The Vinci are obviously based on Renaissance Italy, at least in terms of their politics and culture. Still, the civilizations themselves are pretty damn interesting both in terms of their individual flavors and their abilities. The only real downside to the original setting is that there's very little sense of history or connection among the different peoples of Rise of Legends. To be fair, the new types certainly draw inspiration from existing traditions but that only makes them more effective in terms of giving players an idea of what to expect.
Given the overabundance of stock settings, it's nice to see Rise of Legends invent an entirely new set of civilizations that are just as interesting and compelling as more familiar types. One of the best features of Rise of Legends is that there's not a single elf archer, Nazi tank or Space Marine in sight. Happily, that's not the case with the unfortunately titled sequel, Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends. Still, the game's historical setting lent it a sort of predictability that wore thin for some gamers. The game's synthesis of real-time strategy gameplay with concepts popularized by turn-based strategy games like Civilization resulted in one of the more unique RTS experiences of the last few years. Big Huge Games' Rise of Nations was a big huge hit.
