By Marc Saltzman
Gannett News Service

"Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends" pits magic-wielding creatures against fierce machines.

Toss your "Saving Private Ryan," "Lord of the Rings" and "The Terminator" DVDs into a blender and you'll end up with something like "Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends," a cinematic war game that pits magic-wielding creatures against fierce machines.

Microsoft Game Studios' strategy epic doesn't stray far from what made its 2003 predecessor, "Rise of Nations," a critical success, but the fantasy sci-fi theme introduces fun and inventive units, weapons and vehicles.

In case you haven't played a point-and-click strategy game, you first choose a side to the conflict before collecting natural resources to fuel base building (in "Legends," it's a glowing blue rock known as timonium).

Once new structures, fighter units and vehicles are created, it's time to explore the map, battle enemy factions and research new technologies to aid in your fight.

Titles such as "Rise of Legends" are referred to as "real-time" strategy games because there isn't a break in the action for you to make tactical decisions (as with "turn-based" strategy games, including the "Civilization" series).

In "Rise of Legends," the main campaign mode takes place throughout the perilous world of Aio. Between skirmishes, you see a 3-D map and can choose where your armies should travel, conquering provinces along the way. Locales range from steep mountainsides and frozen wastelands to futuristic cityscapes and sprawling deserts.

You also will play as one of three unique races: the magic-savvy Alin sorcerers (inspired by the stories from "The Arabian Nights"), the technical Vinci civilization (who rely on wild inventions based on Leonardo da Vinci's sketches, such as gyrocopters) and shipwrecked aliens known as the Cuotl.

At the start of the solo campaign, which could take 20 hours to complete, you play as Giacomo, a young Vinci inventor who witnesses his older brother's murder during an ambush plotted by the Alin ruler.

While avenging his death, Giacomo finds there is a much darker threat on the planet: the Cuotl. Before you know it, you'll be amassing and maneuvering armies on huge battlegrounds, with wonderfully strange units, such as enormous spider-like robots or fiery dragons.

The story, told mainly from cut-scene sequences, is over-the-top -- in both premise and dialogue -- but nicely sets up the rivalries between the races.

If this lengthy story-based mode isn't for you, "Rise of Legends" also offers a Quick Battle option so you can jump right into the action by selecting a race and map. In fact, you can even play a quick game if you only have 20 minutes left on your lunch hour, which is hard to do with deep strategy games.

You can also log online from within the game's built-in multiplayer lobby in order to find other players, or choose to host a game. A free editor is also included so you can build and share your own custom-made worlds.

After spending close to two weeks playing a pre-release version of the game, "Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends" proves to be a gratifying real-time strategy title that fuses military micromanagement with fantastic science fiction.

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