It is official. Big Huge Games has announced their new RTS, Rise of Legends – a steampunk world with a character driven campaign. This IGN preview does nothing to dampen my enthusiasm for this title.

Though I love historical strategy games almost as much as life itself, the chance to play in a pseudo-historical Jules Verne type of universes is too appealing to pass up. I will confess to having a poor knowledge of steampunk in any detail, but the clunky elegance of Victorian-era machinery designed for modern ends is irrresistable.

Like Arcanum, Rise of Legends posits a world where magic and science uneasily co-exist. Some of the screenshots look like they are from a Dickensian nightmare and others from a fairy story. Dan Adams, the preview writer, comments that the cities look important (and the screenshots bear this out). In all, there is a lot to look forward to here.

And, most importantly, it has Brian Reynolds and the Big Huge brains behind it. Though I thought Age of Mythology was a better game in many respects, Rise of Nations was clearly the more important game. It subtly messed with the RTS formula and did some really interesting things. No historical strategy game had ever made the factions so distinct, and Thrones and Patriots showed that the brains in Timonium were willing to keep taking risks with how much power a particular side should have. The campaigns were, I think, less innovative than was claimed at the time but this in no way made them less enjoyable or varied.

So, if I had to choose between news on Age of Empires 3 and Rise of Legends, I’d have to go with the latter. I am truly excited about this new game and look forward to writing more about it.