Stronghold HD

So to start off, Stronghold HD is basically a castle-and nearby areas- simulator. It is a strategy game, but it's neither a game like Civ, where you control whole regions, neither like AOE where you basically control citys /towns and neither is it Real Time Strategy. I would most closely compare it to AOE, but it's still very different. You have to take care of a much smaller space, you don't really have to explore and the map is relatively small, but you are also set pretty close to enemies on the map, so combat happens quite often. It's a mix between townlife management and Real Time Strategy, basically. And a really good one at that. The game is just good all around, sounds & visuals are perfect for a game like this, atmosphere is spot on, combat/management modes are all handled with great care, and the whole bunch of gamemodes give huge amounts of replay value. Instant Classic.

and I'm not usually into RTS games. It's too fun making the castles and villages in sandbox mode. I was very happy to see it up for digital download :D

I love this game. Theres nothing I enjoy more then playing strategy games that I can be invovled activly in the economy and the military aspects. The Graphics are appealing and the overall feel of the game is great. 5/5

I play this game over and over. The major weakness of Stronghold is they didn't make a whole bunch of expansion packs - instead, they made Stronghold 2 and Legends which are rubbish. At least Crusader was the same basic game, and was also super fun. The graphics are awesome. So you can only rotate in 90 degree increments - I hardly ever rotate the camera anyway! 2D games had artists doing the graphics - not 3D modellers!

I had a hippie computer teacher when I was younger, and he used to give us a choice of playing this or some other game (Red Alert, I think), and I usually went with this one. It's so indepth, as in you grow the grains, grind them then they go to the bakery to make bread... I love it.