Recent reviews by arbuz

For a start, this game is more sophisticated and complex than it seems at the first blush. Game mechanics are deep and many-sided, so it's always interesting to build your empire from scratch again and again.
A notable feature is that resources are literally endless, therefore main emphasis is on waging wars and planning your economy and researches. That's what I always loved this game for: you develop a great power through its entire history like in Civilization, but battle as if you were playing AoE. Fighting enemies demands a lot of awkward micro-management tho' and I consider this a weak side of Rise of Nations.
Every nation is well-balanced and extremely enjoyable to play for every country has its unique abilities (e.g. the Egyptians are impossible to compete in a wonder race, the Germans get their crucial industry upgrades earlier etc.). These elaborate features of nations enhance replayability many times.
OK, disadvantages of the game are:
1) slightly depthless diplomacy
2) difficult to micro-manage units in battle
3) getting units through the water is pain
Nevertheless it's the best RTS I have ever played :)