The kingdom bleeds money. The tax men have nothing to write on. Cabbage and hemp aren't enough. Time to do some trading. Grow some silk. Make some paper, some weapons, some steel. Buy some spices for spiced cabbage. The people love you. They flood in, as does the money. There are too many unemployed. People are getting angry. There's not enough food. Time to balance. And that's this game, balancing money, population, production, and sometimes invoking the ancestors and taking over somebody else's city to force them to pay you in jade.
While Emperor is the best of the series, Zeus and Poseidon stand strong on their own.
Big positives first - Graphically, it's pretty nice. Effects are done well. - Conceptually, it's cool. Be a wizard with no mana, cooldowns, resitictions? Sweet. Big negatives. - Level design. It's a hallway. A very nicely animated and finished hallway, but it's still a linear path from one encounter that anyone half awake can nip in the bud before it even really starts to the next. This gets old pretty fast. - Random Spell drop. Like you're playing a MMO. If I wanted to play a MMO, I'd actually download and play a MMO. And since this governs what your spells do, it's impossible to keep to a play style half the time. Overall, it's bland. If you're wanting a repetitive hallway shooter with big flashy explosions and not much variation on "mook mook mook bigger mook boss room with mooks", here's your game. Probably good to clear your head with or just sit back and set things on fire/ice/lightning for some sweet instant gratification.
