Legion is not a bad game, it can be a fun strategic abstraction of the
conflicts of the Roman Empire at times. There is a certain amount of
enjoyment to be gained from expanding your empire and watching your borders
swallow up your neighbors. Legion's biggest problems lie in the fact that
it is a bit too slow and just not all that challenging. First, games take
a very long time to complete simply because it takes so long to get around the
maps. Second, the AI is neither aggressive nor particularly intelligent.
Considering the times, it is amazing how little your borders are ever invaded,
and when it does happen it is usually an isolated army that can be easily
dispatched on your home turf. Some nations in the game do tend to act
aggressively, taking cities from their neighbors, but do so pretty much
exclusively against the other computer-controlled nations.
In one game, I was playing as the Germans and shared a border with the
Romans. Not far into the game, the Romans declared war on my empire.
Did this mean that I was soon to face legion after legion bent on razing my
cities? No, during the next several hours of gameplay only one Roman army
wandered across my border, and it wasn't even a full strength force.
Further into the game, I had every nation sharing a border with me declare war
on me. This did not thrust me into the precarious position of defending
against a multi-front assault - I was still free to pick off cities one by one
and grow my empire. A game which features the aggressive Roman Empire, barbarian
hordes bent on plunder, and expansion-minded Greek colonists should be full of
personality, but Legion just falls flat.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 65%.
Legion is not a bad choice for someone new to strategy gaming, or if you are
looking for some "strategy gaming lite." If you're looking for a challenge
or an in-depth game covering the Roman Empire, you might want to look elsewhere.
System Requirements: Pentium 233 MMX; 64 MB RAM; 2 MB
Video RAM; 4x CD-ROM; 250 MB Hard Drive
Space; Mouse.
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