Midway has announced that Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War has gone gold and is shipping to stores.  The RTS game from now defunct Stainless Steel Studios introduces a few twists to a stale genre in need of more innovation, in which you control history’s greatest generals and can directly control them in action.

In Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War, players can choose from four of the ancient world’s mightiest empires – Persia, Greece, Egypt or Rome – and then engage in awe-inspiring feats of heroism by joining troops during climactic battles, using an action/adventure-style third-person perspective to personally impact the outcome as Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Cleopatra or other heroic and historic leaders.

“Rise & Fall is a graphically–stunning and easily–accessible game, offering something for strategy gamers of all levels,” said Steve Allison, chief marketing officer, Midway. “Rise & Fall’s single–player campaigns and various multi–player modes feature a number of new innovations in addition to traditional RTS gameplay, including intuitive yet highly–detailed naval battles and, of course, Hero Command.”