Stronghold Crusader HD

Stronghold Crusader is a medieval geek's paradise. Not only do you get to build and siege castles, but you get to do it in ways that other games haven't even tried to explore. When I was young, I used to love books about medieval castles. To my delight, many of the cooler siege aspects that I had completely forgotten about were covered in this game. Catapulting disease-ridden cows--check, preparing and pouring boiling oil--check, you can even lay down pitch that you can light on fire with fire arrows. The combat in this game isn't perfect, though the realistic aspects (missiles have realistic trajectories, for instance) make up for limited formation options. As much fun as building walls and besieging them is there's many more layers of depth in the gameplay. Besides combat and defense, there is the whole economic aspect of the game. It basically plays like a simplified city building game like Pharaoh or Caesar with popularity and food being the most important resources. Also, there are optional "good things" and "bad things" you can place that affect your popularity, efficiency, and troop strength. Also, these things really help to spruce up and otherwise ordinary looking castle. Speaking of charm, this game has plenty of it. While not as graphically impressive as its predecessor, it really is fun to watch your city in action. The sounds are also well done, with voicing being occasionally corny and flat but still entertaining. When you first hear your soldiers yell out a battle cry before charging or your archers in your towers firing a barrage of fire arrows you'll get a warm fuzzy feeling that will warm your heart. The game features four campaigns, though they are basically extended tutorials. The real meat of the game is in the Crusader Trail and multiplayer. The former is a series of skirmishes that get increasingly challenging as your progress. While there isn't really a story for any of it, its great if you just want to sit down and build and besiege castles for an hour or two. I'm very busy nowadays, so this is the perfect kind of game for me. Oh yeah, and it has desert ninjas.

After launching system wants put it to trash with description that the file is damaged :(

Stronghold 1 is a wonderful, joyful game set in medieval England. It has a certain pace, a focus on resource management as well as combat, a campaign dripping in character, and a delightful art style. You get more of the same in many ways with Crusader, only the combat, campaign and economy has been rejigged to focus more on delivering quick battles with lots of combat. If you've played through 1 and want a follow-up odyssey into the crusades (a few characters from the first game are still around), grab a nice drink and sink many hours into this wonderful experience. If you haven't played 1 yet, I recommend it, it's a more focused and rich experience.

I never had a chance to play the stronghold series when they first came out, but I had always wanted to try them out. I decided to skip the first one and play this Crusader version. So far I'm pleased with my purchase. This game seems like a combination of several other games such as Lords Of The Realm II, Ceasar 3, and Age Of Empires to name a few. Start with low... everything, then build your castle, stockpiles, and army, and conquer your enemy. One notable difference is at how much of a disadvantage you are in at the first of each level. There are a few different gametypes (make sure you start with the tutorial). I'm doing the 50-level campaign and the first level was a sinch, but every level gets much more difficult. The same stategies don't always work so you have to be innovative, nor are you placed in the same situation every level. Whether it be more enemies, less resources, or a myriad of other things, the game will definately test your ability to micro-manage. The characters can have some repetitive, cheesy sayings that get old fast, but the music fits the game, and the sound effects, (especially when an army charges) is good. Graphics are just fine, and I had no problems installing it, nor running the game. There is almost no storyline involved other than destroy your enemies, but I didn't buy this game for it's story. A great game to play if you enjoy starting as the underdog (severe understatement), and coming out as the top dog. I recommend it.

This game is straight forward continuation of classic Stronghold edition. Major changes are some new units and builings (mostly arabic units that you can buy as mercenaries) and gameplay - it's not defend or assault castle any more. Each player builds its own castles on big map. For some people it may be interesting for me it's awfull. Tried to play this games twice and no success - it's not even close as enaging and interesting as its predecessor. Campaing, as far as I got to, is boring. Basically each scenario is about you and enemy on map. You build your castle defence, you prepare and launch assault, over. Also I don't like the new economy design. You start each scenario with huge amount of money so castle development and managament is now so much different. This particular game package consists of standard Stronghold Crusader and extreme version. Extreme version is ridiculously difficult and only for great great fans. Standard version is downloadable as additional content and offers normal campaigs. All in all it's still good game because it's continuation of one the best RTS I ever played. If you don't mind new gameplay you gonna like it. If you fell in love with previous Stronghold you may be disappointed. For me it was unfortunately the great disappointment.