Reviewed: February 28, 2003
Reviewed by: Dave Larson
Publisher
Gathering of Developers
Developer
FireFly Studios
Released: October 2, 2002
Genre: RTS
Players: Online
ESRB: Teen
7
7
8
8
8.0
System Requirements
Once more unto the breach, Firefly Studios, the makers of Stronghold have stormed back with their expansion game Stronghold Crusader. Complete with new units and buildings, Crusader also offers a slew of new campaigns and multiplayer options. Before prattling on the new stuff like C-Threepio, let’s first discuss the basics of the game, which are unchanged from the original Stronghold.
Stronghold is officially self-classified as a “castle builder” RTS. While castle building is certainly a facet of the game, Stronghold is really more of a defensive RTS. However, like most RTS’s, Stronghold utilizes units to represent your forces. Your main hold will generate peasants. Those peasants then get assigned to jobs, depending on what you have available. Thus, if you have a hunter’s hut built, a peasant will become a hunter to fill that slot. Your economic structure is has two aspects: food and armaments. Both have raw materials and finished goods. Food, naturally, is more important. Growing wheat and apples, and collecting milk and slaughtering cows will enable you to make bread and cheese. The more variety you have, the happier your people will be, and the more people can eat. The other product you can produce is ale. While not technically food, ale and food both affect your productivity, morale, and how much evil and taxes you can get away with.
Armaments are simply your weapons and armor that you need to produce troops. Your fletchers produce bows, your tanners leather armor and so forth. Each troop type requires various resources. For example, a maceman requires leather armor and a mace. An archer requires only a bow, but a crossbowman requires a crossbow and leather armor. Like food, each of these items also require the appropriate raw material, such as wood or iron.
Now that the infrastructure has been outlined, the next step is castle building. You do indeed design your castle to maximize your defense. From placing towers and gatehouses to stairs and walls, the design is left up to you (except in a few scenarios). However, one of the few flaws with the original game is that the wall height is predetermined. But wait--they have low and high walls in Crusader. Once your mighty stronghold has been built, you play through the action, and despite it’s claims of being a castle builder, here is where Stronghold comes into its own.
It is sick that so many medieval/fantasy RTS games don’t give the proper value to defense. Seeing Lancelot storm across the empty fields to slay the two drumstick-eating guards and conquer the castle is all too common. However, in Stronghold, prepare to pay the price of attacking a castle. Of course, you can assault a castle and win, sometimes with relatively few casualties, but don’t plan on just sauntering through the gates with only a scratch. You’ll need to plan carefully with sappers, assassins, siege equipment complete with diseased cows, and above all, a pair of brass cajones the size of Siberia.
Crusader adds a few new units to the game. My personal favorites are the assassins and the fire throwers. Assassins will capture a gatehouse much easier than trying to get a bunch of footsoldiers up there via ladders. The fire-throwers, and their siege counterparts the fire ballista, aren’t quite so efficient, but if you can get a few near enemy buildings or chokepoints, put on your bibs ‘cause it’s time for a barbeque! Crusader also adds the mounted archer, a cool unit if you are fighting an opposing force without defenses on either side of the battle, and the Arabian Swordsman, which is a slightly weaker and faster version of the old swordsman. There are new buildings as well. The most valuable, in my humble opinion is the separation of watch towers and defensive towers. The first only hold people, and increase the range of the attackers and are difficult for defenders to hit. Defensive towers can hold siege equipment, and don’t get destroyed by sappers (tunnelers). Crusader also now has a mercenary camp than you can get some good troops from too.
The game controls are the exact same as the original game as well. Overall, the controls are nice but they are a little too mouse-driven to ensure completely happiness. It’s been said before that a good RTS needs key commands to enable its users to be very efficient, and it’s being said again now.
Also, it can be difficult to get troops on the wall exactly where you want them. If you have a group of six or more units, bank on one or two deciding to relax on stairwell somewhere. Engineers were also difficult to get manned on siege equipment sometimes, and units will occasionally leave formations to chase butterflies.
The graphics for Stronghold Crusader are unchanged from the original game. Overall, the gameplay graphics are clear and easy to define, but often rather basic. Of course, Stronghold is a few years old now, and that fact alone puts the expansion behind the graphics curve. The movies are better than the first game, though. There was a bit more effort put into these than in the first game.
My only real problem with the graphics are terrain-related. It was easy to err in the placement of buildings and walls because of changes in terrain elevation changes or a hard-to-see rock, which makes that tile unbuildable.
Like the video, the sound is unchanged from the original game. Dramatic and classical, the music is as cool as background music gets, but isn’t anything special. The sound effects are well done, with the traditional sounds of hammer-on-anvil for the blacksmith, and really good cries from enemies as they boil alive in their armor as burning pitch is showered on them like rain in hell. Also, some of the lines people have are pretty funny.
Usually, expansion games are not worth the money. They’ll add a few new units or technologies, but will only add the game play time by less than ten hours. Stronghold: Crusader adds easily another sixty hours to any fan of the game. The new units add a neat element to the game, but don’t essentially change it. The real fun is in the new campaigns and multiplayer options. The only sadly lacking feature that didn’t get added were some new traps. Sorry fans, you’re still stuck with the pitch and spike traps only.
There it is, Stronghold Crusader. For you Stronghold fans, this is a must-get game. For those of you who haven’t played Stronghold yet, definitely check it out. The rest of you can eat rats in my dungeons. But truly, this game is unique in it’s approach to castle tactics in the gaming regime. Don’t miss it, and have fun storming the castle!
Stronghold Crusader hasn't changed much from the original offering, and it's starting to show its age, but it does offer up a hefty platter of new missions. While most sequels are simply a second helping, Crusader is an endless buffet with many more missions than the original, some of which are incredibly difficult, and it will all keep you playing for countless hours. Fans of the first game won't want to miss out.