Imperia Online

Fancy yourself a great emperor of a thriving civilization? Or maybe a pillaging warlord, leading your legions to glorious battles? Then Imperia Online is right up your alley.

Imperia Online is a browser-based, strategic empire builder MMO set in the Medieval period. You are the ruler of a small province, tasked to develop its economic and military might. Practically, like in most empire building games, that means improving your province's infrastructure over time, all for the sake of building up your military. To fully participate in global warfare and politics, the game encourages you to join player-run alliances.

The gameplay doesn't stray much from the usual formula of online empire builder games, so if you're a veteran of that genre, Imperia Online won't be too much of an unfamiliar territory to cover. For the newbie, the lengthy tutorial does a thorough job of introducing the core gameplay systems. Graphically, there's not much to look at, but the visuals definitely have a medieval atmosphere to them. The interface can get overwhelming for a new player, though.

Casual players will find little use for the game's cash shop offerings, but hardcore gamers will definitely need to invest some money if they want to play at a competitive level. That has always been the case for games like this.

As far as modern MMOs are concerned, Imperia Online isn't a ground-breaking or stand-out game. It's a decently polished empire builder, though, and it's still going strong 10 years after it launched.