Praetorians
2003
- real time strategy (rts)
- strategy
- indie
- fantasy
- historical
- warfare
- single player
- multiplayer
The story
Your destiny awaits you on the battlefield. As a Roman General on a quest to forge an empire, you will be transported back to the dusty battlefields of Egypt, the frozen lands of the Gauls, and finally to the heart of the Empire itself, Italy. Your quest will be no easy task as the lands you seek to conquer are heavily defended by thousands of powerful troops. Feed you insatiable hunger to rule the empire with this combat-heavy epic adventure Command the forces of 3 civilizations - the disciplined Romans, the ferocious Gauls, and the religiously fanatical Egyptians Different landscapes play an all-important role in battle. From snow-capped mountains to sandy beaches, the AI will understand varying terrain and its defensive and offensive possibilities Battle for supremacy online in an intense multiplayer match supporting up to 8 players Master the art of war in over 20 single player missions requiring vastly different strategies
What it’s like
Sweeping, zoomed-out views of massed formations on dust-brown desert, snowy forest clearings, and sunlit Italian hillsides, with the camera pulled back so hundreds of tiny soldiers read as a moving pattern. The palette shifts with each campaign: sand and harsh noon glare in Egypt, cold blues and grey-white in Gaul, warmer olive and stone tones in Italy. Battle sound is full of clashing blades, war horns and drums, with an orchestral-ethnic score that swells during big engagements and drops away during planning. The rhythm is brisk but thinking-heavy, with long stretches of positioning troops across varied terrain punctuated by sudden, chaotic clashes. Its tone is grand, earnest and driven, a conquest story told through campaigns rather than characters. Combat is constant and bloody in the abstract, with dozens of units dying at once, but it stays stylised and bloodless rather than graphic, with little gore and no lingering cruelty. It suits a long weekend afternoon or a late-night session, and fits players who love tactical depth, terrain-aware strategy and the satisfaction of sending a legion across a map.
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