I was also able to set up my own battles using the custom skirmish mode. Skirmish trails are a series of scenarios pitting the player against multiple AI foes. The campaign had me playing as Richard the Lionheart and then switching over to play his nemesis, Saladin. There’s a multi-part learning campaign to ease new players in. It wasn’t long before I had a thriving and self-sufficient fortified citadel. It’s also essential to consider defence by building walls, fortified gates and towers. With the required material in the stockpile I could build hovels to gain more peasants and barracks for conscripting troops. Wood camps, quarries, apple orchards and farms provide the essential items to proceed. From there it’s time to collect the resources needed to sustain and advance your settlement. The first order of the day is set up a stockpile and a granary to store materials and food respectively. The main aim is to build a castle capable of supporting your mission goal, usually to expand your influence by taking out the nearby enemy. Thankfully the game doesn’t stray far from the genre’s usual mechanics. Some tool-tips or other pointers would also have been helpful, especially in the beginning. Whilst I found the interface uncluttered, it would have been nice to have had a little more information immediately available, like resource stock levels.
For most of the scenarios I started with a lord standing atop his tower. The game is based around a series of scenarios that together make up a campaign. Apart from a nice depth of field blur effect, the graphics look like they’ve been plucked out from a decade ago. Don’t get me wrong, it looks OK, but comes a poor second when compared to the likes of the Rome II: Total War.
When I say modern, the game still has a very retro feel about it. Using the graphics engine from Stronghold 3, replaced the 2D visuals of the original with a more modern 3D look. 2002’s Stronghold Crusader was a series spin-off that shifted the setting from medieval Europe to the Crusades in the Middle-East.įor the recently released sequel, Stronghold Crusades II, developer Firefly Studio have this time opted to self-publish their game. The game was quite popular and over the year spawned a number of sequels- the last of which, Stronghold 3, was released in 2011. Games like The Settlers and Age of Empires had us collecting resources and nurturing tiny little societies into greatness.Īnother of those games was 2001’s Stronghold, whereby players took on the role of a medieval lord charged with building kingdom with strong economic and military might in order that it may flourish and survive. Back in the day, before 3D graphics afforded us immersive worlds to get lost in, the real-time strategy game was king.
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