Centurion: Defender of Rome

The Good
Defend Rome from barbarian tribes and build armies to fight in real time battles.

Watch your forces crush potentially superior foes.

Expand the empire and pacify the world in this simple, yet engaging strategy game. Certainly not as difficult as Annals of Rome, much more simplistic and fun for the casual or new wargamer. Great war and superb yet simple land battles make this game made a decade before its time.

The Bad
Lack of depth. Action in the Colosseum can be very boring and chariot races, although very rewarding if you win, are also very boring. Naval battles tend to be boring as well and useless. This game has been called defender of boredom by some and in these cases, earns that remark.

The Bottom Line
A game made well before its time. I recommend it to all casual or new war gamers. Those who are interested in the history of the Roman Empire will find this title entertaining. Avoid naval battles as they are expensive and fruitless endeavors. Keep to the land battles as much as possible until its time to take Britain and Sardinia. A must download for any strategy game fan.

The Good
The basic "Cinemaware" style game mechanic was well executed (strategic map for troop movement and area control linked by mini-arcade games).

The land battles were interesting, once you understood the strategy, but could be very frustrating if you did not.

And who can beat the subject matter!

The Bad
The arcade games were horrible! The true Cinemaware games walked a fine line between simple and simplistic, but EA's attempt at the genre had a severe lack of control and depth.

Gladiator combat lacked any subtley (bang keys until you win/lose) and the chariot racing was equally disappointing.

Finally, the graphic look of the game was disappointing. This was released years after the original Cinemare games, yet hardly improved on their style.

The Bottom Line
Defender of The Crown meets Ben Hur. But in a bad way.

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.