Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom

Played every title since Ceasar II and have to say, even with nostalgia set aside these are solid games with great replayability. Of course, with nostalgia included then there's no reason to skip the purchase. Thank You, GOG...I've been waiting years to have a digital copy of this game. Bless you.

I have been into the game for over 300 hours so far and the cost was only 6 bucks. I can not find any other better deal, literally. Besides, the cultural/historical references on the eras of Imperial China were well researched and fascinating to know. So, you can learn Chinese culture/history spontaneously just by enjoying the game. If you like city building games in general or love to enjoy and learn new things or the both, this game is for you.

The best city-builder I have played. Its graphics are not getting. I played it more than ten years before and I still play sometimes. Magnificent music, balanced gameplay and a flavor of history.

I used to play this when I was in middle school and I remember really sucking at it. Now that I understand the mechanics of the game I've been able to really enjoy it. This is one I'd like to see remastered with modern graphics.

In my view the definite city builder. At least of the Ceasar blood. It is the pinnacle of that blood line. That is not to say it does not have some flaws; it is too easy for one thing. Once you figure things out it is very simple to build a flourishing, well-balanced city, but it is not much of a challange. Also the fighting is ... as in every other game of this type: slightly functional, but not complex at all. Plus is is very simple to bribe off the invaders, and the difficulty of the game makes that pretty easy. This changes depending on the scenario though, and the campaign is actually a joy to play through. I've completed it start to finish a bunch of times just because it is so very relaxing and enjoyable. Some missions take you back to previous cities but things have changed slightly, so you might have some minor issues at first. Also some maps have dangerous beasts which require you to station an army on top of the spawning point. You can summon gods which technically provides benefits but if you have a well planned city they don't really matter. The four star rating comes from the fact that no game is perfect. And this comment might sound a bit harsh, but the game is one of my all time favourites. It is joyous. The music is excellent. The graphics are nice. The campaigns are well thought out. The feeling of having a large, well functioning and aestheticallypleasing city is why you play this game. It is *nice*. Buy it, do not regret it. My dream game is essentially this but with more functions and bigger and more challanging maps and scenarios. I have not looked much at fan-made campaigns though, it might be time for that. BTW, there is a widescreen mod/hack for it, at wsgf.org. It messes up the UI a bit though; the text on some buttons changes, but not the function of the buttons. Meaning if there is an invader you have to know which button is the correct one because the text is all wrong. The same goes for the empire map screen.