If I had to pick my favourite game of my entire childhood this would probably be it. I remember learning about this game at a local gaming expo about half a year before it was released and I immediately wanted the game. I played through the campaign multiple times and spent lots of time playing multiplayer, mostly unable to communicate with others because I didn't know any English back then. I was around ten at that time and my parents restricted gaming time really strictly so I had to safe my time during the week to play multiplayer on Saturday because of the match times of up to 2 hours, still it was totally worth it. For me the game had a perfect mixture of city building, fighting and exploring. I never again enjoyed a strategy game as much as I did enjoy rise of an empire.
