Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War is a game that almost should be called Fall & Rise. That's because this real-time strategy game from publisher Midway has risen, Phoenix-like, from the ashes after its original developer, Stainless Steel Studios, folded late last year. However, Midway picked up the pieces to the project, and now Rise & Fall is nearing completion in time for a summer release. When we recently received a preview copy of the game, naturally we were curious to see how it turned out.

　　You might categorize Rise & Fall with 2003's Age of Mythology, as this is a real-time strategy game that blends ancient history with myth, though Rise & Fall isn't quite so heavy on the myth. Your job in the game is to command one of four empires--Greece, Rome, Egypt, and Persia--as you battle for supremacy in the ancient world. This involves building up cities and bases, gathering resources, and enlisting armies, as well as hero units. It's here you'll see the mythological elements, as the game blends historical figures such as Cleopatra along with mythical heroes such as Achilles.

　　Rise & Fall is a real-time strategy game set in the ancient world.

　　The real-time strategy elements of Rise & Fall feel very similar to Empire Earth and Empires: Dawn of the Modern World, which were also created by Stainless Steel. The gameplay mechanics are fairly traditional in that you recruit a bunch of workers to gather the game's two key resources (wood and gold), which then allows you to build a variety of structures, such as barracks to recruit soldiers. You can also build structures, such as statues, that accumulate glory points, which are another of the game's resources and are used for upgrading units and heroes as well as hiring advisors, which are specialists that your hero can hire. Examples of specialists include the shipwright who increases the hit points of your vessels to the praetorian who decreases training time for sword units. All this building and resource gathering takes time, so you can spend it exploring the map and capturing outposts, neutral sites that have their own native defenders.

　　While there are the usual army units, such as spearmen, cavalry, archers, and swordsmen, there are also hero units that play a key role in the game. As you'd expect, heroes are distinct, unique, and incredibly powerful units. Then there's hero command, which lets you take direct control of a hero unit, essentially turning the game from a top-down real-time strategy game to a third-person action game. While in hero command, the battle still rages on all around you, only you get to fight it out on the ground alongside your men. Each hero is basically a superunit, blessed with huge amounts of hit points and able to slice through enemy ranks like a hot knife through butter. That's not to say that you're invulnerable, though; if you go charging solo into a horde of enemy troops, you'll quickly find yourself in trouble. However, if you use it at the right time, you can turn the tide of a close battle by taking command of your hero and taking out swaths of the enemy. Heroes generally have a melee attack, as well as the ability to take out a bow and snipe enemy archers and other distant units. Heroes also gain experience the more they're used, and when they accumulate enough experience you can raise their level by spending glory points. A higher-level hero is not only more powerful, but it also lets you unlock new upgrades for your other units.

　　Let it all loose in hero mode, where you can hack-and-slash to your heart's content.

　　Another major element in the game is the emphasis on naval combat. In most real-time strategy games, naval combat usually consists of you building a handful of ships and tossing them in battle. However, the ships in Rise & Fall are downright huge compared to most real-time strategy vessels, mainly since they're kept in scale with the ground units. This means that you can jump aboard a vessel and fight it out on its decks, or you can stand off and use the ship to rain arrows on enemy positions.

　　The game looks like it'll ship with two campaigns--one based on the storied career of Alexander the Great, and the other on that of Cleopatra--but it will also feature a skirmish mode as well as multiplayer, which we didn't get a chance to check out. Rise & Fall's traditional real-time strategy and the fast-paced hero mode is an interesting mix of gameplay. The game is also surprisingly colorful, which is something that we usually don't associate with games set in the ancient world. Of course, the action looks good up close, which is necessary for the hero mode to work. Considering the game's history, it's pretty impressive that Rise & Fall is nearing completion. Not many games survive their developers shutting down. Midway looks like it's picked up the pieces and reassembled them fairly well, and we'll see how the game does when it ships in June.