Castles 1+2

I got this game on some floppy disks from a friend back in the day. There was no manual, no tutorial, I spent hours first figuring out the mechanics of the game and then playing and I loved it. To this day I have not played another strategy game that was so satisfying in regards to being able to design your castle. I am glad I now have the chance to buy the game as at the time it was not available retail in my country so piracy was the only solution.

so i had to give castles a 4 star rating because its one of a kind or two if im counting Castles II. I always loved it back in the day designing your stronghold and watching as attackers threw themselves hopelessly against it and cackling as they died in the moat or were picked off by the archers in my towers, hahaha, beware the double fortified wall...

I haven't really figured out Castles, from what I've seen of it, it's a little basic for my taste. Although I'm guessing that I'm missing something that it has to offer. Now Castles 2 on the other hand. I think I could honestly say that it is easily in the top 5 of my ALL TIME favorite games, ever. Pretty sure it was the very first computer game that I ever bought back in the mid 90's for my first Mac. When I play it, it brings back this old, pure fun feeling. CAN'T BEAT IT!!

This review is for Castles II, a great game, the only reason I give it 4 stars instead of 5 is the fugly graphics compared to the Mac version released by MacPlay. How's that for unusual, a game that was better on Mac than PC?

The included CDROM version of Castles 2 is basically unplayable compared to the floppy version which is NOT included. The problems are: 1) The events now occur strictly through videos so that you have to listen to the video each time to make a decision. In Castles 2 there are very frequent tribute events where the other players demand tribute. You decide to respond mostly on the amount demanded. In the cdrom version you have to listen to the whole message for the amount every time! In the floppy version you could just glance quickly at the amount! 2) There is some sort of issue where the game goes from running normally to running too fast. This is very noticeable when the pace of the music picks up all of a sudden. I tried a couple of work arounds and they did not work for me. This does not occur in the floppy version. ( I've abandoned the CDROM version and have been playing an alternatively sourced floppy version.) This is neat little basic strategy game ( which i played a bit in my youth ). I'm not sure how much depth there is. I still find it very difficult. I love the music particularly the initial track.