The early 2000s were huge for RTS games, and fans of the genre had no shortages of options to choose from. In 2003 alone I was engrossed with Command & Conquer Generals, Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne, Rise of Nations, and, of course, near-nightly sessions of StarCraft! There was however another 2003 RTS that flew completely under my radar and that RTS was  Praetorians by Pyro Studios. For the time, Praetorians was a different kind of RTS that focused more on unit tactics rather than units and resource management. This is a formula that would continue on and be perfected and made popular by the Total War franchise. For anyone looking to explore the early roots of this type of RTS, Praetorians has received the HD treatment, thanks to Kalypso Media and developer Torus Games.

Story

Victory or defeat lay upon your shoulders in 14 years worth of Roman history. Take command of Julius Ceasar’s legions and take part in historical battles against hostile tribes of barbarians and Egyptians. Spearhead the tactics that will lead your armies to victory in the Roman Civil War. Will you succeed or will you hang your head in shame and defeat?

Gameplay

Now that Praetorians HD is available I can finally remedy my past oversight of the title and see what I missed all those years ago. Praetorians HD is an old game and as such, it plays like an old game. Many titles have come since this game’s 2003 release and have perfected the many aspects of its gameplay. This doesn’t mean Praetorians is a terrible game, far from it actually. It is just wise to manage expectations for the journey you are going to take part in.

Praetorians HD consists of 24 total missions to its historically inspired campaign with 4 tutorial missions and 20 regular missions. The tutorial is key to learning the basics of gameplay and I highly recommend playing through it if you are unfamiliar with the game. The way units function and their various abilities are all explored as well as conscripting new units and building siege weaponry. The tutorial also begins the story of the game, so it isn’t just some useless one-off.

This is a tough game and I really enjoyed my time with it despite having to replay a few missions multiple times to correct stupid mistakes. Oh yeah, this game can punish you quickly for a lapse in good strategic judgment. Victory or defeat all comes down to how you manage all your different units and their abilities, and unit spam is just not going to cut it here. Trust me, I sent numerous legions to their deaths against a defensive tower when a single archer squad could have taken it out with minor casualties…

It is this rock, paper, scissor aspect to gameplay that always makes this type of RTS so enjoyable to me. Legionnaires are great at dealing with spearmen who in turn are great at taking on cavalry who are great at outflanking archers and other unprepared units. Then of course archers are a great weapon against most units but if they are fought in close encounters they are finished. Then, of course, there are healers and your basic foot soldiers who build siege weaponry and so on. Furthermore, each of these units has a secondary ability to help them out as well, and getting a feel for when to use them is essential.

There are additional factors to keep in mind as you engage in a battle, such as terrain advantage. With your archers placed on higher ground, they gain additional attack distance as well as added protection from counter-attacks. Heavily forested areas can be used to hide troops that can then get the drop on opposing armies. Scouting is huge in helping to prevent either of these types of ambushes. This is an aspect to the gameplay I had a considerably hard time getting a grasp on. I would often spring a trap in a forest and lose more units than I had to. Likewise, I could have used my archers to better protect my troops from enemy archers as they advanced up a hill if I had just sent out my eagle.

Each campaign mission was enjoyable for me to play and I enjoyed the historically inspired plot. It does get incredibly hard as you advance through it and might be one of the more difficult games I have played in recent memory. It never felt cheap though, and that is huge to me as there is nothing worse than playing a cheap-shotting game. Once the campaign is finished you can take part in skirmish battles against CPU opponents or take the battles online in the restored online multiplayer modes. When I first began playing I tried jumping straight into a skirmish map and found myself overwhelmed quickly, so again I do recommend playing the tutorial missions first if not the whole campaign!

Visuals

Praetorians HD might be a new release but it is still just an HD remastering of a 2003 game. As such, the resolution has gotten a bump up to full 4K and textures have been reworked to look better at the increased resolution. It still looks very much like an early 2000s game though, so don’t expect the moon here. I honestly love seeing the dated visuals and think they still look pretty decent even 17 years later! And even the choppy movement animations have their own distinct old-school charm.

Audio

Audio for Praetorians HD, on the other hand, is a bit less charming in its age. There isn’t anything seriously terrible about it, but it definitely suffers from early 2000s era voice acting. I really enjoyed the score though!

What It Could Have Done Better

While I had a blast discovering this game for the first time, returning fans might not be as pleased with it. The game is pretty much a 1:1 recreation of the original with nothing new added to the package. It would be cool to see some additional content come out for the title in future updates to give returning fans more to the game they love!

Verdict

At the end of the day, Praetorians HD is a great way to relive an old-school RTS from yesteryear. It isn’t the shiniest or newest RTS on the block, and many of its mechanics have been perfected by newer titles, but that doesn’t diminish the fun Praetorians can still offer in the present. With an awesome, and difficult, campaign, skirmish mode, and online play, Praetorians HD makes more than a compelling argument to come and relive the past.