Dominion, so far, has mostly been a question of 'which deck are you going to build'. Do you want to go for the engine, or is the engine too weak so you go Big Money, or is there some kind of exotic rush/slog/combo on the board?
Empires, however, more than doubles the amount of ways to get VP. I think this will cause a dramatic shift in the way people will analyze the kingdoms. I think that, instead of first looking which deck would be best here, you should first look: how am I going to score points this game? Which ways of gaining VP are there, and which way is most efficient, or do I need to combine several ways?
Of course, sometimes you will see no alt-VP, no VP token cards and no Landmarks on the board. In that case, you will of course just win by winning the Province split (with maybe some Duchy dancing in the endgame), and the usual 'engine/Big Money/other' conundrum will return. Nevertheless, the extra opportunities that arise with the release of Empires will, in my opinion, change the first question players will need to ask themselves at the start of every game to 'How do I get VP?'
What do you think?