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Where to start? Empire/City building, resource gathering, unit production, technology development, combat - it's all here. The thing is that Big Huge Games have taken each of these 'staples' of the RTS genre and given them a new coat of paint and a twist of lemon to taste.

On start up you have a few different game modes to choose from. These include Multiplayer, Solo tutorial (based on historical events), Random game and the Play the World campaign. The PtW campaign has it all and is what we will primarily base this review on. First up your first decision is what faction to choose. It's not the usual 4 or 5 choices in this game - players get to choose from a staggering 18 factions. No that is not a miss-print! Each one has a set of unique abilities and units that they can develop as they pass through the ages.

Once you have chosen your faction you start off the campaign in the historic capital of your civilization and are taken to a world map. This map is broken up into territories much in the way a 'Risk' game would be. Each territory has various benefits which can include special minerals or supply depots (which if captured give you a new army). At the beginning you usually start off with one army which each game turn you can move into an adjoining territory. If it is not owned it is usually occupied by a native tribe or by barbarians so invariably moving outside your territory results in a battle. You can only move one unit into battle each turn while others you can re-arrange within your own borders. When you do move in for attack (or are yourself attacked) any armies in adjoining territories act as a reserve providing welcome additional units early in the game.

As you win battles and conquer territories you capture or earn special support cards that you choose to play in the next turn. Some provide extra units in the next battle, additional technologies or more resources while others can be played more strategically such as causing civil unrest to a neighboring territory to reduce its strength. In turn you can use the tribute you earn from your territories to bolster the defense in specific territories to make them harder to attack. This 'card' playing element is a very nice touch and spices up the wider strategic game-play elements of the game. It's a cool idea that is very well executed.

The game is played over a beautiful map that includes a wide range of landscape elements including hills, mountains, forests, and the sea. You are able to place your troops into a variety of formations such as a line, flank refused, arrow formation and more. They can also be set to the usual guard and aggressive mode but the neat little feature that has us taken is the General. Rather than just a bigger, tougher fighter this guy can have a big influence on the performance of your troops. In addition to the traditional unit health bar he also has a command point bar from which he can expend points to order his troops to either ambush, entrench, create a diversion or do a forced march. It's a simple idea but well executed and done in such a way to open a whole new set of options for the jaded RTS fan.

If you happen to attack an occupied territory, this is when the traditional RTS elements of resource gathering and technology development kick in. You start the game with one town, a couple of farms, some troops and peasants. That's just about where the similarity ends to the RTS mix however. Your peasants can build farms straight away however each town can only support 5 farms. You can also send off your peasants to cut down trees but only so many peasants can operate from each lumber camp, and generally each clump of trees can only support one camp. Yep this blows the time honored strategy of building up a huge force of peasants to farm the life out of the land to build up a massive bank of resources. In fact the game prevents you from producing over and above the limits of your technology as well. The only way to increase this is through more towns and technology development.

Additional towns can only be built in the zone of control created by your existing towns. By placing your towns on the edge of this zone you extend this area of influence out further. You can also only build towns to the number your technology advancement allows. Quick expansion therefore is limited by how much of precious resources you place in to research. This balancing act becomes more and more complex as the game advances further.

Apart from farms and wood you also mine iron and later on in the game you get to drill for oil. Your gold is earned rather than mined. This is done by taxation through your church/temple and through trade. As you advance in both population and technology you have both a bigger tax base and the ability to research a higher tax rate. Trade is limited by the amount of research undertaken under commerce. The further you progress the more trade caravans you are allowed. Again this all adds to the depth and complexity of the gaming experience.

An additional resource is knowledge. This is an essential commodity for later research. This is accrued through building universities in each of your towns and populating them with scholars (again one university per town and a limited amount of scholars to each one). Each will generate a certain amount of knowledge that again through research can be increased.

On top of these main resources are a host of special resources that are scattered throughout the play area. These include things like gems, buffalo and grapes. Each gives specific abilities to your civilization and some of these can be game winners. To claim them you send out a merchant who sets up camp next to them and begins to trade in these items (the merchant camp is the only structure you can build outside your zone of control). It's possible to set up shop deep in the heart of your enemies territory but it is not possible to build towers next to his town.

Technology development is simplistic yet complex. The four areas that you can research from your library are 'Military' which allows new military buildings, more units and the ability to research unit upgrades; 'Civil', which enables the ability to build more towns; 'Commerce', which allows more caravans and hence more income and finally 'Science' which enables quicker and cheaper research.

You have the usual military production buildings such as barracks, stables, docks and siege workshops while later on in the game you can aspire to airfields and ballistic missile sites. All units automatically upgrade as you undertake an upgrade in the required building. While your unit production is limited by your population cap (which is limited by your towns) you can still get what looks like a big army as each unit is represented on screen by three actual units. What would normally be a decent sized army can look huge. The units can also be placed into various formations which are intelligently set up with melee troops to the fore and missile troops to the rear.

The ultimate goal is to batter your opposition's towns into submission (not destroy them) so that they will come over to your side. This does not happen straight away but rather there is a period of time between when they capitulate to when they assimilate to your side. During this time they are neutral and available for both sides to retake.

There is a raft of units for land, sea and air is Rise of Nations. Each looks great on screen and the unit balance is superb with no one unit/weapon representing a 'game killer' (the nuke missile aside - you never have enough of them and they make a mess of the environment - we have no weapons of mass destruction, they are grain silos).

When/if you beat the main campaign there are other game options to sink your teeth into like the test mode where you have to beat the clock as well as the enemy. On average each game takes about an hour and a half to play. This is despite it's complexity, and often the games are fast and furious as you quickly try to build an army, win the technology race and gain territory.

The graphics in Rise of Nations are nice and crisp and all units are very well animated. Some buildings even have small animations themselves which is a great touch. Back up the great graphics with some great audio and absorbing game-play and the gaming experience is one that should not be missed.

Oh, did we forget to mention that Rise of Nations features a great intuitive player interface, a solid multi-player experience, a scenario creator and a script editor? There is most definitely some great bang for your buck.

Big Huge Games lives up to it's name by delivering a huge gaming experience that is a must buy for all RTS fans. It's a stunning debut title that deserves all the accolades that are being heaped upon it - go and buy it NOW.