Castles 1+2

A game that was probably really good when it came out. Even on the easiest difficulty, it is a serious challenge. I love the premise and the gameplay, but the AI is too much. A game that is in desperate need of an update or re-imagining. All in all, the first hour of the game is a lot of fun. Then the difficulty becomes too much and not fun for me to play.

I played this as a young man on my ... 286? 386? I really can't remember. But it was awesome, and those damn welshmen always seemed to knock over my castle at some point. The cutscenes (as such) also proved to be amusing at times. I got the original manual around here somewhere, I'm sure :o) It had a photo on the back of the development team, which I thought was pretty cool.

I never played the second one, but the first is one of my fonder memories. I played it for weeks on end. The castle design was so much fun. I still remember the castle building music. I also remember how bad I was at it. Later on as an adult I managed to install it and beat it soundly without even trying. The manual was a very fun read too. It gives a fun little history of life as a peasant. It turns out this was one of blizzard's first games. Before that blackthorn and lost vikings and all of that.

Castles 2 was my first introduction into gaming, way back in 1994, on my 386si 16mhz. The amazing strategy elements mixed with diplomacy and the ability to plan castles was what sucked me in. Its horribly dated by todays standards and I would love to see a remake, but I will take the old one for now. I have never played the first one, though.

Always loved this game. I have old PII laptop & so happy I dont have to find the cd & go thru the manual for authentication like when it was new. Just install & play. Works great on Vista machine also.