Centurion: Defender of Rome (Amiga) - Playguide and Review - by LemonAmiga.com
88⚔️ Centurion: Defender of Rome was developed by Electronic Arts and published in 1991. The game is a top-down turn-based-game, with interactive elements, and features artwork by Jim Sachs, and music from Rob Hubbard.
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Production Notes:
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Captured: 14th July 2019
Edited: 10-16 August 2019
Narrated: 14 August 2019
Uploaded: 18 August 2019
While looking through the list of Roman themed games on Lemon, I noticed this one had Jim Sachs attached to it, so I quickly booted it up. Jim did the map screen at the start, and also the battleship scene. The game seemed difficult at higher levels, and easy at the lower level, and in my warmup I completed it. The image you see at the end of the review showing my stats is actually a screenshot of my warmup, complete with 1 chariot race entered and won. I saved this image in case the review was too long, and I needed to cut to the ending at some point.
During the real try I decided to make it easy on myself and go for the Slave level. This guaranteed a shorter game and one I could beat without too many delays. I set up some events before I set the recorder rolling, like invading a new country, and entering the games, so as to cut out most of the rebellions. Sometimes several places will rebel at the same time as enemies invade, so it can be a succession of battles, which is boring to watch. I won each one.
Then it was a case of hacking down almost 2hours of footage to size, while leaving in the core gameplay. I realised all the footage was captured in widescreen again, which isnt normally so bad, but this time the Jim Sachs images looked stretched in anything other than 4:3 square screen. So I made sure those sections with Jims work at least got put back to somewhere near the original aspect. The rest I initially made 4:3, but as it was recorded in 16:9, I went back to that in case it created aspect compression artefacts. I went back and re-recorded the introduction again, this time in NTSC, just to make sure the intro music played at the right speed - the rest of the review plays the music more slowly than the writers intended.
Danscore:
Given this was a big launch of this title from EA - THE name of big budget games, you might expect something with a little more depth than, say Defender of the Crown. This feels like Civilisation at some points, with diplomacy and taxes going on, but thats where the depth stops.
Unlocking boats doesnt bring much outside of a cut scene and the mini-game, and this seems trivial compared to the actual ordeal of arranging many hundreds of vessels, with various blocking and attacking roles. The Romans used Fire Ships to send towards the enemy, along with blockades of useless old boats for cover. The one-on-one sea combat seems less involved than Larry Bird Basketball. Fighting was dodgy in my version of the game, and I wasnt sure why the drag and drop wasnt working. The battles seem rudimentary compared to Carthage by Psygnosis, and although tense and gripping, they dont give as much diversity as North and South by Infograms. Gladiator Fighting combat in Rome is no IK+, and feels clunky at best. There is no music to speak of, as we play through the hours, and only a loop of 'street noise' and the Wilhelm Scream during battles, along with uninspiring sound effects.
Overall I feel there is some good graphics throughout, but the Pro Ace graphics of Jim Sachs are underused, and the two images are just poster art to introduce sections of the game. The Pro Ace music of Rob Hubbard is underused, and feels like only a glimpse of a monster score on the title screen. The game itself is about as complex as snakes and ladders, with the enemies taking more hits instead of becoming more intelligent, so it leads to wars of attrition rather than more fun. But I must say I was won over by the general atmosphere, simplicity, and exploration parts of the game, even though communication with anyone always leads to the same outcome. They didnt go heavy on monetary investments, or building of infrastructure or factories, or even basic roads, leaving not much else on the table. What is left is keeping everyone happy, and trying to stretch your maximum of 9 legions over at least 26 different lands in case of revolt. All things considered, the EA polish and shine cant hide a good but underwhelming game, and with a bit more depth of resource management, and more story, this could have been and epic to beat most RISK games. Instead, I'll give it a 5.5 out of 10. Its a solid game with no complex controls, but there is not much to bring the player back after the first completion of the game.
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