Addictive and stimulating...But the same old city-building game. Definitely not for intense play.
GRAPHICS:
Nothing to say much on this subject. It's bright a'right, but don't expect that reality factor that you get in today's games. Remember it is an old game. The graphics is good enough for the game and saves some strain on your eyes. Thanks to this it works quite well on even the lower end machines.
SOUND:
The sound doesn't catch your attention, but is soothing enough unlike those intense scores which keeps the muscles tense. The background music is good ol' Chinese. The in-game sounds are...well, you can't actually give any strong comment on that.
GAMEPLAY:
There's nothing original here, compared to most other city-building series. It's all about building the city from scratch and managing its various aspects like Finance, Millitary, Religion, Trade, etc. Your reign is supreme here. is the other only game in the series that I have extensively played.), it has some notable improvements. For example, the millitary interface is better, in the way that you can order your army to attack other cities and so on. Still it still has a long way to go if it can be even comparable to some basic war RTS games. The trade is another place where improvements are seen. Here, you can fix prices on your end of the trade for specific goods. The walkers AI has also been upgraded. Instead of taking goods to the nearest storage centre, they are taken to the place where they are most needed.
MISCELLANEOUS:
The Multiplayer is very notable component of Emperor. It allows you to go on individual quests or you could join hands with another player on this. As with most other games multiplayer is a strong sweetener. It always gives you the satisfaction that you are playing against a human player and not some dumb AI. The game interface is also more attractive than most of its predecessors.
THE FINAL VERDICT:
An old game, it is still engaging and fun. You hardly notice the time fly by. But this is strictly for lovers of this genre and all those who love going by their analytic and planning skills than their instinct. All those who love those fast-faced, action-packed and adrenaline-pumping games better stay as far away as possible from this. It is NOT for you.