![]() All three of the civilizations feature commander units. Praetorians lets you play as one of three civilizations: the Romans, the Egyptians, and the barbarians (composed of German, Gallic, and Briton tribes). You can't easily zoom in either-Praetorians' camera lets you view the game only from four preset zoom levels, though since you'll usually play the game from the furthest zoom level, this isn't as much of an issue as the inability to rotate your view. The game puts a great deal of emphasis on using terrain features, such as elevation differences and dense foliage, for tactical advantage, so not being able to rotate your view can be really inconvenient, especially when you're trying to see troops behind a small ridge. You can set nine control groups with your number keys, and you can also cycle through commanders, scouts, controlled towns, and special units using intuitively mapped function keys, though the game has an unfortunate tendency to place vulnerable physician and commander units at the front of marching columns, instead of in the middle or at the rear.Ībout the biggest problem with Praetorians' graphics engine when it comes to controlling your armies is that it doesn't let you rotate the map. You can also click and hold the right mouse button to set your troops' facing when they get to their destination (which is actually an important consideration in Praetorians). You select your troops by left-clicking on them, and you order them to move or attack by right-clicking on their destination, and the game even shows you the formation they'll take when they get there. ![]() Praetorians also has a rather limited orchestral soundtrack, but at least it changes dynamically whenever you begin a battle.Ĭontrolling all these units is easy, thanks to Praetorians' simple interface. Unfortunately, Praetorians' audio isn't quite as good the in-game sound effects are adequate, but the between-mission cutscenes have rather poor voice acting. If you look closely enough at your troops, you can see some minor graphical issues, such as the way mounted cavalry sometimes appear to be skating along the ground, but the unit animations do generally look impressive, especially when you see hundreds of legionnaires marching perfectly in step. Praetorians lets you easily combine, divide, and even out the number of soldiers you have in each troop, so you can quickly fill out the numbers of a depleted battalion. Combat soldiers are organized into troops of up to 30 the disciplined armies of the Romans march in neat columns, while the more disorganized barbarians and Egyptians travel in unorganized groups. Unlike in most real-time strategy games, in Praetorians, you don't use or build individual units. Flocks of birds and deer populate the battlefield, and you'll also see weather effects like snow flurries and rain from time to time. You'll even trudge through deserts, complete with dust storms. ![]() The maps include wooded regions of Europe, complete with areas of dense forest, tall grasses, streams, and rivers, and elevated plateaus. Pyro has equipped Praetorians with a 3D graphics engine that produces attractive results, even if it's somewhat limited. You can build assault towers to scale walls. Developed by Pyro Studios, known for the Commandos tactical strategy series, Praetorians features plenty of strategic depth in its gameplay and is a great choice for real-time strategy fans who are looking for an unusual alternative to conventional strategy games. The game is set in the glory years of the Roman Empire during Julius Caesar's time at the helm of the Roman army in Gaul. ![]() While it hasn't quite eliminated all aspects of building up an army, Praetorians does manage to put the focus of its gameplay squarely on battlefield tactics. Over the years, developers have taken steps to simplify base building and resource gathering so you can spend more time fighting exciting battles. Some critics would say that real-time strategy games are formulaic in most of these games, you gather resources, build up a base, create an army of military units as quickly as possible, and pummel your opponents before they can do the same to you.
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