
With Crusader, Warchest, Stronghold 2, Stronghold Legends, Stronghold Crusader Extreme, and Stronghold 3, there were plenty of successors and with Stronghold HD even the original game has already been released again in a remastered version. In multiplayer games, players could also build multiple castles on a map and lay siege to each other.
#Stronghold 2 game review plus
Opponents had a similar selection, plus a few special siege units and usually a special leader with special abilities. Pikemen, archers, swordsmen, and catapults were our troops. Back then, it was basically all about building a medieval castle and providing defenses and supplies of food and building materials, then fighting off larger siege armies at the end. The first part was simply called “Stronghold” and came out back in 2001. But first, a little Stronghold history, so that everyone can understand the whole context. I’ve played almost all of the predecessors with a few exceptions, and some of them I really liked and played again and again. While Stronghold has always had a certain fan base, many parts were also often rather mediocre or just above it in the reviews. You can say the game has tradition and history, not only because it involves battles of earlier history.
#Stronghold 2 game review series
Stronghold 2 is packed with options for your edification, so whether you want to follow the story-driven campaign to return the King to his throne, or simply reconstruct the motte and bailey delights of Dover Castle, you'll be hard pressed to unearth an RTS that plays for keeps quite as well as this.The Stronghold series has been a very well-known franchise for 20 years.

You can edit your own maps, set up for a siege, or simply reap resources and build for pleasure, like a micro-managed SimCastle. Nevertheless, it's a fair improvement on the original Stronghold game, and while the 3D engine is poor for war, it makes castle-construction a delight. If you want battles done well then this isn't the first place you should be looking. In fact, and I really didn't want to have to say it, the sieges in Medieval and Rome are still more entertaining than this, a specialised castle-warfare game.

While the campaign really should have been the backbone of the game, it's actually fairly spineless.

Played once and failed, you feel little urge to return. The limitations of soldiers make tactical thinking a dull pastime, while many of the scenarios are too difficult to ever be appealing.

The sieges (particularly the historical sieges supplied for your entertainment) are diverting, but are also rather crude. This is Stronghold 2's great failing, ultimately. Watching my settlement prosper through careful management of food supplies and trade, followed by thrifty use of gold to procure a gigantic, multi-tiered monstro-fortress, is actually a far more enjoyable experience than breaking out the boiling oil and polishing up the ballistae. Playing the peaceful strand of Stronghold 2 today suggests something that I'd not really considered: even without invading armies, running a castle is tough, challenging, perhaps even interesting.Īctually, when we really start to get stuck into the sack of home truths that we're currently in the process of spilling, I have to admit that I've taken far more pride in taming the simple yet recalcitrant economy than I have in winning any battles. But that was a younger and a more naive me.
