Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom

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Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom

Developer(s)	BreakAway Games, Impressions Games
Publisher(s)	Sierra Entertainment
Release date(s)	2002
Genre(s)	City-building game
Mode(s)	SP/MP
Platform(s)	PC-Win 98/ME/XP
Media	1 CD
System requirements	CPU;400MHz, 64mb RAM, 4mb graphics card, 800mb hard disc

Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom (shortened to Emperor or RotMK) is the seventh title of the City Building Series, developed by Impressions Games and published by Sierra Entertainment. BreakAway Games, which developed the Pharaoh expansion Queen of the Nile was in charge of developing the game. Emperor is the last of the series to use the same 2D-sprite game engine as seen in the earlier six titles, and the first to introduce a multiplayer option.

Not unlike the remaining five games (excluding expansions), Emperor focuses on the building and development of a city in ancient times, this time Ancient China (which won on a popularity poll against other possibilities, such as Mayan, Inca, Indus or a return to Roman Empire), from the Xia Dynasty (2033 BC) to the Song-Jin Dynasties (1234 AD). Keeping up with the improvements to city layout in its predecessor, Master of Olympus - Zeus, Emperor featured a brand new farming system, turning plantations into individual farm tiles to be built around the farm building up to three tiles away, allowing farms to cultivate more than one crop. Other new features include a Feng Shui meter, which influences how desirable or accident-prone a house may be and a return to regular monument building (such as sections of the Great Wall of China), as in Pharaoh. The tagline of the game is "Build and Rule Ancient China Wisely". Due to the increasing financial problems of Sierra at the time, Emperor was not given an expansion.

[edit] Game mechanics

For a detailed overview of the game mechanics, see Series concepts and mechanics

As with others games in the series, the player must build a city in an empty plot of land of variable size and resources. Like Zeus, goals in each level no longer depend on percentile scores, but on objective goals - profit, cash in treasury, production of goods or conquering a rival city, among others.

Normal food resources in this game are wheat, rice, bean curd, millet and cabbage which are produced on farms, fish from fishermen and meat from hunters. Supply of one of these food types provides your citizens with Bland food, 2 "Plain", 3 "Appetizing",and four food types, which gives you Tasty quality food, the maximum required in the game. There are also food supplements: salt, obtainable from mines and spices, only available by import. These can be used to improve food quality by one level, up to the maximum Delicious food level. Food is named after the available goods - If the player only has millet, the peddler will sell Millet stew.

Raw Materials include steel, iron and bronze (for weapons - the latter is also used for bronzeware and currency), clay (ceramics, making bronzeware and monument building), wood (lacquerware, monument building, writing material for the tax collector and Confucian academies and raw material for chariots, catapults and crossbowmen), Lacquer (used in lacquerware), mulberry trees - food for silkworms, which in turn provide raw silk cocoons that can be woven into fine silk, tea bushes (the crops are directly sold as tea), hemp (basic clothing requirement for dwellings, is later turned into paper that replaces wood as writing material) and uncut jade, available only by import, that can be carved and exported back as the most expensive trade commodity in the game. The player can build a mint, generating a limited yearly output of currency. Later in the game there is a money printer, which uses paper instead of copper. Goods are distributed in the same fashion as Zeus: a Market Square is built over a road, and goods shops are built on top of it. After the first goods have been bought by the shop owners from the nearest supply, a peddler will start roaming around the housing area distributing required goods. To avoid wasting food on a common block, the player can set the desired food quality.

Unlike in Zeus, entertainment services only require a school to set up (music and acrobat) as they will perform in the market square. Coverage is determined by the path from the schools to the market and then by a banner-carrying announcer. Elite housing values increase if they have access to Kunqu (theatre) performed at a Pavilion; musicians and acrobats will also perform there. At the Chinese New Year a Dragon dance leaves one of the market squares with musicians and acrobats following if the player is willing to pay the cost of the celebration. Also, when a player starts a new user name, he is asked to choose a sign from the Chinese Zodiac; if the selected sign coincides with the new year sign, the player can choose benefits such as special gifts or improved crop yield.

As usual, additional services are provided by watchtowers (decrease unrest), inspector's towers (maintain buildings in good shape) and wells (provide water to common housing) - these buildings have different graphics, depending on the appeal of the location. Herbalists provide basic health care, while wealthier dwellings also require Acupuncturist access.

In addition to road blocks, it is also possible to build decorative walls which turn into gates when intersecting a road; these gates are able to block certain types of walkers: services (such as guards and water carriers), religion and peddlers. This allows, for instance, to create the market in the middle of a city block, surround it by walls so that the appeal of neighbouring houses does not decrease and then block the gates to priests and monks, which won't take the road ahead, or simply avoid them passing by access-only roads.

Religion plays a less dramatic part in the game than it did in Zeus and is based on the Chinese tradition of Ancestor worship. These are separated into four philosophical and religious teaching schools, each with three representatives - The Ancestors from Chinese mythology: Nu Wa (Creator Goddess), Shen Nong (Divine Farmer) and Huang Di (Yellow Emperor); Confucianism with Confucius (Sage of All Time), Sun Tzu (Master Sun) and Mencius (Second Sage); Daoism with Xi Wang Mu (Queen Mother of the West), Zao Jun (Kitchen God) and Guan Di (God of War) and finally Buddhism, represented by Guan Yin (Goddess of Mercy), Bodhidharma (Buddhist Monk) and Sun Wu Kong (Monkey King).

Unlike the Gods and monsters of Zeus, the Heroes appear in a city as soon as enough goods (which must be selected according to the Heroes for better effect) are given in homage. They can be directed to perform tasks such as blessing and commanding armies, but can also perform other tasks for the city: each one of them also has a walker function and some are able to capture animals for the Palace menagerie. Each Hero halves the cost of certain buildings and confers some other bonus (with Xi Wang Mu, monument building is faster and Bodhidharma fulfills any computer-controlled city request for tea, for instance). Other Heroes are capable of leading armies in battle and can call troops to their flag, and confer morale benefits to certain armies. If the player requests too many blessings or army commands (or generally, gives too many orders instead of letting the Ancestor roam the city on his own will) or stops paying homage the Ancestor will leave. However, regardless of their actions, Heroes will eventually decline in happiness and leave over time.

Ancestor worship access (conferred via temples) is a basic service to both kinds of dwellings, but Confucianism is only required by elite neighbourhoods. Either Daoism or Buddhism, both of which have a regular shrine and a large temple, is required by the wealthier sets in both common and elite neighborhoods.

[edit] Campaign

The Terracotta Army under construction in Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom.

The seven campaigns of Emperor take the player through Chinese history. Notable inclusions include the building of famous monuments like the Great Wall of China, the Grand Canal connecting the Yellow and Yangzi Rivers, and the Terracotta Army. In the first campaign, the player is simply a humble villager elder, in charge of leading a nomadic tribe to settle down along the river. In the final levels, the player is servant to the Emperor of China, and oversees the construction of the Imperial capitol Zhongdu and fortifying its defense to foil the invading Mongols and their leader, Genghis Khan.

The various buildings and food supplies are made available to the player as their empire expands. The time they become available roughly corresponds to when that same crop or technology became available to the Chinese in real life. Because players serve several dynasties and Emperors throughout the game, they will not always be building the same city. Often, they will be sent to build up a new city. Later, a player may return to that city to accomplish a new goal. Because the seven Campaigns take place many years apart, the cities built up in one campaign may become ruins in another. Several times a player will return to the site of a city they themselves built many years ago, and be forced to excavate the ruins so a new city for their current ruler can be built.

Players may play the campaigns in any order they choose, and the first campaign is more a tutorial than a campaign. As more technologies and concepts become available, the game becomes increasingly complex, and the objectives harder to accomplish. Often the objectives involve producing a set amount of a commodity, conquering other cities, achieving a certain population level, or building a monument. In all levels players must carefully manage imports and exports to maintain a budget, supply the people with adequate food and supplies, and keep up an army as rivals often try to attack the city in later campaigns, especially the Nomad Camps/Xiongnu/Mongol Empire. However, the player can differentiate from the actual events of history and form an alliance with the enemy Nomads, or even conquer them, although this requires a strong military force.

A free bonus campaign is available for download from the game's official site.