The campaign in Rise of Legends tells the story of a Vinci inventor named Giacomo. Before we got our hands dirty with some multiplayer matches, however, we decided to run through a few of the single player missions to get a feel for the game. Hands On the Campaign After hearing about the new race, we were anxious to try them out ourselves. This huge floating rock formation dwarves everything else on the map and can absorb a ton of punishment as it carves its way through enemy formations. My favorite though is the City of Vengeance. The Death Sphere is a glowing energy ball that sucks in enemy infantry and crushes them. From their powerful fortress, they can launch their most inventive units. A variety of bombers and fighters give the Cuotl decent air power. At the lowest levels, they'll make use of the enslaved indigenes and ground troops. Though those are the most powerful units available to the Cuotl, there are plenty of other units you can play with. These massive stone figures are so large, they can even trample enemy infantry like the tanks in C&C. As the gods level up, they gain access to four different powers - the sun god Xil has a variety of powerful rays that he can launch Shok can bring forth a powerful hurricane (complete with darkening sky and rain) that can disrupt enemies over a wide area Czin can paralyze enemies and steal their health. The storm goddess Shok, for instance, looks like a giant winged bird, while the god of death, Czin, is a multi-legged sort of lump with a giant whip arm. In keeping with the Mayan theme of the race, they take the form of giant stone statues, each with a distinct design. There's a cool down period for each power, so you won't be able to spam your favorite power again and again if you've stockpiled the energy.ДЄs with the other races, the Cuotl can summon special heroes who can take part in the battles. Rather than letting each unit use its own supply of mana, the Cuotl hero units will spend energy out of a common resource pool. Energy also serves as the power behind the Cuotl units' special abilities. Instead, they rely on energy to create units and buildings. The Cuotl also have no use for the wealth resource used by the other two races. If they're allowed to develop properly, they can exercise much more power than the other races. This emphasis on quality of units rather than quantity means that the Cuotl player will have to plan a little more carefully in the early stages of the game.

Instead of relying on a variety of low and mid-level units, the Cuotl have to hold off on launching massive attacks until they gain access to their powerful units later in the game.

While the steampunk-inspired Vinci and the magical, Arabian Alim have some profound differences in terms of style, the at least have a similar structure in terms of units and buildings. Sensing the need for more manpower, the survivors begin using their powerful technology to subjugate some of the local inhabitants. The few survivors of the crash use their advanced technology to set themselves up as powerful gods at the head of a Mayan-themed religious theocracy. The Cuotl are aliens whose ships have crashed on the planet where the Alim and the Vinci are warring. Having spent the day playing the game and talking with the developers, we're even more excited to get our hands on the final version.ДЄ Brand New Race We're already familiar with the Renaissance meets steampunk Vinci and the Arabian Nights-themed Alim so we were anxious to find out more about the mysterious third and final race of the game.

As an added bonus, the team finally revealed the third and final race for the game. There are still plenty of performance and balancing issues left to address but the whole experience has finally come together and the game is solid enough now for Big Huge Games to let us get our feet wet with both single player and multiplayer modes. The game, due out this spring, is pretty much complete now, at least in terms of content. Yesterday the fine folks up at Big Huge Games invited us up to their studios to show off the latest build of Rise of Legends.

Rise of legends cuotl