Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom

Charming and addictive gameplay. The graphics are very good and the way city building is organized is very well done. Rule wisely, and the people will do the rest, and this feels exactly this way.

frustrating to learn...tried several times but just couldn't understand it

That's a very good game, I'm happy to see it's at least on GOG ! Emperor is one of the best Sierra games, I'm playinf this game since I'm a kid and I won't stop !

I can see why city builders don't really copy the same style as the Impressions games. Emperor is said to be the pinnacle, but it's mostly buried in unclear tutorials, mediocre UI, and lots of hidden mechanics that you won't understand without a guide or lots of trial and error. At that point it becomes unfun and frustrating. Often I find myself having what is often referred to as a worker death spiral, or there aren't enough stores of something, or some other seemingly innocuous metric. Not a fan either of balancing the Heroes happiness either, it's more tedium that if ignored can wreck your city or just one important industry and once again you slip into a death spiral. It's ridiculous. It's still pretty, the music is still enjoyable, but I think any great experiences playing is likely due to nostalgia.

Way too many events take place on normal settings. Got nailed by multiple earthquakes one after another. Unrest popping up despite hitting all of the markers required. I also found the sound to be grating with the music, ambient and general sounds all creating a racket. Pl;us the speed is way off - I need to have it up to 90% so that the characters don't crawl. Not satisifed at all with this one.