Posted March 04, 2009
Medieval Castle life at its best. A king captured, a land divided and you along with your trusted advisors are the realm's only hope. Place your keep, gather your food, build your walls and train your troops because beyond your borders an alliance of cunning lords are rallying their forces against you. Whilst thou prevail or whilst thine walls crumble to the glutinous duc truffe?
Stronghold offers a flawless mesh of castle industry and military battles. Keep your peasants happy with ale, food, religion and dancing bears or pump the gold out of them with high taxes and strike fear in them with the hangman's noose. It's all up to you. Train archers and crossbowmen to fend off the advancing hordes and sally forth from the keep with knights and maceman to bring hurt upon your foes. Make use of traps like killing pits and the river of fire to weaken ennemies before they arrive at the gate.
Graphics: 9/10
Nothing special by today's standards but it still looks great. Leaves shake, fire roars, arrows fly and massive armies advance with ease.
Sound: 9/10
Great Character voices especially during the mission briefing. Peasants speak in charming old english accents. Medieval Ambience music is primarily what you'll be hearing until the enemy arrives which changes to more dramatic and fast paced music.
Gameplay: 10/10
Fabulous campaign which introduces everything at a brilliant pace allowing players to perfect the use of certain buildings anf troops before being shown something new. Campaign has over 20 missions with varying difficulty. Lots of defense/attack missions involving historical castles and a whole campaign devoted to economics.
Replayability: 9/10
With difficulty ranging from easy to very hard, missions can be played over and over again without seeming repetitive. Challenges can always be tackled in different ways allowing for a different style each time.
Overall Score: 9.5/10
This was my very first RTS and by far my favorite PC game of all time. I've since played stronghold crusader, stronghold 2 and stronghold legends but none of them can compare to the original.
I hope you enjoy this game as much as I do.
"Ah sire, the barbarians are approaching!"
Stronghold offers a flawless mesh of castle industry and military battles. Keep your peasants happy with ale, food, religion and dancing bears or pump the gold out of them with high taxes and strike fear in them with the hangman's noose. It's all up to you. Train archers and crossbowmen to fend off the advancing hordes and sally forth from the keep with knights and maceman to bring hurt upon your foes. Make use of traps like killing pits and the river of fire to weaken ennemies before they arrive at the gate.
Graphics: 9/10
Nothing special by today's standards but it still looks great. Leaves shake, fire roars, arrows fly and massive armies advance with ease.
Sound: 9/10
Great Character voices especially during the mission briefing. Peasants speak in charming old english accents. Medieval Ambience music is primarily what you'll be hearing until the enemy arrives which changes to more dramatic and fast paced music.
Gameplay: 10/10
Fabulous campaign which introduces everything at a brilliant pace allowing players to perfect the use of certain buildings anf troops before being shown something new. Campaign has over 20 missions with varying difficulty. Lots of defense/attack missions involving historical castles and a whole campaign devoted to economics.
Replayability: 9/10
With difficulty ranging from easy to very hard, missions can be played over and over again without seeming repetitive. Challenges can always be tackled in different ways allowing for a different style each time.
Overall Score: 9.5/10
This was my very first RTS and by far my favorite PC game of all time. I've since played stronghold crusader, stronghold 2 and stronghold legends but none of them can compare to the original.
I hope you enjoy this game as much as I do.
"Ah sire, the barbarians are approaching!"