PC Critic Reviews

With outstanding visuals and audio to showcase its gameplay, Praetorians is a must-have for genre fans and a great introduction for newcomers to PC gaming.

It’s quicker, fiercer, and more exciting, and the military tactics utilized is something that has been missing from RTS games recently.

The gameplay and tactical strategy in this title is certainly its strong suit.

The sheer focus on tactics and all of the available options within this makes this an extremely challenging game, but persevering and learning these intricacies will reveal a true gem.

The challenging and lengthy single-player campaign and the tough AI will keep you busy for a long time, while custom skirmish modes and multiplayer capability add to the game's value.

A solid RTS experience that uses the hook of streamlined play without requiring resource management.

Cutscenes are decently animated, and the most impressive feature of the game has to be the environments, such as the dense forest and rippling streams that can be disturbed as columns of soldiers move through it. Even the destruction of these environmental features, such as an archer sending a flaming arrow into a stretch of trees, looks nice.

A little unmanageable when large opposing forces enter toe-to-toe melee combat. The front line becomes a clanging, tangled, dying mass of soldiers, and no player micromanagement is going to save them.

Praetorians never really achieves the gigantic scope of a "Total War" game, but it is more easily controlled and offers much more obvious tactical problems. [May 2003, p.95]

There's plenty of strategy and sheer fun to be found in Praetorians. In fact, I am inclined to call this game the most strategy-minded strategy game I've ever played.