Centurion: Defender of Rome

Moby ID: 213
DOS Specs
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Starting as a young Roman legionnaire in 275BC, your job is to conquer the known world through force or diplomacy, fighting on land and sea.

Centurion: Defender of Rome is a turn-based strategy game. You start with one province, Rome, and one legion. To complete the game, you have to conquer all the provinces on the map.

One part of the game is micro-managing your provinces. You set up tax rates and make people happy by organizing games. In Rome, you can organize a chariot race, a gladiatorial combat or even a simulated naval battle; this starts an action mini-game where you control the chariot rider, gladiator or ship.

Another part of the game is military conquest. You can raise legions or strengthen them in any province you control (let's just hope there are enough men in the province, or your legion will be incomplete and weaker). There are three types of legions, each of them has a different strength. You can also move a legion to a neighbouring province.

When you enter a province you don't yet control, you can speak with the ruler there. With luck, you can convince him to give you the province for free; but this isn't very likely, and you'll often have to fight.

When your legion attacks a province, or defends one of your provinces from an invader, the game switches to an isometric view of the battlefield. You can give orders to your legion (assuming they are within the range of their commander's voice) and watch as they duke it out with the enemy forces. Eventually, one of the sides will be completely wiped out or panic and retreat.

Finally, you can buy warships and have naval battles with the enemy fleet. This is represented as an action mini-game, depicting a duel of the flagships; however, the outcome of the battle actually depends on the strength of your fleet.

Spellings

  • ă‚»ăƒłăƒăƒ„ăƒȘă‚Șン Defender of Rome - Japanese spelling

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Credits (DOS version)

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 70% (based on 26 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 75 ratings with 9 reviews)

Not very rewarding.

The Good
The battles were pretty fun.

The Bad
But on easy mode, all you had to do was make all your men stand in one place, wait for the enemy to come, and your army kills them all as they're coming. That's a guaranteed win every time, so the battles got boring pretty quickly. Anything harder than "easy level," and you will surely lose every single battle you fight, no matter how many men you have. The battles could have had more men on them as well, and the computer's forces sometimes had elephants! Hey... I want to control elephants!!! But the game won't let me - that's only for the computer. It's no use negotiating with other countries because they will all want to go to war immediately. Once you win, you don't unlock anything, and nothing happens. Game over, man!

The Bottom Line
You can play something better in your spare time.

DOS · by Mr Blea (1) · 2005

Centurion: Pretender to the Throne?

The Good
Centurion: Defender of Rome has a prestigious pedigree, being a close spiritual descendant of the classic Cinemaware titles of the late 1980s. In particular, it tries very hard to be a Roman Defender of the Crown. In some ways, it actually succeeds.

The game concept itself is awesome, as there is a wealth of both real and fictional (AKA “Hollywood”) Roman history for the designers to draw upon. Even if you don’t think you know anything about the Roman Empire, you probably do – even if it is just the vague references and images you inevitably pick up on from reading books and watching movies and television. As you would expect from a Cinemaware-style game, the graphics are splendid, particularly in the “splash” screens that set the scene for the game’s big events.

Diplomatic encounters inject quite a bit of personality into Centurion, in addition to providing a non-military path to victory over your enemies. Sometimes this “personality” is quite literal; your pulse can’t help but quicken a bit when you first encounter the legendary Cleopatra herself!

The tactical battles are amusing and manageable at the lower difficulty levels. As for the bigger picture, the grand strategy involved can be rather interesting and challenging. Care to play Roman Risk, anyone? I also enjoyed the gladiator combat once I got the hang of it and figured out its function in the game (which makes sense but isn’t all that obvious if you just play the game without studying the instructions first).



The Bad
I had some fun playing Centurion, but I have to admit to being disappointed with it in the final analysis. The good intentions are there, but the designers just didn’t come through with the level of quality I expected.

The PC-speaker sounds/music are not just bad, they are downright intolerable. The legion listings have no information on commanding generals, even though managing your generals is (or should be) a key to your success. Land battles are highly unrealistic; there is no variation of terrain, no missile warfare, etc. It is very tedious and awkward to direct individual units in battle, which would not be a problem except for the fact that you absolutely MUST micromanage your troops at higher difficulty levels to have even a prayer of winning.

The naval element is not properly balanced, as sea battles are generally unnecessary, and not an efficient path to conquest anyway. Navies are way more expensive than armies, and not as much fun, so you’ll probably end up conquering the Mediterranean by traveling exclusively overland. Not exactly true to Roman history, is it?

As for the chariot racing, it simply isn’t fun. Races are long, dull, and difficult; the control scheme frankly feels broken. Good thing chariot races aren't required to finish the game! Also, even though I enjoyed the gladiator matches, they don't seem to be necessary for finishing the game, as the masses can be appeased in other ways. Dueling in the arena can be a welcome respite from the rest of Centurion, but that’s about all its good for.

The Bottom Line
Some aspects of Centurion are entertaining, but the game as a whole is ultimately more "bread and circuses" than substance. It's ok, but it's no Defender of the Crown.

DOS · by PCGamer77 (3158) · 2019

Another classic from the classic days of gaming

The Good
My brother in law was the manager of a computer store in the late 80's. One day he told me I could have one of the PC games in the discount box. I went through the titles and found this one. At first glance I didn't think much of it but it was the only thing in the box worth my time and it was free. It turned out to be a great game. Like all great classics the controls were easy to use and learn. I am a Ben Hurr fan (movie) and when I started a naval battle I heard the famous music from Ben Hurr. COOL!

The Bad
I never could master the art of diplomacy very well. I ended up 99% of the time using force. The naval portion of the game was a little lame. Your personal ship goes into combat with the enemy commanders ship. Instead of tatical control of all the fleet. That is decided my several factors not in your control.

The Bottom Line
A must for any Classic Gamer.

DOS · by William Shawn McDonie (1131) · 2001

[ View all 9 player reviews ]

Trivia

Awards

  • Enchanted Realms
    • September 1991 (Issue #8) – Distinctive Adventure Award

Music

The music used in the naval battles was taken from the movie Ben Hur. It was in the scene where Ben Hur was a galley slave.

Information also contributed by William Shawn McDonie

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Raphael.

Genesis added by PCGamer77. FM Towns, PC-98 added by Terok Nor. Amiga added by MAT.

Additional contributors: MAT, Patrick Bregger, Narushima.

Game added August 14, 1999. Last modified January 11, 2024.