Yes, a non-Chinese speaker/reader, and I'm struggling a bit with the lack of English-language support BUT I'm really liking the game! Setting aside the masochistic streak that made me buy this game, the attraction was one part how 'fresh' the game graphics appeared in trailers, and the low cost of purchase. And one part a small obsession with classical China and its culture. Once in the game, as I expected I can't understand any of the labels -what with everything being in Pinyin- but everything appears to be logically laid out once you grasp the underlying logic and so far that has made the voyage of discovery in the game quite entertaining and a lot easier to grasp than the so-called 'logic' I've encountered in some English-language games. Kudos to the UI designers: my progress will be slowed by the language barrier but they've made everything massively easier! You can choose to play as either Greece, Persia, Egypt or China. I chose China so that's what this review reflects.
The game bears a superficial resemblance to the old Emperor game -the village well model and the water-carrier doing his rounds recalls that game strongly, as does the deterioration of roads that aren't actually in use- but there are a lot of bells and whistles that the Emperor game lacked that make the gameplay a very different beast. For a start, the feel of this seems more casual-orientated than Emperor ever was.
The initial mechanic appears to be start with minimal population in 2 huts and by building up the population level by building more huts you satisfy all of the various advisors on screen right and advance a level. At the same time, you can develop your tech to enable the construction of wells, and various modes of gathering from your surroundings. There are other options but I've yet to figure out what they are offering. (I'm assuming gathering unlocks at that point: took me a while to realize what the technology screen actually was and I was playing catch up with the techs at level 2 and a population of 44 and one water well when I seem to have clicked and confirmed what amounts to a 'Abandon and Restart Game?' button. Ah the perils of playing a game when you can't read anything in it or understand what anyone is saying. But the main thing is I'm having fun, and I'm finding that -'restart game' button aside- everything seems very logical and easy to intuit. Another point to bear in mind is that this appears to be a multiplayer game (I had assumed it to be standalone), and the game map is crowded with villages belonging to other players, all of whom probably read Chinese so maybe that's a downside. For me at least. At some point other players' armies are going to come marching down the road!
The actual downside: the lack of English support obviously, and that 'restart game' button, but also a lot -and I mean a LOT- of screens with pictures of mouth-watering goodies accompanied with what looks like a price tag in actual real-life money. One of the resources you need as you play -and which you appear to get allotments of as you level up- looks like a chunk of jade-like stone (so I'm assuming it's jade, duh) appears on many of these screens in various quantities all accompanied by numbers prefixed with the Yuan symbol, so I've assumed that these are the microtransactions that fund the game. The jade comes in useful for various things, none of which I have yet to look at seriously so I have yet to click on anything with a Yuan symbol attached, but I've a suspicion that there are so many purchase options available the game may turn out to be a pay-to-win proposition, but I'm speculating for now and I'll cross that bridge IF I come to it.
Bottom line: if there's fun to be had with the game and very little frustration -even with a monumental language barrier in place- AND the price is under £5, it's well worth dipping into when you're at a loose end.
