This game is great. I love all the information about the different civilizations. The first time I played Rise and Rule of Ancient Europe, I played as Rome. Building up my civilization was more difficult than I expected. I thought the graphics were a little rough but the idea of the game is good. I think anyone who is interested in ancient civilizations or building empires would like this game. For example, if you like the SIM games you will probably like this one.
The best part about the game is all the choices you have about your civilization.
The worst part is the time it takes to conquer everyone else. The does get quite involved, and I guess people looking for epic plays will find this a positive note, but I am not quite that patient. I thought that the barbarians were a good thing because they can either help you or hurt you. I liked mining and exploring new areas in order to find more resources. Sailing ships were fun to get but harder to use than moving across the land. I guess this is a reflection of any new technology.
For people that are just starting I would suggest only having one or two other empires around you because that way you don't run into people when
you are just starting. You have some time to build up your resources, armies, farms, barriers, and other items before you have to fight any other civilizations.
My husband and I like to play this game together. He is very good at strategy and helps me plan my buildings and armies. I like to choose the different styles and what ability to work on next. We have a lot of fun discussing what to do and why, together we make a pretty good team. It is funny but you start to talk about the game as if it is happening and you come to a point where you really don't want bad things to happen and you really want to have your empire spread and take over. I never really did get to the point where I was able to play a game with a large number of other empires all playing for the same land but I had a lot of fun with the small games. It is somewhat similar to Sid Meier's Civilization games in that you can choose what direction your empire will go and each empire has unique things to learn and discover that reflect actual history.
I am not sure if this version of the game allows you to play interactively with other people on the Internet but the game I played allowed you to do that even though I never did. Just watching my empire grow and learn new talents and having the people be able to do new things was a lot of fun. The various game boards made each game played interesting and fun. I never got bored of starting new games whether I had conquered everything or whether I had been conquered myself.
