The Rise & Rule of Ancient Empires is a 1996 empire-building strategy game developed by Impressions Games and published by Sierra On-Line. In it, the player is able to choose from six civilizations: the Celts, Egyptians, Chinese, Greeks, Indians, and Akkadians. Much of the focus of the game was building cities and armies. Each city had several buildings that could be upgraded, including a temple, a barracks, and a wall. Like the Civilization franchise, each city produced military units that would take turns exploring the map. It was considered "somewhat slower-paced than Civilization II and gets a bit dull on occasion", but easier for novice gamers as an introduction to the empire-building format. After release, it appeared in best-seller lists for the United States from the week ending 27 April to the week ending May 25.
Critical reception
The game received mixed to positive reviews. Coming Soon Magazine wrote "Overall, this isn't the best sim out there. It plodded along, and needs some improvements. Civilization still remains the king. If you have the patience of God, then give it a shot." GameSpot said "Openly taking on Civilization 2, the folks at Impressions have taken loads of interesting cultural information, fantastic sound and graphics, and full network support and combined them in a title that is full of atmosphere and life, but slightly lacking in its strategy content". Computer Gaming World said "Once you leave your gleaming cities in RISE AND RULE, the game starts to break down and becomes both too simple and too tedious to hold the attention of the average gamer. There are plenty of nice touches, but early on somebody should have made the decision whether this game was meant to challenge CIV at its own level of detail, or go the quick-and-dirty route, like a historical SPACEWARD HO! Sadly, in trying to do both, RISE AND RULE achieves neither, and becomes yet another strategy near-miss from Sierra. In a universe with CIVNET or CIVILIZATION II, what is the point?". Game Revolution wrote "This game is recommended for those who are lonely enough to spend hours dwelling in front of a computer trying to figure out why Sierra would chance losing its reputation for good games. Others who should play this game are those that suffer from insomnia; this may be the cure. Personally, the only reason I found myself playing this game so intently was to find the true meaning behind Sierra's less-than-par attempt at a strategic game."
