Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome
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| Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer | Ensemble Studios |
| Publisher | Microsoft |
| Designer | Sandy Petersen |
| Programmer | Tim Deen |
| Artist | Scott Winsett |
| Composers |
|
| Series | Age of Empires |
| Platform | Windows |
| Release | |
| Genre | Real-time strategy |
| Modes | Single-player, multiplayer |
Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome is a 1998 expansion pack for the 1997 real-time strategy video game Age of Empires, developed by Ensemble Studios for Windows and published by Microsoft.
The expansion adds four new playable civilizations, including the Romans, as well as new units, map types, and minor improvements to the game. Development of The Rise of Rome was prompted by delays to the creation of a sequel, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, leading to Ensemble Studios creating an expansion to maintain sales of the original game.
Upon release, The Rise of Rome was commercially successful and received positive reviews from critics, with praise directed to the expansion's inclusion of features and gameplay mechanics beyond the expected addition of new maps. Reviewers later expressed that the expansion set the standard for the sequel to Age of Empires II, The Conquerors, released in 2000.
The Rise of Rome is an expansion to Age of Empires, a real-time strategy title in which players build and develop a civilization and conquer competing empires. The core gameplay of Age of Empires involves gathering resources to construct buildings, recruiting units, and develop technologies to progress through Ages that unlocks stronger units, new abilities, and more efficient resource gathering.[1] The Rise of Rome introduces four new playable civilizations: Rome, Carthage, Palmyra, and Macedonia.[2] Five new units are introduced, including slingers, camel riders, scythe chariots, armored elephants, and fire galleys.[2] New technologies also introduce new game abilities. These include Martyrdom, allowing players to sacrifice a priest to convert enemy units,[3][4] and Logistics, allowing units recruited from the barracks to count only as half a unit under the population limit, providing the player with the ability to recruit more units.[5] New map types and sizes are also introduced for custom games, including mountainous highlands, large islands, and peninsulas.[6] Rise of Rome adds minor gameplay changes, including the ability for players to queue the production of units, and select a group of units of the same type by double-clicking the cursor.[6] The population limit for recruiting units is also adjustable to up to 200 in multiplayer games.[3]
The Rise of Rome introduces four new campaigns to Age of Empires over nineteen scenarios, focusing on the history of ancient Rome,[7] charting the period between Rome's history as a city-state to the start of the Roman Empire.[8] The four campaigns imitate historical events including the birth or Rome and the Pyrrhic War, the career of Julius Caesar and his military campaigns, the War of Actium and creation of the Roman Empire, and battles against enemies such as Spartacus and Hannibal the Great.[9]
Development and release
The Rise of Rome was created by the Age of Empires development team at Ensemble Studios,[10] with design led by Sandy Petersen, a scenario designer from the original game.[11][12] The expansion was conceived to provide the studio with additional time to complete the development of the game's sequel, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, delayed from its originally planned release in 1998.[13] According to designer Bruce Shelley, the development team opted to delay the release of the sequel and developed The Rise of Rome in the interim to maintain commercial interest in the original title.[14] Studio co-founder Tony Goodman stated that the proposed expansion was pitched to Microsoft and accepted on the basis of the original title's commercial success.[15] Shelley stated the expansion's focus on Rome was chosen to bridge the early ancient setting of the original game and the medieval setting of its planned successor.[10] A goal of the expansion was to implement "small but significant" adjustments based on player feedback to improve the balance of the game and reduce the gameplay emphasis on rushing to the next age.[10]
The Rise of Rome was published by Microsoft for release in the United States on 22 October 1998,[16] and in the United Kingdom and Europe on 6 November 1998.[17] To promote the game, Microsoft held an online tournament of the game on MSN Gaming Zone over November to December 1998,[18] with the winner receiving a cash prize and trip to Rome at the final held in Seattle.[19] A demo containing three missions was also made available to promote the game.[20] In 2001, The Rise of Rome was packaged with the original game as the Age of Empires: Collector's Edition.[21][22] Shelley remarked that the expansion's strength demonstrated how an expansion release could "extend the life of a game and keep the experience fresh", and used to inform the design of Age of Empires II: The Conquerors.[23] Goodman stated that the success of Rise of Rome convinced Microsoft to pursue expansion packs for other products.[15]
Return of Rome
On 16 May 2023, Return of Rome, an expansion pack for the high-definition remaster Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, was developed by Forgotten Empires and Tantalus Media and published by Xbox Game Studios. The ancient-themed expansion integrates the four civilizations from Rise of Rome, the twelve from the original game, and a new civilization, the Lạc Việt, and features three campaigns based on the Sumerians, the Macedonians, and the Romans.[24][25][26]
