Rating: 
Summary: Great Game!
Review: "Praetorians" is a great RTS game! Unlike "Age of Empires", Praetorians allows soldiers to enter thick woods, ambush out of grasslands, and recruit soldiers at captured villages instead of having to build a barracks and wait a lifetime for your soldiers to be created.The units are interesting such as a barbarian (barbarian meaning Gual) axemen that, first, throws an axe at the enemy and charges into battle immeadietly after.Archers don't take forever to kill an enemy unit, (in Age of Empires it takes most archers atleast fiffteen shots to kill an enemy soldier)it usualy only takes them about nine shots. The graphics are realistic!Such as trees that are the right size compared to the units and rain hitting water, making a small splash. The AI is a little poor. Units travel in groups, and if a group gets to fighting hand to hand with the enemy, than it is impossible to get that group to retreat. This game is great! That's why I decided to give it five stars!
Rating: 
Summary: A highly polished and very fun game!
Review: "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.)
Rating:
Summary: Praetorians is a pretty much must!
Review: Although this game is great, I would give it a 4.5 stars if I could. First the good: Beautiful graphics (the scenery is almost like real), the campaign has a story (unlike some RTS games that have no campaign or story), skirmish mode is fun but sometimes too quick, great gameplay, and it runs nicely. The bad: The units are sometimes kind of dumb (they stand and do nothing sometimes when they are told to go somewhere), the unit graphics could have been a little more sharp, and there aren't many units (this is not really that bad but I would have liked more units; there are 9 different combat units for the Romans). Don't let the bad things sway you from buying the game. Unless you are a real critic than the bad things would make you very mad.
Rating: 
Summary: A Rookie Game
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: The best tactical game of all times!
Review: 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!
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: The Best PC Game out there
Review: I definately recommend this game, which can be played on three different levels. It's an exciting game which not only has 24 chapters at 3 levels, but also a dozen skirmish games to pit your skill against the CPU. If you are serious about realism and into ancient warfare, then Praetorians is the game for you. One other great thing about this game. You can rebuild destroyed units and with that add different fighting units once a certain plateau of wins is acquired. It will keep you glued to your seat as well as keep your attention on the screen.
Rating:
Summary: Great strategy game!
Review: I had experience of RTS games (Total Annihilation, Age of Empires and Empire Earth) and after I bought Praetorians and played the first time, I found it very very interesting.
It's not the typical RTS game where you have to produce a lot of units and simply attack the enemy (like for example TA kingdoms or others) but you have to think in a strategic way before moving and attacking the enemy. In this game, mission by mission, you learn how to balance your troops and how to move in the territory. It's important the fact that troops can interact with territory (hills, woods). You can hide your troops, you can stay higher than the enemy and then attack you enemy suddenly (for example,if your bowmen are in a higher position they will hurt more seriously the enemy). In some missions you have to lay siege to a fortess with war machines.
To sum up, I think it's a good game, if you want to enjoy yourself and live the experience of "De Bello Gallico"!
Rating:
Summary: This is possibly one of the best games I have played
Review: 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!!
Rating:
Summary: Like Caesar 1,2 &3 series but definitely not Rome:Total War
Review: 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
|
