''Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising'' (abbreviated as G&H or GnH) was a massively multiplayer online role-playing video game developed by Heatwave Interactive and released in 2011 for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. The game was set in

Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 B ...

, and combined historical elements and enemies (

Etruscans The Etruscan civilization () was developed by a people of Etruria in ancient Italy with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states. After conquering adjacent lands, its territory covered, at its greatest extent, rou ...

Faliscans Falisci ( grc, Φαλίσκοι, ''Phaliskoi'') is the ancient Roman exonym for an Italic tribe who lived in what is now northern Lazio, on the Etruscan side of the Tiber River. They spoke an Italic language, Faliscan, closely akin to Latin. Or ...

, etc.) with mythological ones (

Cyclopes In Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, the Cyclopes ( ; el, Κύκλωπες, ''Kýklōpes'', "Circle-eyes" or "Round-eyes"; singular Cyclops ; , ''Kýklōps'') are giant one-eyed creatures. Three groups of Cyclopes can be distinguish ...

Gorgons A Gorgon ( /ˈɡɔːrɡən/; plural: Gorgons, Ancient Greek: Γοργών/Γοργώ ''Gorgṓn/Gorgṓ'') is a creature in Greek mythology. Gorgons occur in the earliest examples of Greek literature. While descriptions of Gorgons vary, the te ...

, etc.). Players selected era-appropriate classes (Soldiers, Gladiators, Mystics, and Priests), each of which could be aligned with an Olympian god (such as

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

). Originally developed by

Perpetual Entertainment Perpetual Entertainment, founded in March 2002, was an American developer, publisher and operator of networked multiplayer games and MMORPGs. Their headquarters was located in San Francisco, California, United States. From October 2007 to Februar ...

, the game was put on indefinite hold in October 2007. In February 2010, Heatwave Interactive announced it had acquired the rights to the game and planned to continue its development. The game was released in June 2011 with a retail purchase and subscription. In early 2012 the game switched to a

free-to-play Free-to-play (F2P or FtP) video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying or do not require paying to continue playing. Free-to-play is distinct from traditional commercial software, which ...

model with a $10 purchase of the game. The game and its forums entered maintenance in September 2012 and never fully returned, although some existing players were still able to log into game servers afterwards.

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has since removed the game from its shop.

Gameplay

In previous development, minions were touted as one of the game's unique features. There were several different ways to collect the more than 130 minions available in the game. You can hire the minions to join your camp for a fee, earn minions as quest rewards, get minion contracts as loot drops or earn their respect by beating them in combat situations. These minions include warriors, ranged attackers, casters, and mythological creatures. These hirelings utilize an AI system enabling them to heal you, attack, defend, form up in various formations and learn special moves. In addition, each god makes a different mythical minion available to their scions. In addition to the AI, players have the ability to control all aspects of their minions, such as telling a healer minion to heal a specific player, as well as customizable squad formations. As a character's level progresses, they gain the ability to control more minions at once, until a character had a full squad with four minions. Each party member will be able to bring up to 4 minions with them in a party. There will be challenges, quests, and some instances that would have limitations on the number of minions you would be able to bring along.

Development

The game was originally announced on March 9, 2005 by

, and was slated for release in the 4th quarter of 2005, and then pushed again for 2008, but due to the challenge to develop both 'Gods and Heroes' as well as

Star Trek Online ''Star Trek Online'' is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Cryptic Studios based on the ''Star Trek'' franchise. The game is set in the 25th century, 30 years after the events of '' Star Trek: Nemesis''. ''Sta ...

, the company decided to hold the development indefinitely. The game had been in closed beta since October 2006, but was shut down the day of hold announcement.

Sony Online Entertainment Daybreak Game Company LLC is an American video game developer based in San Diego. The company was founded in December 1997 as Sony Online Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment, but was spun off to an independent investor in ...

was named as the publisher and distributor for the game in North America, but had no hand in the development of the game. The game reached a state of closed

beta test A software release life cycle is the sum of the stages of development and maturity for a piece of computer software ranging from its initial development to its eventual release, and including updated versions of the released version to help impro ...

. Only a few people were granted beta keys at the time. Beta keys were given away in random intervals on the official homepage. However, it was announced that the game's development would be put on indefinite hold, due to the developers shifting their focus to

, and the beta server was closed. Perpetual Entertainment, now known as P2 Entertainment, has since announced its dissolution. On February 22, 2010, it was announced that Heatwave Interactive had acquired the rights to the Gods & Heroes, previously developed by Perpetual Entertainment, and that development was back underway. When asked at that time when the game would be released, Heatwave Interactive CEO Anthony Castoro estimated a "window of about a year to 18 months." The game was released in June, 2011 with a retail purchase and subscription. In early 2012 the game switched to free play with a $10 purchase of the game. The game and its forums entered maintenance in September 2012 and never fully returned, although some existing players were still able to log into game servers at some points after that.

has since removed the game from its shop.

Reception

Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising was well received at 2006's E3, receiving Allakhazam's Best of Show Award; TenTonHammer's Best of Show Award; MMORPG.com's Game of Show and Best Graphics Awards; Stratics' Best Gameplay Award; and GameAmp's Best Gameplay Award.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising Massively multiplayer online role-playing games 2011 video games Ancient Rome in art and culture Video games based on classical mythology Video games developed in the United States Video games set in the Roman Empire Windows games Windows-only games Inactive massively multiplayer online games