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The best tactical game of all times!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: March 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Guys, I have to admit - I'm not a big time tactical strategy fan, but this game totally got me on the hook. I like Starcraft, Warcraft III and Age of Empires, but couldn't imagine that a game like Praetorians can grab me and never let me go.
I've been playing the multiplayer skirmish demo since it came out - I've never played a demo version of the game for more than an hour!!! It's AMAZING. Plain amazing. The strategy is beautiful, all the terrain tricks, everything you could expect from a real battle. ... - the troop building model there is so beautiful that I can hardly type these words now, I want to get back to the game. I love it!!! If you love any kind of RTS games, this is a MUST in your collection!

One of the best

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: March 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

My wife purchased this game for my B-day. So far, I really like the game.
I like playing Warcraft, Starcraft, and C&C series. However, I was getting bored of managing resources (e.g. gold, timber, food)
I was looking for a game with more strategy rather than resource building.
I remember the first time I played Myth and I like the concept of the game. Praetorian is a mixture of Myth and Warcraft. There is less resource managment and more strategy on fighting. Praetorians' graphics, sounds and game play is top notch.

A Rookie Game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 18
Date: March 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Everyone knows that a good strategy game involves somewhat of a steep learning curve and an advanced difficulty level. This game is simply a click and attack real time strategy that does not involve any heavy thinking. In fewer words it's the bunnie slope for youngsters that are just discovering the thrill of these games. In conclusion I feel the word strategy is innapropriate altogether! True strategy players will want to return the product, rookies will like it because they'll feel moderately challenged by it.

LOTS OF FIGHT NO MICRO MANAGING

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: March 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The game takes place during the time of Julius Caesars campaigns
in Gaul Egypt and the empire itself Italy.The part I liked about this game is no worrying about money farming or keeping everybody happy.You just rise an army fight it out and hope you win.The animation is smooth and detailed and you get a fold out
of the units characteristics.The only gripe I have is in the
campaign you only play the Romans.

This is possibly one of the best games I have played

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: April 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have played a lot of strategy games and i have to say that I think Praetorians is the best. You dont have to worry about recourses or anything like that. You worry about troops and strategy. For the person who said it takes no strategy and this game is for beginners you have to be playing a different game. You cant just train massive armies and throw them into battle and win. You have to use strategy. Each troop has a flaw and you need to take advantage of them. If I were you, BUY THIS GAME!!

An RTS game with style is still an RTS game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 50 / 52
Date: April 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Praetorians is a real-time strategy game in which you command companies of troops (Romans, Gauls, Egyptians) rather than individual units and it concentrates on battle with almost no resource gathering (you must "recruit" troops from captured villages.)

There's plenty of cool stuff like legionaries that can form the Roman shield wall ("testudo"), birds that fly out of forests alerting you of approaching enemy troops, ambushes in grasslands, desert battlefields, elevation effects, 3D graphics (with a limited camera angle though), scouts with hawk/wolf spotters, catapults, ballista, axe-throwing Gaul infantry, Nubian archers, Balearic slingers, camel archers,etc.

However, as much as I'm enjoying both the campaign and skirmish mode, I have to point out this is not a wargame. There is little time (in the skirmish mode particularly) for thoughtful maneuvering: you must attack at once! It's fun, but I never feel as though I was really a general or consul or whatever the term is. It's still RTS and if you're enjoying watching your archers shoot down a Gaul warrior company from the safety of a hill, you're probably wasting valuable clicking time.

This is not Medieval: Total War in which you can maneuver companies like a general. It's a bit closer in spirit to Empire Earth or Age of Empires in combat terms - only here you fight with companies rather than mobs of men.

I'm really enjoying it for lighthearted quick gameplay, but I wish it were a little less frantic, a little less like Age of Empires and a little more like Medieval: Total War.

The skirmish mode is fun (unfortunately we get only about 20 different maps), multiplayer could be cool (haven't got my friend to buy it yet), and the campaign is decent (only played 5 missions so far). The AI appears to be strong and doesn't seem to cheat by unfairly building faster or by being able to see all your troop locations. It may appear that way but I've saved the games and watched the replays and it just seems to play better (than me anyway). It organized its units better, captured more villages, recruited more troops, scouted intensively (and didn't notice when I captured a village unless its scouts saw me - it's troops marched past out of sight).

(I think it's a bit harsh of one reviewer to say this game is only for kids or newcomers to RTS games. If you realize that Praetorians is not trying to be a realistic wargame but rather a light-hearted RTS then you're more likely to enjoy the game on its terms.)

Disappointing

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: April 12, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game because my friend said it was excellent, however he's never been a very good gamer, I thought the no resource management idea was ok, but it ruins half the point of an RTS, and strategy is all about careful management of resources to fund your army, because, if you dont have any resources, you dont have an army ;-) I'd say ok for someone who doesn't really know how to play a REAL RTS, but if your an expert, I'd save up for Warcraft 3:The Frozen Throne, and if you haven't got the normal Warcraft 3, go buy it!

Like Caesar 1,2 &3 series but definitely not Rome:Total War

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 18 / 23
Date: April 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have played many strategy games: Red Alert, Starcraft,
Star Wars, Caesar 3 to name a few.
I have even tried this game on the demo level, while
playing another game called Medieval: Total War. However,
that was before I knew another game coming out in November, Rome:Total War. To be honest with you all, I am more of a
'deep-thinking;micro-managing' type of player. I still
recommend Praetorians, since it is quite similar (not the
same) to the Caesar series. The gameplay is still good, and
the time line is also similar to Rome:Total War. But, after
Shogun and Medieval, I am currently hooked to 3D battles
and deep micro-management. So therefore, if you:
1) like Romans but prefer less management and straightforward
stuff, Praetorian is for you.

2) like Romans but would want to experience the
'Gladiator' Roman general Maximus style of crushing
barbarians in 3D battles, then go for it.

I miss playing Caesar 3, but Praetorian is the next phase
and so is Rome:Total War. Choose according to your taste,
or choose both if you want. I am on a tight budget ;)

PAX ROMANA

A highly polished and very fun game!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: April 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

"Praetorians" is sort of a "Age of Empires/Total War" hybrid set during the 1st century BC when Julius Caesar and the other members of the 1st Triumverate vied to increase Roman dominance upon the peoples of Northern Europe and the Middle East. It's like the AOE series in that it's a RTS game- the clock is always running and sometimes you must react quickly to achieve victory. However, there is no real resource gathering. Slowly regenerating peasants in villages/barracks, which can be turned into combat units, are the only resource and they're just represented by a number counter. You can do some limited building by having specialist soldiers construct defense towers, bridges, and siege equipment. But like the "Total War" series, the emphasis here is on combat and one controls units of men instead of mobs of individuals.

The graphics are nicely done and convey a great deal of atmosphere such as birds frightened from the forest, raindrops visible as they hit water, snow flurries, and desert duststorms.) However, they're not groundbreaking, but that can be a blessing for people with moderately low-end systems.

The combat system is the typical rock, scissors, paper of the RTS genre with each unit having its own strengths and weaknesses. The number of combat units is limited to about 10 types for each of the three civilizations (Romans, Barbarians, Egyptians.) Combat is not as realistic as it is in the "Total War" series in that there is no morale system or bonuses for flank/rear attacks. However, terrain and formations do play a vital role in "Praetorians." Seizing the high ground is a huge advantage for archers. You can set up ambushes in forests or high grass in which your troops will be completely invisible to the enemy until it's too late for them to do anything about it. Special formations play a major role in improving the combat capabilities of certain units. Recon is also a major key to success in "Praetorians" because the enemy will have also archers on hills or troops hiding in the forest. "Praetorians" gives the player access to "Hawk" and "Wolf" scouts, who not only can see further than other units, but they also are accompanied by their namesake animals with which the scout can send out to spy out the enemy. (Yes, it's silly to think that a flying hawk can impart recon info to it's handler on the ground, but it's just a game and it works!)

"Pratorians" has both a skirmish mode and a campaign game. Skirmish allows the player to choose 1 of 20 maps, choose a civilization, and how many CPU/human opponents. Skirmish mode is the closest thing "Praetorians" has to a random map feature.

The strength of the game, though, is the campaign which features 24 missions set during Julius Caesar's heyday. Although, it's not a true "campaign" game in that forces are not carried over from scenario to scenario, the player still must win each scenario to move onto the next one. In the campaign the player plays the Romans in a variety of settings: Caesar's conquest of Gaul and his forays into Germany and Britain, Crassus' campaign in Syria, and the Civil War between Pompey and Caesar. The missions all have different victory conditions and most play quite differently from each other. Also many of them are not easy even on "normal" difficulty. (I love the Total War series, but I think they're easy even on Expert. So it's great to play a game that does challenge me.) The AI is fairly strong, but good scenario design made it even tougher. The scenarios in "Praetorians" are a joy to play and I didn't mind having to restart one difficult scenario 3 or 4 times. Also some of the scenarios are introduced with really cool little movies.

My only faults with "Praetorians" is that there is just one campaign game and that may lead to replayability issues upon its completion. Also one has to micromanage the scouts, leaders, and healers because if you do group moves they'll rush ahead of the combat units making them vulnerable. (This can be a problem because many of the campaign scenarios require the protection of certain leaders in order to win.)

At least the sound of marching sandals is cool....

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 12 / 22
Date: April 23, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Since when did Gauls throw hand axes? I thought that was the Franks...a Germanic people if I remember correctly who came along some time later and while on the subject, I'm pretty sure Roman infantry didn't wear their cloaks into battle. I guess I'm a stickler for details sometimes and when those details get kinda blury and 'wierd' I lose interest. I believe some of the designing of the game might have been influenced more by fantasy game programers than from any historical data. Troop control is disapointing as they seem to charge off happily after enemy formations against orders then are non responsive to commands at the vital moment...strange! There is no detailed unit control capablity really. Once contact with enemy troops is made the game seems to play the combat for you. Kinda takes the fun stuff right out of it! The script and dialogue delivery is sad indeed. Take a look at the 'CLOSE COMBAT' series of games for attention to details with dialogue and sound effects particularly for comparison. Praetorians lacks the same homework. Well at least you get to march your Legions around the countryside for a while and watch them!

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