The developers of Praetorians thought of almost everything. To be clear, the game that I wanted way-back-when is all there. Yet that’s a double-edged sword, because, these days, everything Praetorians does something else has already done better. You see shades of the future in Praetorians - the emphasis on combat rather than base building and the importance of territory over economy.

Total War is the elephant in the room of course, but classics such as Company of Heroes, Dawn of War and more recently, Ancestors Legacy have all brought a wealth of improvements. where you order groups around rather than individuals). Here’s the thing: Real Time Strategy as a whole might be in a bad way, but in the time since Praetorians’ release there’s a strong case for the most innovative sub-genre of RTS being unit-based RTSs (i.e. Time, unfortunately, has not been kind to this particular piece of RTS history. By all accounts Praetorians was a pretty good game. I had to see what people thought of Praetorians back when it was originally released. You don’t want to get your review muddled. Normally, I avoid other people’s reviews of a game at all costs.

To be frank, I think my 12-year-old self-made the right choice moving along. Fast forward far longer than I care to admit and here I am with my hands on Praetorians at last – the HD Remaster to be exact. As a kid with no money, it was the one that got away – troops on walls? Units of troops marching around rather than just the one? Sign me up! Then Medieval II Total War hove into view (I didn’t follow releases back then) and interest waned.

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