Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends probably isn’t what fans of the venerable Rise of Nations RTS franchise were expecting. It sounds like a sequel, but it's more like an abrupt left turn... to a very cool place.

Instead of going the usual sequel route, developer Big Huge Games has dumped the RTS grab bag of civilizations and technologies seen in 2003’s Rise of Nations for out-there sci-fi and fantasy. In other words, a “And now for something completely different” RTS.

And it totally works. Although the setting is beyond weird, especially if you’re used to Russian tanks and Egyptian bowmen, Big Huge Games has balanced the factions beautifully and capped off with an interface that should become the new template for RTS design. It's a great, fresh experience that breathes new life into the real-time gaming scene in general.

That said, Rise of Legends isn’t perfect. There are just three civilizations here, and all are so off-the-wall that it’s tough to wrap your head around them. The Vinci are steampunk-enhanced medieval Venetians who use clockwork technology inspired by Leo Da Vinci doodles. The Alin are Arabs reliant on hocus-pocus to conjure up dragons, afreeti and the like from glass, sand, and fire. And the Cuotl are aliens who look like ancient Mayans, but build bases resembling nuclear reactors and send troops into battle with lasers. You don’t need a spreadsheet to tell these guys apart, obviously.

The solo campaign doesn’t much help with the understanding of everything, though. While it follows the story of Giacomo, a Vinci inventor unraveling mysteries about an ancient artifact and fighting forces that killed his brother, it's poorly set-up and more poorly told, starting abruptly and throwing one plot point after another at you until the whole thing collapses in a conclusion that only opens the way for a sequel, not grand-scheme comprehension.

Campaign structure is more appealing. Instead of strictly defined scenarios, you play on an open map akin to Rise of Nations’ Conquer the World mode and choose provinces to invade. Mission objectives are basic, however, so you spend a lot of time rebuilding the same old bases and units and then launching the same old attacks on the enemy.

Artificial intelligence could be better, too. Scenarios are rigidly designed, forcing the Artificial Intelligence (AI) to conform to an offensive or defensive (or other) role. This makes most missions predictable, and limits campaign replay value.

Skirmish and multiplayer shine, however. Once you get a feel for the civilizations and units, the game takes off to RTS nirvana. Each race offers a very different experience, yet they all interlock so perfectly that there are no balancing issues, nobody dominates, no race is a sure thing. Heroes are a little over-powered, but other than that it’s hard to quibble. That’s a tremendous technical achievement when you consider that the average Legends battle sees Cuotl Death Snakes and Sun Cannons locked in mortal combat with a floating Alin palace defended by Scorpions and Glass Golems, or a Vinci army comprised of Clockwork Spiders and Pirata Flyers. Sounds overwhelming, but its just spectacular.

Meanwhile, the interface and game rules are brilliant in their simplicity. The feel is similar to that of Rise of Nations, which made tedious micromanagement a thing of the past while still offering up huge armies and cataclysmic battles. And as in Rise of Nations, conquering can be handled by both straight-out enemy ass-kicking and peacefully absorbing neutral territories--small towns and mining operations--through the development of your cities (because in war, everybody wants to sign on with a winner). Plus, there's just a single resource to harvest (a mineral called Timonium) and one other resource to track (wealth for the Vinci and Alin, energy for the Cuotl), so you can ditch the tedious collection stuff and focus on the RTS fun like building massive cities and armies with which to smite your enemies.

Even though some weak points make Rise of Legends less than enthralling for those who play RTS games for their single-player storylines, the mix of unusual races and units and the easy handling of them all still makes this a real winner. Big Huge Games has done it again.