The aesthetics and sounds used made this unforgettable and nostalgic. It had the most unique NPC logics and was extremely smart for that time. The computer would eventually plan an attack on my nation and the it almost felt like the computer had a mind of its own. The randomness was very natural and the whole sandbox felt very real for a game developed in 1999.
Spent 1000 of hours on it alone. Wanted to kill the final dragon so bad. The diplomacy was also very refreshing.