving, mistakes.
Read Full Review >GameZone
The multiplayer doesn’t deliver any type of replay value that drives me back to playing Rise & Fall. The campaign is short and the difficulty level is on the basic side of the river.
Read Full Review >GamingTrend
The mixture of RTS and action game doesn't really mesh well, the game runs really poorly, and the game includes Starforce. Unless you've got a really high end machine and want to play something somewhat different, stay far, far away from this title.
Read Full Review >Worth Playing
Just satisfactory. Hero mode is a nice distraction from the redundant campaigns, but everything in the game lacks sufficient depth.
Read Full Review >Game Informer
Controlling your hero directly, action game style, is a neat gimmick even though it's in poor execution. [Aug 2006, p.88]
Computer Games Magazine
Rise & Fall means well. Considering the competition out there and the ever-rising stakes, good intentions and mere competence are no longer enough. [Sept. 2006, p.67]
VideoGamer
One day someone is going to combine the RTS with another genre and pull it off really well; Rise & Fall isn't that game.
Read Full Review >Detroit Free Press
If you're considering buying "Rise & Fall," think of it as strategy light. It's good for someone who's neither a strategy nor an action addict -- someone who just wants some lighthearted fun with ancient Egyptian and Roman heroes.
Read Full Review >Eurogamer
It doesn't have the sheer polish or design coherence of something like this month's other Rise-TS, Rise of Legends, but there's lots to like. Until you remember the campaign mode again at which point you just find yourself wishing the developers to go bust, until you remember they have and you start feeling bad again.
Read Full Review >GameSpy
While Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War has some great concepts behind it and a few enjoyable moments, it's not really worth the gas it takes to drive it home from the software store.
Read Full Review >1UP
Click-click, kill-kill, click-click, kill-kill. You'll maybe get a naval battle or an occasional siege on the side. But once you've done this a few times, Rise & Fall has pretty much exhausted its novelty, leaving you with a bland and clunky RTS.
Read Full Review >G4 TV
If you ever run into one of the erstwhile developers of Stainless Stell Studios, you should probably buy him or her a beer and let them cry on your shoulder; it’s gotta hurt to see a game you made that obviously started out with a lot of potential get released in such an unfinished state.
Read Full Review >Game Revolution
They focused so much on this dual-pronged gameplay that they forgot to add A.I., stability and good delivery, falling far, far short of their goal in this half-baked game.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this game is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 18 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Filip O. gave it a9:
Innovation at it's best. Really a hidden diamond in the mountain of games. Really worth playing - well spent money.
Jedi M. gave it a10:
This is a really awesome game. It is well worth the $20 and the extra $300 I spent upgrading my computer to run it the best.
Jed K. gave it a10:
I believe this to be one of the best of it's genre and all those who dare to dis this game are complete and total non-gamers.
MIck J. gave it a5:
Real bog standard affair. Looks ok and just when you're beginning to think "this is a great game!" you realize you're half way through the campaigns without even trying. I seemed to defeat the AI by accident on most maps. Rome: Total War is much better.
Jack P. gave it a5:
lot of potential get released in such an unfinished state.
Paul C. gave it a1:
Played ok for an hour until I realised that Starforce drivers had somehow stopped the file sharing from my second hard disk (perfectly legal I might add) and fubar'd by DVD writer (Half the writing modes missing as options in Nero) Luckily you have the option of uninstalling the drivers from the Start Menu - (which is something I suppose) - though obviously you can't then play the game So despite it being a reasonable game, changing my entire PC just to play it isn't an option. Game gave me £12 for it 2'nd hand..It's in the rack now - Broad Street Worcester - they're charging £20 for it. If you are more forgiving and don't mind a third party piece of invasionware controlling your PC , pop along and buy it.
