Posted on: January 31, 2009
downloadmunkey
Zweryfikowany użytkownikGry: 218 Opinie: 2
Build Castles, Defend Castles, Destroy Castles!
Playing Stronghold is like watching sieges in movies : attacking soldiers charging towards the ramparts and getting shot ful of holes, catapults blasting gaps in the walls, towers crashing down and furious troops storming breaches in the walls or scaling ladders to cut down the archers on the battlements. Unfortunately, it's usually your castle being besieged :) Gamers expecting a more combat-focused game might be slightly disappointed to find that withstanding sieges successfully in Stronghold involves more than simply building strong fortifications and raising an army of archers and crossbowmen to make pincushions out of anyone reckless enough to appear within range of the walls. As most missions usually devolve into battles of attrition where the invader throws waves of troops at your castle (or what's left of it) during each successive siege to attempt to overwhelm your ability and resources to both repair the walls and replace the troops killed, Stronghold can be thought as more as a economic simulation with a military veneer add some excitement and urgency to the town management :) Higher level troops like the heavily-armoured swordsmen are prohibitively expensive in resources and gold to replace and a well-oiled economy makes recovery after repulsing each assault much, much easier. And frankly speaking, there isn't many tactics available to the besieged apart from building towers in mutually supporting positions and stationing enough ranged troops on the battlements and towers. Boiling oil, flaming pitch, spike traps and other nasty surprises for attackers available in the later missions will add some novelty to your defensive arsenal but massed archers and crossbowmen will usually form the mainstay of your defence throughout the game. Nonetheless, The peculiar challenges presented by the terrain and other constraints in each mission of the campaign keeps everything fresh and interesting. On the other hand, missions where you actually besiege an enemy castle are few and far between in the single-player campaign. It isn't exactly a bad thing for me since they can be frsutratingly difficult and puzzle-like. Filling in the moat and breaching walls and other obstacles while under heavy fire from above will kill many of your men - lose too many men and you'll find that taking the keep and killing the enemy lord in the heart of the castle becomes nigh impossible - prompting another restart of the mission. Players who relish such challenges will definitely find the Siege scenarios attacking or defending a historical castle very interesting :) Despite its age, Stronghold is still an immensely engrossing and addictive game. Units are wonderfully animated, voice acting is excellent and the in-mission music and overall atmosphere draw you in and make you feel like you're there in the Middle Ages. The sounds of arrows whistling through the air and then impacting on flesh with dull thuds or the winding of crossbows being reloaded after scoring hits on those damn swordsmen never get old either :)
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