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Podcast: Retro Spectives
Episode: Episode 75: Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom
Description: When Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom was released in 2002, it was not to a fanfare of fervor or excitement. This was the 6th title in Impression Games’ city builder series, and it was widely viewed as more of the same. Caesar, Pharoah, Zeus and now Emperor all had the same baseline mechanics, and although they had their own theming and nuanced differences, they still mostly played the same. Critics were not impressed.Emperor brought along a couple of refinements in residential walls and roadblocks, but was otherwise a refinement of everything that had come before. The real q...