Rise

Rise was an easy game to believe in: a publisher I expect to exercise basic quality control, a tidy presentation, and a race built around interlocking tracks. On the table, it does look like it knows what it is trying to be. I am simply not convinced it gets all the way there.

At its centre is a straightforward, intelligent action-selection system feeding progress across ten tracks. They are not interchangeable: some can be neglected because they do not suit your plan, while others connect to the rest of the structure and produce worthwhile synergies.

Some tracks are reusable, so the interesting decision is when to trigger them again; others are less open to negotiation. Politics, for instance, is compulsory if you intend to win. The result is not a free stroll through ten avenues, but a race in which your own route must be separated from the stations everybody has to visit.

The mechanism is sound, but the game is too dry and feels slightly unfinished. It holds your attention for an hour or an hour and a half, then leaves you with the rather flat question: was that it? I did not have a bad time, but for this slot I would rather play the Tsarina’s cities or Furnace; in particular, Furnace without company shifting makes the hard mode properly smoke.