Praetorians Preview
We get a first-hand look at the upcoming real-time strategy game from the creators of Commandos 2.
While resource management continues to be a strong element in most real-time strategy games, many developers are straying from the path by removing typical resource management in favor of a gameplay model that focuses more on the strategic aspects rather than economic. Currently in development at Pyro Studios--the same development house behind Commandos 2--Praetorians is a real-time strategy set approximately in the year 50 BC, during an age when the Roman Empire is warring with itself as well as the Gauls, various barbarian tribes, and the Egyptians. It's also one of the real-time strategy games that favors your ability to harness the power of your army and use it wisely depending on the situation rather than the amount of gold or wood you happen to have in the treasury.
The differences between Praetorians and most other real-time strategy games don't stop at economics, and in fact, the method of controlling the army is a little different from what most real-time strategy fans are probably used to. Instead of clicking on individual units and maneuvering them around a map, you can control them only in groups, which initially might seem like a drawback, but the fact that you can still divide these groups, send them to different areas on the map, and then make them rejoin the group is incredibly helpful. If the individual units in one group have received a considerable level of damage, then they can join the stronger group and increase their chances for survival during another engagement. In addition, it also becomes a little easier to establish a strategy, as specific types of units will stay inside their own group, so you won't have one or two archers accidentally venturing off with the infantry.
If your archers, infantry, or cavalry happen to be slaughtered over the course of a mission, there's only one way to replenish their ranks--seize control of a village. Throughout almost every mission (there are around 20 in the single-player campaign), you'll find a village that's either deserted or controlled by an enemy army. These villages are essentially the only resource in the game, and if one happens to be captured by your army, you can send a special centurion unit into the village and train members of its population so that they become different units. While the population of the village decreases as you continue to produce new units, it will eventually start to grow again, creating an entire new group of people for you to train. However, there may come a time when it will be much more beneficial to destroy a village than keep it so that the enemy never has the opportunity to seize it from you. But it seems that is rarely the case, unless your army already has an ample supply of units, and the enemy army controls perhaps only one or two villages on the map.
Even before capturing a village, you have to make another choice that involves one of the game's most important units, the centurion, which can grant a group of soldiers some very useful bonuses.
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- Eidos Interactive
- Pyro Studios
- Historic Real-Time...
- Release: Mar 10, 2003 »
- ESRB: Teen
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