The Review
Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom
This game is the latest of the series of city building simulation games by Sierra. The series includes Cesar (I, II, III), The Pharaoh and its expansions. The game is set in the ancient china. It spans over 7 dynasties of ancient China, from the pre-imperial Xia Dynasty to the Mongolia invasion of China. The minimum system required to play this game is Pentium® II 400MHz, Windows 98/2000/MW/XP, 64MB RAM, 800MB hard disk space, 4 MB video card (16-bit color @ 800 x 600), 4x CD-ROM, 56K or faster internet connection and internet service provider in order to access online play.
The installation of the game CD is simple. The user only need to insert the CD into the CD drive and the installation shield will automatically run. Instructions and Default settings for installations are available to further facilitate the installation process.
The game is part of the series of city building games which includes all time favorites like Cesar. The game allows the players to understand how the civilization grew into its present culture. The player builds and rules a city (or province) by making use of its natural resources and trading with other cities to prosper. There are also times when military strength is tested when the campaign requests the player to conquer or fend off attacks from other cities. Each player is an Emperor and rules a city. As with the older games in the series, the player will control the trading, tax, cities relations and build monuments to compete with other Emperors to be the most prosperous and powerful kingdom. This game is based on the ancient China setting.
Players have 2 options on game play; open play and historical campaign. Before the player is to embark on building his city, he must first create an Emperor. The players may choose to create their own emperors names or choose from a list of famous historical leaders’ name which includes Chao Tuo and Wu Zetian. After creating the Emperor name, the player may then proceed to choose his choice of game play. In open play, the player may create a city with options to set the initial kingdom relations with other cities, the occurrence of disasters, random seed and the number of cities in game. For historical campaign game play, it started off with an overview of the historical event (true events) and assign goals to be achieved by the player, whereby the player is considered victorious when he attains the goals. The player will then proceed to the next campaign, according to the timeline of the historical events, which may be of a different dynasty. The first dynasty campaign is a tutorial which guides the player through the basics of the game play. As the player proceeds in the campaign, more options on buildings and technologies are made available. The campaigns available span over 7 dynasties. A campaign editor is also included with the game CD. The campaign editor allows players to edit or add new campaigns to the game. The players can configure the campaigns according to their preference.
The buildings available for building depend on the dynasty (or time) and the city’s natural resources. This is to make the game as realistic as possible, so that a city such as Nomads will not be producing goods like silk, which are mainly produced in China. The player must first provide a place for immigrants to live in. Then other needs like food, entertainment religion, safety and health care are to be made available to the citizens. Failing to provide the amenities, the homes will not be upgraded or may result in buildings catching fire or collapsing. Planning of the building of structures is important to prevent in running out of land. Failures to pay homage to the Gods and ancestor will result in natural disasters like earthquakes or floods. As the needs of the citizens are met, the homes will upgrade into a better housing and house more people. Trading stations may also be built so that trading with other cities is possible. Essential goods unavailable or facing shortages locally may be imported while surplus goods produced may be exported to produce extra cash for the city. Troops may be trained to conquer or fend off attacks. Tributes, which maybe in cash or goods, will be paid to the conqueror if the attack is successful. Relations between cities are maintained via sending of military aid and gifts of cash or goods to each other. Each city may build a Palace, which may house Menagerie animals and an administrative office, which allows collection of taxes. As with other city building games, desirability of a plot of land determines if citizens will be more likely to move in or whether the building will be upgraded.
Picture 1: Overview of historical event and goals at campaign start Picture 3: The different farms in game
Picture 3: Housing in game Picture 4: Industry in game
Picture 5: Market in game Picture 6: Map of cities in game
In order to add more favors to the game, features unique to the Chinese civilization such as “feng shui” (or geomancy), legendary heroes and monuments like the Great Wall was incorporated into the game. ”Feng shui” is valued by Chinese as it is believe that the placement of buildings and its surrounding area will determine the influence of the area with the elements. An Inauspicious land for a building will be displayed in yellow while a harmoniously balanced land for a building will be displayed in green to allow the player to view the “feng shui” of the land before building anything. Heroes such as “Huang Di”, “Wang Xi Mu”, “Guan Yin” may be offered offerings in the game. This will result in the “Heroes” presence in the city and bless the city. “Heroes” such as “Huang Di” and ‘Sun Zi” may gather all the troops or sent to fight the enemies. Pleasing the “Heroes” will also bring great rewards like free goods or animals for the palace Menagerie. Monuments such as the Great Temple, The Great War and The Underground Vault can be built in the cities. The more menagerie animals and animals a city has, the higher the city is regarded and the more immigrants it attracts.
Picture 5: The construction of The Great Wall Picture 5: Palace in game
The game graphics is one of the greatest attractions of the game, matched with music which gives the player a feel of being in the ancient China. Though not 3D, all the buildings and characters in the game are animated. The beautiful, high color animated graphics together with matching sound effects creates a scene of a lively growing city full of activities. The buildings (which make up a huge part of the game) and monuments are beautifully created. Each individual character in the game has clothes matching their roles. Eg the rich wear more fanciful clothes while laborers are shirtless. When an individual in game character is clicked, the character will speaks and voice their opinions of the kingdom. This is one of the methods for the player to know what the citizens are thinking. The buildings are beautifully created and realistic. When buildings are clicked on, there will be sounds effects according to the uses of the buildings. For eg, when a weapon smith building is clicked, there will be sound effects of welding the iron. There is also a feature on upgrading buildings. For eg, the homes become more beautiful and may house more residents as needs of the occupants of the residence area were met and the city prospers.
The game interface is simple and easy to master. The player builds and controls all events using the mouse. On the right of the screen is the building menu. The player select on the categories of the building to see the available building which can be built. Building structures are built in drag and drop fashion. The player clicks on the building to be built and then click on the desire position. The player may also set the difficulty of the game play according to their standards.
Emperor is the first ever city building game in the series that is multiplayer enabled. The player may choose to play collaborative games or you can compete against other humans. At the start of a competitive game, each player has the same goals, and you are scored. When the first player attains the goals, the game ends and scores are tallied.
*Last updated on 2nd August 2003*