Absolutely loved this game in the decades since it came out. With the previous games being very good themselves, the formula is at its most refined here. It shows that great attention to detail was taken both with graphics and Chinese history, but it is somewhat lackluster sometimes. The most jarring flaw is that the entire Three Kingdoms era is skipped over, with basically "Yeah it happened lol". Then there's what's essentially a minigame of keeping three gods happy with sacrifices or they'll punish you. It feels tedious and I had a better time with the gods that aren't mandatory to keep happy. Monuments should have featured in more missions, they are never optional and it'd be cool to decide to build one simply because you have the resources and need the edge. Those things aside, playing this game is a joy for people like me: Those who like to grow cities and monuments and fiddle with them until it works. There are even fans making missions for it to this day.
