Step Right Up

Welcome to the oldest civilization on earth! This isn't your grandfather's Rome, nor your father's Egypt, or even your older brother's Greece - this is China! Impressions Games hands the reigns to BreakAway Games this time in order to fashion yet another title in their City-Building series. So is Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom just another well-trod road through a new civilization, or does it manage to be something bigger, better, and greater than its predecessors?

Welcome to China

The biggest difference between Emperor and its precursors is the setting. Rome serves as the backdrop for the Caesar series, while Pharaoh is set in Egypt, and Zeus is set in Greece. This time, however, the developers move away from predominantly Western civilizations to the Eastern civilization of China. It's on the Asian continent that players guide cities of Chinese design and architecture through the ages, starting in the second millennium BCE and finishing in the thirteenth century CE. Because the setting is the primary difference between Emperor and its predecessors, does it provide enough variation to make the game something more than just another rehash of Impressions Games' previous city-building games?

Scenario introduction splash screen.

Not a New Wheel, But It Still Rolls

With Emperor based on an engine dating back to Caesar's, there's really no reason for it to be unstable, and to date, it isn't. I haven't experienced a single crash or glitch since I installed the game. Even the installation was problem free.

Unrolling the Scroll

Manuals for the City-Building series have always been great. The manual for Emperor is no different. Weighing in at a little over 150 pages, the manual does a good job of breaking in someone new to the series and even has plenty of meat for City-Building veterans, though the latter probably won't need to spend much time with it.

The learning curve is handled well for such a simple and complex game: After the introduction, one is treated to a list of tutorial missions and tips on getting started; thereafter, the manual slowly reveals new concepts and ideas to the reader and even offers some insight into gameplay instead of just explaining buttons, buildings, and walkers in the usual staid style. There's no index, but the table of contents is very thorough. The manual is well-written and even enjoyable to read. Both of these qualities are rare in manuals nowadays, which is a shame.