Rise and Rule is a very interesting Civilization-like game, with a good atmosphere, but with some severe problems.
It is indeed quite similar to Civilization. You establish cities, construct buildings, soldiers and workers and conduct research. As one of a few of the classical ancient civilizations (the Celts, the Egyptians, the Greece, the Indians, the Mesopotamians, and the Romans) you explore the map, conquering cities, building roads, while sending out merchants and philosophers. So there are many things to do.
A difference between Rise and Rule and Civilization is that the former does not have any progress through different ages. You stay in the ancient world throughout the game. While this may be perceived as a weakness, it does help the game focus, and elevates it from being just a clone, to something of its own right.
The biggest strength of the game is its atmosphere, as it has a ancient feeling to it. The world map looks only acceptable, but does its job. The cities however look surprisingly good for the time (though a bit static), and the music contribute considerably to the atmosphere.
All in all, I did enjoy the game a lot during my childhood, due to the atmosphere and the depth the game offered. It does however have some really serious flaws. The most serious one is that the game will systematically start to slug down as you play it. As the empires grow, so will naturally the time it takes for the AI to calculate the moves it makes. So at the beginning of the game, you will very quickly switch turn, later on after you have played for many, many hours, you may have to 30 minutes for the computer to finish moving its troops and merchants! Another problem linked to the first one is that the game easily turns into a management hell with hundreds of small units you have to move back and forth between cities and armies once your empire grows from its humble beginnings. A third problem is that combat is unimpressive, since the only thing you see when two armies meet is a puff of smoke, and one of the symbols fading out.
The Rise and Rule is in some ways a pleasant and interesting game, but it is ruined by its flaws. It had a lot of potential but failed to reach it.