Rise of Nations, in my humble opinion, is one of the best real-time strategy games, judging by how many months of game time I spent on that thing. So when Microsoft offered the chance to interview Tim Train, cofounder of Big Huge Games, about the upcoming Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends title, I pounced on the invitation.

In a nutshell: Judging by the preview Train showed me, the graphics and the physics engine are awesome, beautiful. The way things blow up, debris tumbles, machinery cranks and units fight, you might think you're playing a platform game. The key gameplay concepts (borders, attrition) and hotkeys are also pretty much the same as Rise of Nations. But everything else about Legends is so different from its predecessor that I wonder why they kept Rise of Nations in the title. Not that I'm complaining.

Screenshots after the jump.

It's getting pretty tough to come up with new concepts in RTS games, so I can understand the big departure.

First, Legends takes place in a fantasy world where technology is pitted against magic. And the technology is a souped up version of the industrial age, what Big Huge calls steampunk. The fantasy setting "lifts a lot of restraints" that the reality-based Nations had, Train said.

Second, the game is streamlined. There are only three races, versus the 18 in Nations, and only two resources, so players spend a lot less time micromanaging (although I personally like the micromanaging aspects). What's more, a "short" game in Nations takes about three hours, whereas you can squeeze a session into 20 minutes in Legends.

I couldn't explore much of the game based on the preview Train gave me. The multiplayer and online play haven't been finished and Train wouldn't tell me much about it. But the preview was slick enough to whet my appetite to buy the full version when it comes out in spring 2006.

To keep fellow RON fans going until then, here are some screens, courtesy of Microsoft and Big Huge.