The game that broke a studio - Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War

Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War was the third title by Stainless Steel Studios - the creators of Empire Earth. Unfortunately it didn't turn out that great, the developer went under and it was finished by the publisher. Not only did it have some really interesting ideas, it also had a story behind it that's often mispresented whenever it is retold. Let's look at the game, examine what happened in detail and see if the whole "amazing studio crushed by bad publisher" narrative holds up.

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00:00 Introduction and Menu
02:34 Part 1- Running and Capturing the Game
04:27 The Game - Features
16:36 Gameplay Conclusions
19:33 Part 2 - Development and what happened
36:13 Kaluven's Theory (not fact)
39:02 Wrap Up and Outro

All footage is either recorded by me or taken from official game trailers or demo reels. Images are either my own, AI generated, Free and Royalty-Free Stock or from Wikipedia. Backing Music is from the YouTube creator audio library. The script is my own work, and the voice over is me.

[historyben]

Interesting video. Whatever happened to Rise and Fall, it's a tragedy IMO. I loved this game and I think if it had been properly polished, it could have been the next big step forward for RTS rather than one of the milestones on its decline.

[krixtorei]

It was so easy to spot the physical retail box amidst the other piles of games in that store clip. The box is just so pretty and distinct. Still own mine and got it set up vertically on display, it'd be a crime not to.

[GogOnMagog]

Really appreciate the longer format, and your trying to dredge up whatever you could on the game's production. As soon as I saw Midway's involvement, I knew this wouldn't end well, but thanks for trying to find a path through this quagmire.

[billyrandell]

I think this might be the best video you've made yet. Im so impressed with the level of investigation and thought that clearly went into it. This is a prime example of the beauty that can happen when someone with true passion and and expertise digs into a subject they care about. Thank you so much for this and all your work so far. You have entertained me and and educated me at the same time. Cheers

[ZontarDow]

I've noticed that games that killed their studio have a bad track record of people only knowing incorrect hearsay about them, with a good example being Haze which everyone remembers as the poster child of the Halo killers, despite the fact no one involved in making it saw it as such and it wasn't even a PS3 exclusive until mot way through its development.

[junker]

I have been trying to get my hands on this as a kid because it looked so awesome but it all just vanished. Great video! Glad to see a well made video which looks at this old game that seems entirely forgotten these days.

[Matt-czti]

Rick Goodman seems to be the issue from where I’m standing

Left Ensemble after AoE
Ditched Sierra after EE
Ditched Activision after EDotMW

No attempt to build relationships or reciprocal loyalty

[Brutik]

I remember as kind being so impressed with the game. Similar system was later made into Mount and Blade, but more grounded.
But this game had ships, walls, RTS. It was increadible for 13y old me. And I played only a demo version at the time.
I also remember graphics being absolutelly stunning, it doesn't look that good today to me, most early 3D stuff doesn't. But it's still decent.

[Greatdictator]

Man, hearing how Midway / Stainless Steel situationis just sad, publishers in the past however from what i know were kind of pushy bullies, its why its easier to believe the dev vs publisher story more then the most likely complicated real one. This is one of those games that always lived in my head as ''Age of Empires but if it was Total War with cool third person perspective, also being able to mount walls''. Loved it to the point that one of my early music videos was with videos of this game lol, i do agree with the idea that playing the hero as a primary focus is a bit questionable at times. Telling the stories of games like these and their development i feel is always important, even if the game wasnt world changing, since these are the types of games whos stories will get forgotten as time moves on wherasin Star/Warcrafts and C&Cs will be around for quite some time thanks to their popularity.
Great video by the by. Very in depth definetly appreciate it.

[OryxAU]

When my copy of Rise and Fall Civilizations At War wouldn't work, Midway support told me to send in my copy so they could see if something was wrong with the disk itself. They sent me back a demo disk. I was like 12, I was quite upset.

[Skreezilla]

Mount and Jank: Banner It really feels like a proto M&B

oh and good video! loved seeing it run on original hardware and recorded on it really is a much better way to do things like this than using a heavily modded modern version missing some kind of RU malware that will likely have signed you up as a new trooper to fight the lines of Kursk now, so you know good luck there and all.

[DCPTF]

man i still play Empire Dawn of the Modern world to this day thanks to GoG, it's just such a fun game and unlike Empire Earth 1 i am pretty sure the AI can't cheat because you can drive the AI to running out of resources by playing a England for the passive storehouses for food into WW Germany and building their wonder that makes gold plus removing the need for housing and just swarming them down with infantry

[hawlitakerful]

i really like this more in depth view of things ... sure not that interesting for every game you are going to cover in your path ... but every once in a while?
great job

[gridemann]

loved this game as a kid but it was just too ahead of the technology back then (aka it ran like shit and the controls where a nightmare)

still, I wonder why such an RTS + first person hero fighter combination has never been tried nowadays

[MrDainemudda]

I read about as a teen, which made me super exited, and then it just disappeared

[benn]

It would be really nice if there was a new version of this game. With stable multiplayer servers, bigger maps, more players... the game on a grand scale. Maybe in the future an AI can rework games according to wishes

[MesoGamerk]

Loved the naval combat aspect of this game.

[Arenumberg]

The whole getting of the game was interesting there. I think anyone can get the game these days pretty easily without anything too crazy, the US Air Force sponsored giving the game away for free at one point. I also believe there was a free release of the game full of ads as well.

Whilst abandonware now, it was available freely and without issue if anyone has any moral concerns.

Truly a chameleon release.

[lightskinkeithsweat]

So if I buy this game now can I even play it on my lap top?