Stronghold Crusader HD

I have played many RTS games in my time and there are lots of good ones out there however Stronghold Crusader is the games I keep coming back to. I bought the game on release having played the original and loved it straight away, as other reviewers have stated it plays much better than the original with no major bugs. The game play is simple, however strategy for each of the crusader maps isnt always obvious and obtaining the resources and the base of your economy (to make gold) can take a while to establish. The sheer number of units available and how well the game played back in the day on a low end machine without slowing is amazing. The AI is pretty good and the various enemy charcters live up to there abilities and at the same to can be very amusing especially The Pig and The Snake who never fail to make me laugh when they realise they have lost. The harder AI oppenents can put up a good fight but I think its fair to say when you have played the game alot you can match them, having said that the game is still entertaining. I still play this game today having the original CD version and amazingly it plays on Windows 7 with no problems, I play using a third party piece of software to be able to play in windowed mode as the top resolution is 1024x768 as the gfx look a little stretched on todays high res widescreen monitors, but Im assuming the guys at GOG are on top of this as they usually are. A great RTS and a must buy from GOG, if you are an RTS fan you wont regret it.

This is by far the best Crusader game of the series. For the sale price you have to pick this up. Just remember it's and older game. Super addictive and hours of fun. The campaign is just phenomenal with each new mission presenting a new set of challenges. I absolutely love Crusader though it seems like there is a little bit of a secret formula that once discovered will get you pretty far before you have to start adjusting your tactics. To me this is a quintessential tower defense game with economy considerations. The music is really good too and there is just something about watching your villagers and troops run around in 2d isometric view that appeals to me. Great game, a true classic.

I have spent an impossibly large amount of time playing RTS games. I've played every Command & Conquer, every Ensemble Studios game, Total War, Supreme Commander, StarCraft, as well as dozens of others; not to mention every Stronghold game. However, if I had to choose my single favorite, it would probably be Stronghold Crusader. Partly, it's because it looks and sounds great even 10 years later. This game may not be in true 3D like Age of Mythology (also 2002), but you'll come to understand why when you have several thousand soldiers on screen simultaneously. I really like the sound design: the soundtrack is great and I actually enjoy the guy who verbally notifies you when "your granary is full, my liege". Most of the reason that it's my favorite, though, is personal taste and how this game manages to hit all of my favorite features. I've always loved turtle tactics and defense building, and I like a slower, more strategic RTS. Crusader exemplifies all of these qualities in spades. You can literally build any castle imaginable. You can employ hundreds of archers and dozens of ballistae. You can dig enormous moats, hire slaves to set enemy castles on fire, send assassins to scale their walls, set upon them with catapults, or (my personal favorite) make an army of knights and siege machines so huge it completely overruns your enemies. This game is literally Minecraft in RTS form; you can spend hours coming up with new strategies and castles. To sum up, the two best things about this game are the castle-building and seemingly unlimited population limits (I think it's 10,000). However, this game is probably not for RTS newbies: frankly, for an RTS, it's pretty complicated and daunting, but once you get the hang it, it becomes like second-nature. It also could be a good stepping stone to games like Total War and Sins of a Solar Empire. In my opinion, it hits a sweet spot in terms of complicatedness. If I was to choose one RTS to bring to a desert island, I would probably choose Stronghold Crusader. It's not only the best Stronghold game, but possibly the best RTS game. By the way, as a note, there was no nostalgia involved in this rating. I first played this game in 2010 in its low-resolution form, and I still loved it.

Honestly, my experience (other than sandbox) was that when playing customized skirmishes the AI enemy, even when you've selected both sides to be equal (in their starting monies and supplies) cheats. For example, I watched two fire balistas in action and they were shooting faster and more accurately than you can achieve with the same equipment, similar scenario. Then the "higher end" soldiers breed like bunnies and there's a never-ending plethora of slaves and slave drivers,. Everything spawns way faster, from the money taken in to how quickly you can produce assassins, (for example.) The enemy (on easy no less) sends relentless annoying attacks that keep you on the defense and having to replace lost military and rebuild walls. I have not tried the "normal" setting (what's the point?) - I enjoy the sandbox where you can create but who doesn't want to at a minimum defend your castle and if well managed even take on a foe agressively. I played the skirmish they set for you and some are doable (after a great while) some I could not conquer and can move on until you master a pre-set scenario. I'm not saying you can't have fun here and its certainly dirt cheap but it has short-comings. Still, I played almost 200 hours (maybe not alot to some) before I came to this conclusion and decided I was DONE but also recognized I "got my monies worth." Cheap entertainment.

It was difficult to get the multiplayer working, but finally we discovered that everyone had to turn off their firewalls and install a program called Hamachi. Then it worked fine.