Emperor is by far my favorite underdog from the Impressions Series... This city builder outmatches Pharaoh by mechanics quantity and quality (Feng Shui, controllable Heros, interacting with other cities, two types of housing, centralized distribution of goods, to quote some). Beyond the innovations, this game updates many already-seen mechanics: (1.) monuments are more relevant, since they are less repeated across the campaign (no pyramid spamming from Pharaoh), and more satisfying, as building a monument is WAY less "buggy" than other games from Impressions series; (2.) due to the hommage system, religions feel more honest (or less punishing), even when there are four coexisting creeds in the game; (3.) wanderers are more efficient, they DO walk around to deliver goods or provide services; (4.) buildings efficiency feel way less stressing, as they cover decent areas (EXCEPT for inspectors tower) and produce in abundancy, so no spamming myriads of farms, potters, weavers etc.; (5.) the visuals are awesome, embellishing your city is both cheap and rewarding in itself. Regarding the negative points, I can't avoid mentioning the natural disasters, as it can be surprisingly frustrating. Sometimes it's just more worth reloading a recent save than facing the ruins of your city after a max. level earthquake... "PVE" objectives ("Rule X cities") can also be somewhat annoying, because managing to raise BIG armies (and sacrificing large amount of workers in the process) is the only way to build up the chances of a successful raid to other cities. Theres is one aspect of Pharaoh gameplay that beats Emperor: your citizen messages. In the egyptian city builder, your citizens often give you nice pop up messages when rightclicking; while in Emperor there are incomparably less scripted messages and some of them are just problematic jokes... In conclusion, this game is pure gold material for a revamp such as "Pharaoh - A new Era".
