Emperor is certainly well done, but its ultimately a step backward for Impressions.
As I've already said, Emperor is set in ancient China, so you will be governing Chinese cities through out differing time-periods in Chinese history. Unlike some of the earlier campaigns Impressions made, Emperor has several campaigns instead of just one. These campaigns are set during the reigns of the more important and well known Chinese dynasties, so you've got the Shang dynasty, Han dynasty, along with several others. You'll be very familiar with how these campaigns work if you've played any of Impressions' previous city-builders such as Caesar 3 or Zeus. Emperor's campaigns work using a combination of Zeus' structure and Caesar 3's structure. Just like in Zeus, the cities you build stay the way you built them throughout the entire campaign, but the game also has you move around a lot more building many new cities from scratch, just like in Caesar 3 (Granted- Zeus also moved you around a little from city to colony, but not nearly as much as Emperor does). The actual city building in the game is essentially exactly the same as it was in Impressions previous games. You set up housing for immigrants to arrive, and you also have to set up services for them to make sure their kept fed, safe, and happy. Emperor's three most major changes are its multiplayer, heroes, and feng shui. The multiplayer simply allows 2 people to build cities and trade/fight each other, but that's all it has special about it really. Feng shui essentially forces you to build your city in a bit more of an organized manner, lest you upset the feng shui. You can still build anywhere, but the feng shui system discourages putting certain buildings in certain locations. But in all reality, the feng shui rarely becomes a real problem as long as you know what your doing.
Emperor's heroes are brand new in that they are important individuals, gods essentially, that you must keep pleased. If you can make them happy enough- they'll eventually come visit your city and grant you special benefits. The catch however is that you must directly control these heroes like your military units, and this can get tedious with the heroes who really need to move around to spread their benefits. That, and your city doesn't make offerings automatically like it did in Zeus when you were honoring the gods, you must order the offerings manually, so don't you dare forget! Also, offerings are the only thing that keeps them happy unlike in previous city-builders, temples alone won't help you a bit! This would of been much more manageable if the heroes controlled themselves.
Emperor also forces you to do combat a lot more often than any of the previous city-building games ever have. Training an army in Emperor works exactly the same as it did in Caesar 3, you build forts and provide weapons and training- and the soldiers will eventually form up at the forts for you. You can train basic infantry, crossbowmen, calvary/chariots (Depending on time period), and catapults. And yes, combat works exactly the same as it always has since Caesar 3, so its not very fun. The fact that several of Emperor's campaigns force you to fight constantly will undoubtedly get on some people's nerves.
Graphically, Emperor is quite fresh looking, even though it is in 2D. The game does have some great looking textures, buildings, and civilians. Sound wise, the game is similar to previous the city-builders, but it just doesn't quite sound as satisfying as Zeus did, especially with its voice acting, though the voice acting provided here is still good.
Ultimately, Emperor is a sudden lash backwards for Impressions city-building series. It hangs on to a few too many old traditions, and changes a few of Zeus' greater features for the worse. While the game will undoubtedly still be enjoyable for newcomers to Impressions' city builders, veterans will probably be disappointed with Emperor. Especially if you've been spoiled by better city-builders like Zeus.
Pros: Good old Formula still works. Fresh looking 2D graphics.
Cons: Heroes are tedious all around. Combat occurs too often.
Recommendable for: Newcomers to Impressions' city-builders.