Comments on: Making Of: Stronghold

By: edh

edh — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:12:26 +0000

I came into the Stronghold franchise with my purchase of Crusader. I love it! I still play the deathmatch mode against the bots from time to time. Sounds like I need to find a copy of Stronghold if it’s so much more fun, though! ;)

By: SwiftRanger

SwiftRanger — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 14:32:59 +0000

Just forgot, add in Beasts & Bumpkins to that mix as well.

By: SwiftRanger

SwiftRanger — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 09:47:24 +0000

Nice article, I think I’d give everything for the perfect mix of Castles, Lords of the Realm II, Stronghold, Knights & Merchants and to a certain extent even TA: Kingdoms (for that 3D/weapon physics feel).

There is still a gap, I don’t think the latest Settlers game filled it up very well.

By: Alan Au

Alan Au — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 00:23:08 +0000

That reminds me, I still want a proper remake of Castles, not that Stronghold was entirely a bust, but the insta-build/fragile walls were a bit of a let-down compared to the epic fortress construction, where over-designing meant your fortress was attacked with the walls only half-built.

By: Stromko

Stromko — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:49:00 +0000

For me the ultimate failing in Stronghold was the incompetent AI that necessitated that it cheated. There was no point attacking their economy or infrastructure because they didn’t use it. Every level all I did was wall up my weak spots and build as many archers and/or crossbowmen as possible. This wasn’t always easy so there was a challenge, it threw a lot of curveballs at you dependent on the scenario, so I’m not saying it was a flop, I did have a lot of fun with it still.

Stronghold 2 tried to complicate things with the little territories all over the map that you had to take over and develop, without the benefit of walls, to supercharge your economy. I actually kind of liked that. It also seemed more like the AI was playing fair. But, it stumbled over an AI that was even more hopeless, that could and often stalled out completely in skirmishes.

Still not what I’d call a failure though, I had a lot of fun with it also. I just feel that either game could’ve been so much better if the AI could keep up. I have to cut them a break as that seems to be the unattained holy grail for 97% of games that come out.

Multiplayer may have helped mitigate this but I always judge a game based on the singleplayer, the experience I can just boot up and play at any time. Especially when it’s a bit of a niche title and you can’t just find an open game whenever you want.

By: Wozza

Wozza — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:52:18 +0000

I played Stonghold for hour and hours, i loved all the little details, like your army throwing ladders up to climb the walls, it’s a shame they messed with the mechanics so much on Stronghold 2, they focused far to much on resource gathering and ubermicro, rather than concentrating on the good stuff like storming castles, exploding cows and walking pig BBQ.

By: heartless_

heartless_ — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:34:10 +0000

Lol pitch traps… remember the first time I showed someone in multiplayer what a pitch trap was.

By: Fumarole

Fumarole — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:29:55 +0000

It was great fun back in the day creating castles for my friend to assault only to see his army go up in flames in my pitch traps.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:54:23 +0000

The first Stronghold was pretty damn excellent. It still holds up today, which its sequel doesn’t.

Crusader is pretty good but not quite as fun.