Rise of Legends has a number of unique features that set it apart from its predecessor. It also makes use of the AGEIA PhysX physics engine.
Each race is completely distinct from the others, allowing for different gameplay depending on the player's choice. These are the technological Vinci, the magical Alin, and the alien-like Cuotl, who replace the Wealth resource with Energy, offering a new gather strategy. Unlike its predecessor, which offered the player 18 civilizations to choose from, Rise of Legends has only three races. The reality-based resource wood has been replaced by Timonium. However, Rise of Legends also introduces new features of its own, such as city districts, heroes, dominances, a more simplified economy (with only two resources) and neutral, siegeable units and buildings.
Rise of Legends retains most of the features from Rise of Nations, like city building, borders, attrition, assimilations, non-depletable resources and the Conquer The World (CTW) campaigns.
