Blandness rules!
Rising Lands is one of those games which doesn't have anything particularly wrong with it, but it's just so bland and generic that it's hard to recommend to anyone but the most diehard of genre fans. In this case, that genre is real time strategy, best typified by Command & Conquer or Dune 2, and like the similarly themed KKND, this is simply a very familiar retread of better games, but which isn't terrible in itself. The familiarity creeps in right from the start, with a well used sci-fi plot device of a world destroyed by a terrible comet and which has shattered the survivors into small tribes who constantly battle against one another. The sense of deja vu continues with the gameplay, with the standard mix of resource collecting, creating buildings of various kinds, developing armies and conducting research into new technologies. The game takes the typical overhead perspective for its action, but apart from the way that your actions affect how the following mission develops, there's not much else of interest here. Rising Lands isn't really bad in any major way but as mentioned, it's terribly generic. The gameplay mechanics work well enough, but that's mostly because they've been tried and tested elsewhere, and there's nothing really new about any of it. The visuals are similarly unimpressive, with some decent backgrounds and unit designs, with sound to match. The controls are easy to pick up and navigate, while missions are generally challenging and fairly enjoyable, making this is an overall solid game but which is unlikely to linger in the mind.
