Ahh, Centurion. In 1990, a few brilliant minds got together and came up with the PC strategy game Centurion: Defender of Rome. The game uses the most common aspects of the strategy games of that era (more of a conquest game a la Romance, Genhis Kahn, etc) and adds a really nice real-time-strategy battle system and a lot of extras to keep you entertained. On to the review.

The graphics aren’t up to today’s standards, but the game really makes up for it in gameplay. The main map is of Europe and nothern Africa, with the central country being Italy (obviously). In the battles, you can see your infantry cohorts, cavalry cohorts and your General. All of them look great, and the formations you can choose really look like something they might have used back then. Enemy armies can also include Elephant cohorts, and they look nice too. My only real complaint with the graphics is that the only difference in all enemy troops and your troops is their color (which is slightly disappointing, but doesn’t really detract from the game). If emulated correctly, the game features really nice MIDI soundtrack, and during battle, depending on your foe there’s a different song played. I really like the songs, but make sure you run the game in a DOSBox, or you’ll only hear internal PC beeps.

The gameplay is where this gem really shines. You begin the game with only one legion (army) and only one country (Italia). Your goal is to conquer every country on the map (either by force or by an alliance) to become Caesar. On the way, however, you have to watch your reputation (don’t plunder, comply with your allies, etc) to increase your rank (allowing you to have more and different types of armies and, eventually, fleets). You can participate in games in Rome (like Gladiator matches, or Chariot races), create up to 12 legions of 6000 soldiers each, have up to 3 fleets, and even woo Cleopatra at the end of the game. Battles are great and are in real time (although you pause the game to give orders), fleet battles are fun, and trying to figure out how to ally with a country is a great addition to the game.

I’ve played the game through twice so far, and I’m on my third playthrough. I just can’t get enough of it. I simply love this game. If you haven’t played it yet, you can get it here at Abandonia. Due to my love of the game, I’m working on a guide for it, and I’ve spent the past week or so translating Rodrigo’s Centurion site into English (it’s not up yet, though). And, to pique your interests, here’s my winning game screen from my first playthrough: