Review for Praetorians HD Remaster. Game for PC, Steam, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 24/01/2020
Praetorians originally comes out on PC back in 2003. Its creators are called Pyro Studios, known today as Pyro Mobile. The software house Pyro Studios was known in the nineties for the series Commandos, tactical video game set in World War II. Despite the success of the Commandos series, the software house was not sailing in good waters; Praetorians in fact was postponed several times, eventually coming to be published a few months earlier by Commandos 3 - Destination Berlin.
Praetorians HD Remaster now in the hands of Kalypso Media in collaboration with Yippee! Entertainment e Torus Games, is proposed to the modern gamer in a remastered version.
The title is distributed in physical edition in tandem with: Commandos 2 HD Remaster; alternatively it is possible to purchase the single title in digital version.
Gallia est omnis divided into partes tres, quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquitani, tertiam qui ipsorum Celtae language, our appellantur Galli….
Praetorians HD Remaster, as you can guess it is a real-time strategy, set in the times of Ancient Rome. The main campaign of the title covers: the period of rise and glory of Julius Caesar, which starts from the conquest of Gaul, up to the civil war. However, the player never plays Julius Caesar during the campaign, but uses all the generals who helped him in the conquest. The supporting generals are: Tito Labieno, Gaius Cassio Longinus, Gaius Crastino and Quintus Tullius Cicero.
The historical generals that the player uses are real and to his surprise, he may realize how Praetorians HD Remaster is faithful to the story we all know, making the gaming experience more pressing than the strategic media. The historical accuracy is found not only in the names or in the game environments, but can also be seen within the campaign, curated and balanced in the smallest details.
Praetorians HD Remaster is a strategic title designed exclusively for battle. Within the game, there are no resources to gather, not even troops to employ, with the exception of a particular category. Before entering the battlefield, the player must choose one of the three civilizations available: “Romans, Barbarians and Egyptians”; each has a troop for each category divided into: light infantry, heavy infantry, spearman, archer, horse archer, cavalry and special unit. The special unit is the only troop that the player can recruit, only after accumulating a sufficient amount of Honor Point.
The player can use light infantry to build garrisons, towers and siege engines, which are useful for conquering settlements. The support troops, on the other hand, can be Healers, Generals and finally the Explorers: these troops are useful for exploring the game map. Explorers specifically can allow the player to remove the “tactical haze”, allowing him to analyze the terrain in order to prepare his own game strategy.
The playing field within Praetorians HD Remaster plays a vital role in the battle. Each category of troops has its own weakness and strength: not all units can cross a particular terrain and this requires the player to carefully plan the game strategy. In addition to careful planning, the player must conquer the villages scattered around the game maps, then letting the general in to start recruiting. At this point the unique ability of the civilization comes into play: the Roman civilization does not have special abilities, but they have a balanced army; the Egyptian civilization focuses on the speed of recruitment and creation but its army is quite weak; Finally, the Barbarians are the civilization with the strongest army but they are slow in creation and recruitment.
This continuous balancing gives the player that feeling of constant reflection, forcing him to constantly reflect on every action to be taken.
Praetorians HD Remaster is the classic strategy that requires time and dedication: without mincing words, it is not suitable for those looking for a realistic but accessible gaming experience. The game has a series of mechanics that require the player to pay attention to the title, just think that the first four game missions - out of twenty-four - are part of the tutorial. In fact, the game leads the player to collide entire formations of troops and this requires a lot of learning, only in this way can you learn the different game mechanics and understand how fundamental planning is.
This game mechanic, in addition to gratifying the player with epic and intense battles, carries with it some defects. The main flaw that can be found in these game mechanics is the difficulty rate. Praetorians HD Remaster is a difficult title even at the minimum level of difficulty. The difficulty is found in the moment, where the player does not prepare a careful game strategy: losing essential troops. Another flaw is noticed when the player engages in a fight, the troops no longer respond to the order until they have won or lost.
Old gen or current gen?
Praetorians HD Remaster defends its age fairly well. The 3D graphic rendering is above the average of the strategic ones of the XNUMXs; in fact in this remastered version you can see how the title offers a more than enough graphic sector. Praetorians HD Remaster offers clean and more refined settings, giving that feeling of freshness: the player can see cities, landscapes and structures with attention to the smallest detail. Unfortunately, the same thing cannot be said for units originally made with few polygons even if well characterized; nowadays, however, the same polygonal model cannot be re-proposed, which ultimately gives an inaccurate visual sensation.
Interesting is the realization of the campaign where each main section is introduced by a video in computer graphics that gives greater immersion. The Praetorians HD Remaster soundtrack is of excellent quality and features an ensemble of choirs and orchestral melodies perfect for the nature of the title.
Praetorians HD Remaster, presents all the limitation of the original title. The title does not offer the possibility to manage resources, it does not even allow you to build buildings or fortifications but is limited to the management of the battle: all those looking for a well-rounded management title in Praetorians HD Remaster would do better to look elsewhere. The title, however, allows you to faithfully experience the rise of Julius Caesar, offering an exciting game campaign and faithful to the historical counterpart even if focused only on the battle. Offering Praetorians nowadays with the fixed view, without having the ability to rotate the game view is not the best choice of the developer.
Praetorians HD Remaster is a strategic title that is still interesting today. Despite there is no lack of interesting strategies, in the modern videogame market, Praetorians is confirmed - despite the years on its shoulders - a successful title. The effort of Kalypso Media and the developers Yippee! Entertainment and Torus Games, however, is really reduced to a minimum, you could have dared much more even if it is appreciable how Praetorians has not been forgotten over the years. Compared to the first PC version released, the title on PlayStation 4 has been translated into many languages.
► Praetorians HD Remaster is an RTS-Strategy game developed by Torus Games Pyro Studios Yippee! Entertainment and published by Kalypso Media for PC, Steam, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 24/01/2020
