J-Files: Rise & Fall Civilizations at War Review

Rise & Fall is a game I've wanted to review for a minute. It is a strangely unique game that has stuck with me over the years. I may have lost my boxed copy of Rise & Fall, but thankfully it has become functional abandonware so I was able to find it online. This was a fun video to make so let me know what you guys think.
Twitter: / dopedbones
Rise & Fall Manual: replacementdocs.com/download.p...
K.K. Cruisin' True Remix: • Animal Crossing - K.K....
Curator page: store.steampowered.com/curato...
00:00 Intro
00:46 Development and Acquisition
03:20 Troubleshooting
04:05 Visuals
05:43 Sound
07:20 Gameplay
14:55 Story
15:33 History
19:49 Conclusions
#Rise&Fall #RTS #JFiles

[@aceyboy]

People don't understand how groundbreaking it was for an RTS game to allow the player to also play as a first person hero in the battles. Despite what reviews say, this was one of the top 4 RTS games I've ever played

[@Jellyjamjaylor]

Is there any rts game where you can play first person

[@heisenfeis]

@@Jellyjamjaylor HELLO, i want to let you know Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront is a WW2 based RTS with no base building but you call on reinforcements from outside the map, it is based on the Men of War series with direct control and first person (with mods), the regular Call to Arms is a modern based RTS, with also direct control and first person (without mods). The thing about these games it that ALL units not just the hero ones are direct control, (infantry, tanks, artillery, cannons), you can loot dead bodies for ammo and different weapons and really micro manage if you want too, game also comes with a really easy and fun editor, (i have played this series for 2000 hours + over the last 10 years) if you don't mind checking it out i have a video of a youtuber trying it for the first time kzbin.info/www/bejne/fXKbg2eCZ9p5hLc (Oh Boy, A Welcomed New Gaming Addiction | Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront) Have fun.

[@arrechim9784]

@@Jellyjamjaylor Call to arms

[@dremesis98]

@@Jellyjamjaylor mount and blade

[@mike4life0]

Third person, not first person. Sacrifice did it 6 years earlier, although that's played exclusively in the third person.

[@Jonathan-bu7iv]

I remember being a kid and trying desperately to get my hands on this. FPS+RTS is amazingly cool and I'm so upset that this didn't take off.

[@letsblankstuff8477]

13:17 the best part about that is putting 500 archers on one boat with like 20 sailors so the boat never gets destroyed and all 500 archers combined destroy anything in its path in one shot lol

[@historyben7122]

Nice review. I had a boxed copy of this as a kid - even then I could see it was pretty janky and unpolished, but it was only recently that I learned about the terrible circumstances under which it got shipped. I think it's one of the biggest missed opportunities in RTS history - this is a gorgeous game with an epic scale.

[@nynphierno9112]

Back in the day i thought this was one of the coolest RTS games ever just because you could control your hero like that. But i was like 10 when i played it lol Had my fun with it and ended up playing more AoE, AoM, WC3 and Stronghold for obvious reasons

[@PappyVPoodle]

Oh man. This game was my childhood. The main theme brought back so much memories. I still have the original disc and it had some extra DLC content none of the cracks had (at least that I could find) I set up a LAN to play with my friends and family and it was much more fun than I had expected.

[@Greatdictator]

While i always knew that it was a bit jank, its still one of the few RTS games out there that had A Chunky unit numbers as opposed to just limiting the armies and unit sizes to 1 unit is 1 unit , thus mimicing total war slightly , the only other game that attempted this was the Prateroians game. B Hero mode had potential but as said lacked depth, but it made the battles feel much larger due to change in perspective C it actually had useable walls where units can actually climb it and use them they didnt look like they needed a regular ladder just to go over them. D naval combat where you can actually board a enemy ship and ram it years before Rome 2 came out (theres another game with this sort of mechanic but the name eludes me right now ) THIS game is still in my mind, its imperfect sure but the thing that hurts is just the lack of polish ultimately. I can definetly see people take inspiration from and sometimes im reminded of this game when a strategy game has a third person mode to go along with it.

[@DopedBones]

You just nailed almost every reason why Rise and Fall stuck with me. Naval combat especially felt ahead of its time with the amount of control the player had over the ship and the units aboard it. That main theme lives in my head rent free too.

[@thefriar8883]

This is a really well made and informative video. Thanks for this, Ive been wanting to play this game again, I used to love it. I specifically remember units disembarking boats to be a really annoying issue.

[@sayo5885]

This game was one of the integral games that defined my childhood. I was obsessed with it! To think that you could have an RTS game with a hero character who allows you to charge in 3rd person alongside your army was REVOLUTIONARY for the little me. It blew his mind away. But alas I always had problems running it smoothly on my shitty laptop, I remember it either crashed at launch or during gameplay at some point. Sometimes I wouldn't be able to install it at all I remember I would try many times in many ways browsing crappy internet forums for solutions with little English I had back in the day. Now learning the story behind its rocky development process it makes a lot more sense. I actually commend the development team for creating this game despite all the odds stacked against it. Thanks for the review, virtually nobody is talking about this game. (Understandably)

[@drago939393]

The main issues with the game are lack of polish and lack of depth. The first issue could have easily been avoided had the Devs not been sabotaged and instead received 6 or so more months as well as more funding. The second issue is related to the first (RTS live and die based on how well the core mechanics are done) but also direction, as the game was seemingly intended to be basic with the 3rd person gimmick to have it stand out. When I think about contemporary games like Dawn of War or Zero Hour, that's quite disappointing... Hell, AoE 3 was right around the corner and games like Rise Of Legends are in the same ballpark, thus fair to use for comparison. But hey, the water visuals look dope!

[@DopedBones]

Ultimately it needed more time time in the oven, but I can still appreciate some things about Rise and Fall. Honestly half the reason why I wanted to make this video is to see if the naval combat was like how I remembered. It is so weirdly in-depth compared to the rest of the gameplay. I just think if the land combat had a bit more nuance it could have been really successful. But of course that would have required Midway to actually care about their products and not the all mighty dollarydoo

[@cabinyim]

This is the most underrated game I swear, this was amazing.

[@Quik9to10]

Honestly, you deserve more views with the amount of work and quality these vids have

[@Ronga_Xilandi]

The campaigns were amazing and so many great new ideas this game had .. too bad they couldn't explore more

[@drbangrim4205]

Amazing Video, specially the Plutarch part! Still sad that nobody ever continued the idea of RTS + 3rd Person.

[@DopedBones]

Thanks! The surprise history lesson is a personal favorite of mine. Never say never on 3rd person RTS. Maybe one day someone will get it just right

[@drbangrim4205]

@@DopedBones Who knows, maybe the Bannerlord RTS mod could turn into smth like that! :)

[@NebachadnezzaR]

"A wall to keep the sea peoples out" Lmao, now that was a good reference

[@ShadoSpartan44]

i remember when this game was coming out and got hyped for it, thought it was gonna be the next best RTS ever made. I watched Xplay give it a 2/5 stars and still went and got it. I had fun with it but couldn't shake the feeling that it was half baked. Like you said it had some great unique ideas, but the execution felt much more to be desired. I do remember a bug when playing Persia where at the start of a skirmish match a random unit would infinitely spawn at my main building. Anyway great video, i have this game on my list of games to do a retrospective on

[@DopedBones]

I remember reading about R&F on GameSpot and eventually grabbed it out of the bargain bin at costco about a year after release. It has a soft spot in my heart, but after this video idk if I'm ever going to touch it again sans a mod or, by some unholy power, a remake

[@Orinslayer]

Yeah for a game that came out after AoM and AoE2 it felt pretty limited. Except the naval combat.

[@abbcc5996]

i finally found this game after playing it in my childhood. for a time i was thinking i made this game up, controlling the hero and shooting arrows while riding a ship in an rts game was like magic to me. cant belive it came out the same year as CoH. i played coh a few years after playing this game and still boot it up from time to time but as i had entered puberty when i played it CoH seems like a much more recent memory, and this game looks and feels ancient compared to CoH which aged better than any console game from that generation

[@piitufo2]

I remember playing this game as kid during its peak. There were 2 major clans, the “AKs” and the “Zoo.” I was a member of the Zoo in those days. Those clan wars were on a different level and at times felt personal. Those days were great. If anyone sees the comment that belonged to either clan, reply to Remanence.

[@BerengarLex]

I saw an ad for this game on a magazine eons ago - all I remember is how absurdly hot the Cleopatra model looked like.

[@kevinlion7903]

Great review!

[@jaroplays_2737]

There is a power attack , if you hold right mouse trigger. Btw great review brought me back when I was a kid. Nostalgic and amazing. Such an underrated piece of gem. Thank you for this video. Earned a sub

[@noctrismusic]

Great video bro!

[@KirkWilliams300]

Thank you so much for the Manuel! I picked this game back as freeware after not playing it since I was a kid long time ago. I am making a stat guide because there isn’t much info on it, and this Manuel helps. Also, to your hero combat comment, there is a heavy melee attack by right clicking. It is slower but has a larger area affect and knocks down units caught in it.

[@DopedBones]

Glad I could help you in some way! I'm interested to see the results of your stat guide. As for the heavy attack, fuk. I didn't even try to right click while playing. Glad to know there is at least a bit more depth to the hero combat

[@KirkWilliams300]

@@DopedBones I’ll send it off when I am finished, it’s going to take a while as some stuff is actually very interesting. For example, looking at the guide, vague statements they make on each hero actually reflects on stats in unique ways. They mention Achilles as a master of all forms of combat and has amazing constitution. This is reflected in how his melee attacks use less stamina than other heroes and at his peak he has the highest possible stamina pool.

[@DopedBones]

@@KirkWilliams300 Huh, I had always assumed it was flavor text. I never actually considered that it might be representative of in game stats

[@KirkWilliams300]

@@DopedBones right! I was thinking the same thing until I started testing different variables. There are still plenty of statements I need to test. However, the sad reality is that there are a lot of features missing/turned off/not finished which leads to things not functioning as intended. It can be disheartening to work diligently to uncover hidden mechanics only to find them underdeveloped.

[@Zirkobi]

Love that you're using RuneScape music in the background 🤣

[@DopedBones]

I have wanted to use Sea Shanty 2 in a video forever. Didn't have the chance up until now 😁

[@WrathOfTheShaft]

Man i vaugely remember playing this as a kid on our terrible computer and not being able to get through a single game! I have to get a copy of this! Thank you for such a noob friendly video!

[@anthonyklanke1397]

One thing that i really liked when i played it back in the day was the "skybox" that surrounds the maps borders. It was a clever way to make the environments feel bigger 👍 the sea scape was really pretty aswell

[@LichKingg23]

I played this gem WAY back then and I loved it. Dont know if I played the campaing, but skmirmish vs AI? Yes, I loved it, this is a good memory.

[@aidendiaz6038]

I played this game online when it was released, game matches only lasted like 20 minutes. Playing online made playing AI on level 10 a breeze.

[@MartialGlobe]

Next to age of mythology, aoe2, Stronghold Crusader, rise of nations and Praetorians one of my favourite rts games out of my childhood, even though it was way more underrated than the latter

[@jakemarshall360]

Thanks for reminding me Praetorians exists, it's a great game!

[@MartialGlobe]

@@jakemarshall360 No Problem g, I also totally forgot about the Lord of the Rings RTS: "War of the Ring" which also absolutely slapped.

[@megaslayercho]

"I was there 3000 years ago" This game was a total gem, one of the most underated RTS games I have ever played(along with empire earth 1,but atleast ee1 was kinda huge back in the day,Rise and fall never got the player counts it deserved) Too bad it's insanely difficult(or should I say random) to get it to work with windows 10 or later, you might be lucky and have no issues or you might be in the other 60-80% of user who have some stupid library missing errors(I have tried to run it many different machine, many different forms of windows .rarely it ever works)

[@naturalbornpatriot6369]

Another game that was set in this period, without Romans, Alexander:Fortune Favors the Bold. Excellent RTS game

[@sligacheese6470]

Hate to say this but having a old pc with win xp makes all the difference in the world. These games are not made for windows 7/8/10/11 My old pc fires up all these old titles like a boss. ❤win XP

[@Orinslayer]

Spends hours studying history just to give this game an above average score. I played this game a long time ago. I remember it ran pretty bad on the hardware of the time. It crashed a lot and the gamespeed would stutter in any real battle. Especially naval and hero mode fights.

[@arbeitsscheuer]

I mean, Aristander was Alexander the Great's favourite 'seer', so maybe they intended that character to be him and forgot to change the corresponding dialogue when the switched him to be Aristotle. Or...that IS Aristander, and you just didn't realise before making this vid?

[@DopedBones]

I'm gonna go with option one because most people don't know Aristander even existed. Plus the character model looks more like an off-brand Socrates than a religious seer imo.

[@LichKingg23]

19:25 Yes, I was thinking 'where is the Aristada video?'

[@Lucasmagalhaes-vg5ox]

I wonder if stainlees steel have made Empire Earth 2 , maybe it would be something like this... ( with 15 ages )

[@dumlepumle]

Nice review, only played the demo way back but it stuck with me for some reason. Tried getting it to work recently but never got it playable😢

[@DopedBones]

Do you remember what the problem was? I might be able to help figure out how to get the game to run

[@dumlepumle]

@@DopedBonesNo it wasn't that recently 😅 I downloaded it from myabandoneware but i never got it to launch correctly if i remember correctly. Perhaps i should give it another try.

[@dumlepumle]

Said is done. Gave it another try and now used the portable version referenced on the myabandonwarepage and it just worked. In a skirmish battle now 💪

[@user-fe7lr4tu1n]

Hey, this is an older video but I ran into an issue when installing from abandonware. The game runs fine but my mouse isn't working great. The Registry file is set to 1 already, just when I use my mouse it jitters, and when I click its never where it shows the mouse to be if that makes sense. When I use my trackpad with my finger it's smooth. Never had an issue with this mouse before so just wondering if you can help. Thanks!

[@DopedBones]

Not sure if I can help here because I haven't heard of this problem before. If the trackpad is working then it could be an issue with the mouse or the usb port it is plugged into. I would try that before anything drastic. If that doesn't work than it is a software issue. That registry value determines if the game uses DirectInput, which is the old Windows API that registered mouse movements and keyboard inputs. If you are using windows 11 or running a windows emulator it might not be supported.

[@Straductions]

Did i just hear Witcher music and Runescape music while watching a game i played when i was a kid??!

[@DopedBones]

Si senor

[@carstenpochert]

Awesome video! Could you reupload the manual pls?

[@DopedBones]

Link for the manual is in the video description. On that page you need to click the blue arrow pointing down to start the download

[@carstenpochert]

@@DopedBones ok it worked with another browser :)

[@DopedBones]

@@carstenpochert Glad I could help!

[@lemmontree1]

Nice. Bought the collectors edition back in the day, never played it.... It was developed by ex-AoE developers and looks very much like AoM, which I also got the Collectors Edition from and ended up playing instead.

[@drago939393]

Feel like you chose the better game!

[@DopedBones]

Age of Mythology is the better game, mostly because it is actually complete. I need to add that to the list of things I want to cover

[@expelleddux]

That game was cool. I have the disk.

[@jonasramiez9826]

Where u can play this awesome game ?

[@DopedBones]

www.myabandonware.com/game/rise-fall-civilizations-at-war-a21 Have fun!

[@versacos]

This video is amazing, you commented a lot of stuff that was important. i just may add the inaccuracy how Alexander and Achilles were portraited in the same team (Greece) when Alexander was Macedonian and Achilles Greek hahah. Other than that still think its one of the legendary RTS games ive touched since little kid and i remember my father getting it for my 7th birth day (im 20 now). The nostalgia that hit me when i searched up the name and your gameplay in the background is amazing. I also heard there is a team that is re-working the game so we might possibly get a better version of it, anyways, thank you for the video and waking up my nostalgia.

[@drago939393]

14:58 most Gigachad stances in history, colorized. The strut right after lmao

[@DopedBones]

I'm a fan of that aristotle head shake at the end too

[@only-website2210]

You there is a power attack. Rightclick?

[@VTFarmer]

this game realy best im tried with thirst person on heroes

[@abodeeb6830]

Please give me information

[@1alalbin]

somthing fun in the game is in map creator you can spawn godzilla its totaley broken you need an armey so big that it breaks the game to kill it

[@DopedBones]

Now I need to reinstall Rise and Fall to check this out

[@1alalbin]

@@DopedBones sadly i dont remeber what its name was but I remember when I was a kid i traid many times to kill it but I had to spawn so manny archers so the game ran at like 2fps. and also I find it kinda wierd there so no mentions of it online, but I guess because it is a obscure game it has slip thru the cracks. sadly my 1cds broke a while back so for me this game is kinda lost media

[@hsjdjdjdkdj4712]

how can i download?

[@DopedBones]

3:05

[@abodeeb6830]

How can i play it

[@DopedBones]

03:06 Type that into your address bar or google the name of the game + abandonware

[@fairruncz6162]

7:08 xDDD

[@houtsaptsa2099]

My gtx 1050 ain't no compatible and it's playable only on intel graphics, as a result I have low fps

[@houtsaptsa2099]

Can you help?

[@DopedBones]

@@houtsaptsa2099 Can you define not compatible? Is it crashing or displaying a black screen etc? I'm running the R&F with a 1070ti. In theory a 1050 should work because the cards are similar.

[@houtsaptsa2099]

On setting tab 5:21 on graphic cards it only shows my intel graphics my gtx 1050, but when I click "run as admin on nvidia graphics" on desktop it was very bad and even lower fps.I actually can play this game on 1080p medium-low graphics,but my laptop supports 4k and I would like 4k ultra graphics. I am pretty sure it's possible if I run correctly with Gtx 1050 somehow🤷🏻‍♂️

[@DopedBones]

Gotcha, the game is not recognizing the card. I would try two things. First try updating your Nvidia drivers. A longshot but possible. Next I would download the latest version DirectX 9.0c (Its from like 2010). Just to make sure you have the correct API. Make sure the laptop is plugged in while you are running the game too. If that doesn't work than it may be an issue with the card itself. I would try forcing other games to run on nvidia graphics. That way you can see how they run to make sure it is not a hardware problem.

[@k-ti2269]

@@DopedBones i did it and nothing happened.Thanks for the advice

[@zeko_kume]

Can you still download it?

[@DopedBones]

This is the website where I acquired it www.myabandonware.com/game/rise-fall-civilizations-at-war-a21

[@newbossbro3180]

only best part of this game is the naval combat and a basic introduction to RTS + 3rd Person. Sucks that no RTS so far done similar naval system. I absolutely hate naval warfare at AOE2 and AOE4 did nothing new for it. Guess we'll never have a RTS game that truly solves it other than this game....

[@sligacheese6470]

Just bought this for 2 bucks lol

[@TheMitko2222]

From where can you get it ? i cant find it in steam

[@sligacheese6470]

@@TheMitko2222 off my local market place

[@sligacheese6470]

@@TheMitko2222 I could mail my copy to you. To mail in the same province in Canada cost around 15 bucks

[@GKJusticar55]

Don’t you EVER disrespect RaFs music. EVER.

[@DopedBones]

I stand by what I said. That main theme is godlike. The rest of the soundtrack is fine by comparison. I've heard better and worse from Jason Graves

[@GKJusticar55]

@@DopedBones Yeah man in all fairness it's just because I played this game as a teenager and I really loved it for absolutely no reason other than the fact that I didn't know any better. Weirdly enough some of the music was taken from another game called Wars and Warriors: Joan of Arc.

[@DopedBones]

You and me both dude. Makes sense about the music because it turns out Graves composed for both games lol. I didn't know that Joan of Arc game existed, but that's going on the list. I can already tell that's gonna be a rabbit hole

[@GKJusticar55]

@@DopedBones Oh yeah...its super jank that I really loved. Its really weird.

[@henkhenkste6076]

wait what? achilles might not be real? lol wtf go back to school kid

[@DopedBones]

Normally I would ignore a comment like this, but for some reason I feel like making you look like a fool. The source material from which our concept of Achilles originates is Homer's the Illiad. An oral epic, that is likely an amalgamation of many smaller stories, composed by Homer approximately 400 years after the events of the Trojan War. A real war that did occur in the 12th or 13th century BC. But our only record of the event is decidedly pro-greek and filled with Greek Gods interfering with the lives of mortals. I'm more inclined to believe that Achilles is a literary character than a real person considering credible historical evidence is almost nonexistent. And no Achilleion doesn't count seeing as no archeological evidence of a tomb has been uncovered. Perhaps it is you should stay in school, child.

[@houtsaptsa2099]

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