Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom

                      Reviewed by Sue

I was surprised to see I hadn't already reviewed this game. I
downloaded the demo a year ago, before I had broadband. It was
such a large demo (about 120meg as I recall) that I had to do it
in sections using GetRight. I was then on Freeserve Anytime which,
contrary to its name, logged you off after 2 hours. I think it
took about 4 days to download the whole thing. I used to leave it
running at night, to get an extra 2 hours in! But it was well
worth the effort.

The demo consisted of the tutorial section of the full game's
historical campaign - the Xia Dynasty. This has half a dozen
scenarios, enough to show whether you'd like it or not. I loved
it.  But by the time the full game out my finances were tight and
I couldn't justify spending out on it.

Carolyn Brown kindly loaned me her copy a few months ago but
because I haven't got much time to play it, I was still looking
out for my own copy at a good price. This meant secondhand so
every few weeks, when I went to Bromley, I'd check out Computer
Exchange. It got down to œ15 but I set a limit of œ10.  This week,
they had a copy for œ8 so I grabbed it quickly.

There are 7 sections to the full historical campaign, each taking
in a different dynasty. The graphics in Emperor are larger and
more detailed than those in Impressions' other games such as
Pharaoh, Cleopatra, Zeus and Poseidon.  The back of the packaging
says there's a 25% increase in size and detail. At first I thought
. urgh . chunky. But after a while I got to like it.  Pharaoh
looks very small to me now.

The game has the usual features you'd expect in a city-building
sim. You start by laying down roads and building dwellings.
Emperor has two categories of housing - common and elite.  The
latter can only be built in an area with high desirability and
also requires a larger selection of household goods.

Having built houses, you have to make sure the inhabitants have
water and that the buildings are checked regularly so they don't
catch fire or fall down. This needs building inspectors.  Next,
food. Different scenarios let you grow or catch different food
types - fishing, hunting or growing a variety of crops.  Building
market squares and shops lets you distribute the food stuffs which
are stored in mills.

Having sorted out their nutritional needs, next your population
start thinking about religion, so ancestral shrines must be built.
You'll have to make regular offerings to the gods if you want to
keep them happy. A happy god will help you in times of trouble but
beware of annoying them - you might suffer floods or earthquakes
to 'encourage' you to make some hefty offerings - fast!

Most of the things people want can be grown, mined or made.  Silk
worms can be farmed and their silk sold in the market. Jade can be
turned into jewellery and trinkets. Salt can be extracted to
supplement the diet. Bronze can be beaten into weapons.  Yes,
there's a military aspect to this game. Other cities may covet
your wealth, lands or goods, so you'll need to be able to protect
yourself and your possessions. But so far I've found the military
side to be relatively easy which suits me fine, as it's the
management side I enjoy not fighting.

You also need to keep the Emperor happy. You may need to fulfil
his needs by sending him goods, or build a monument to him. I
enjoy building monuments though it can take a lot of manpower. But
it's fun watching the structure being completed.

Every city and scenario has its own goals. You may need to produce
28 canisters of salt in a year, have a treasury of a certain
amount, have 3 trading partners, or 2000 people in your city, for
example. Once you've reached that target you can go on to the next
city, which may be a new one or may build on an existing one.

There are a few aspects of the game I haven't investigated.
There's a multiplayer option over the Internet. There's also a
campaign builder to lay out your own games or you can play an open
mission which isn't part of the historical campaigns.

So, what's different about Emperor? What's it got that sets it
apart from other similar sims?

One obvious aspect is the use of Feng Shui. You must have heard of
Feng Shui! In Emperor it affects the harmony of your city and
makes it more desirable to its inhabitants, which makes them
happier. When you try to place a building, its footprint changes
form green to yellow according to whether the Feng Shui is right
or not. It isn't always possible for every building to have
positive Feng Shui but the more 'green' the better.

Another feature of Emperor that isn't in other games is the use of
the zodiac. Every game year is tied to a zodiac animal and so is
your character. In the year of your zodiac animal, you can gain
benefits such as decreased building costs or gifts.

Moans? Just one. The cursor is sometimes very slow to change when
you select a different item. This can be very frustrating at
times.

Apart from that, I would rate Emperor very highly indeed. The demo
can be downloaded from various sites including
http://emperor.sierra.fr















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