Stronghold 2 Review

[Prussian to the Iron]

Hi all,

I decided to post my review of Stronghold 2 last night, so here it is.

Overview:

Stronghold 2 is a Medieval city-building game, with a surprisingly deep military aspect. Compared to other city-building games-The Settlers Rise of an Empire, Imperium Romanum, Black and White 2, Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War- it is a much higher quality game with deeper immersion and detail.

Story:
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW

Basically, You start out as a mere knight, who saves his lord. Once you save him, you must help people throughout the English countryside,-while the king is in hiding as a refugee-often having to repel an invasion after a mostly economic mission. Half of the way through, you begin to go on the offensive, fighting the barons who seek to kill the king and take his crown. Once you have killed some of them, you get to choose: To stay loyal to the king, or to join the barons and take the crown for yourself.

SPOILERS END HERE

Story Rating: 8/10

Gameplay:

In the game, you have 2 main buildings required to do anything else: the Granary, and the Stockpile. The Granary holds all the food you have, while the stockpile holds all the raw resources, as well as resources that need to be either processed, such as wheat(which is turned into flour, and remains until baked into bread) or that are used by a specific building(such as barrels of ale, or candles for the cathedral). The raw resources are used to create buildings, and for making weapons at weapon shops.

The happiness system is based around several different positive and negative aspects, such as rats(negative), crime(negative), extra food rations(positive), and ale consumption(positive). If there are more positive then negative points, then Peasants will come to your castle, waiting for a job.

The military system is very deep and satisfying. Each different troop type requires a certain type of weapon (Pikemen require pikes and metal armor, Archers require bows, Macemen require leather armor and maces, etc.), and gold. Each also has their own individual strengths, weaknesses, armor rating, attack rating, and speed rating.

Gameplay Rating: 9.5/10

Graphics:

The graphics are average, not as good or flashy as most other games, but they do not in the least detract from the overall quality. in fact, one could even say it makes it less pressing to have hundreds of troops at once.

Graphics Rating: 6.5/10

Ending Statement:

Stronghold 2 is a very complex, yet easy to understand game, with many extra tidbits and in-depth buildings and units. It is, at its core, a city-building game, but it is also very deep in the military aspect.

Overall Rating: 8.7/10

[Centurion1]

Sounds like a good game ill have to check it out.

What would you estimate the replay value at, all strategy games must have very good replay value

[Hooahguy]

my friend has this game. looks good, and nice review.

[Achilleslastand]

When this game was released back in April of 2005...it was almost unplayable and one of the most buggiest games ive ever encountered. The game is somewhat better now after 4 patches.....as far as multiplayer goes there is still some lag/freeze ups occasionally....

[seireikhaan]

I played Stronghold: Crusader a lot for a couple years. Very fun game, though very simple mechanics. I heard over and over again that Stronghold 2 didn't compare, and I never played it.

[Caius]

I have the demo. Tired of playing it, but looks good. I didn't find the game in the local seller, so I can't get it.

[Prussian to the Iron]

What would you estimate the replay value at, all strategy games must have very good replay value

well, with 3 patches installed, there is an extra 'Conquest Trail', where you basically have to defend or attack a number of european castles, with troops given to you and neither side able to make more. its pretty fun. then theres the freeplay missions, where you do whatever you want, and the individual siege missions, where you choose to be either side and then go to the castle you chose.

so, all considered, its pretty replayable. plus you can make your own maps :D

When this game was released back in April of 2005...it was almost unplayable and one of the most buggiest games ive ever encountered. The game is somewhat better now after 4 patches.....as far as multiplayer goes there is still some lag/freeze ups occasionally....

i haven't encountered any real bugs so far, with 1 exception. in 1 of the missions, 4 burnt vikings were dead, but kept running aorund. they couldnt do anything, so it didnt matter. then in the same mission, the same thing happened with about 8 enemy spearmen. still though, nothing serious.

havent tried multiplayer yet, i want to get better before i try it.

I played Stronghold: Crusader a lot for a couple years. Very fun game, though very simple mechanics. I heard over and over again that Stronghold 2 didn't compare, and I never played it.

i liked stronghold crusader, but by the time i got it(i think actually i got it in '05 ironically) i almmost puked at the graphics. plus the fact that it was a bit difficult for a 10 year-old.

[professorspatula]

The best fun I have with the game is the freeplay option. Build up a huge castle, get loads of troops and traps and then set up a ton of enemy invasions and see how long you can survive the onslaught. The campaign itself is a bit of a disappointment. There are 2 options - battle orientated campaign, and one focusing more on building stuff and keeping order. Sadly it's all a bit linear. I was disappointed in the skirmish style battles where the AI is unable to make anything other than basic tiny castles. I was hoping for a mode where you are having to build up huge fortifications against the enemy whilst at the same time attacking his own. Instead you seldom have room to build anything but tiny fortifications and much of the space is taken up by dung collectors, watchtowers and torture devices, none of which the AI has to worry about.

I think the game had the potential to be excellent, but it's a bit watered down and cartoonish for my liking. It's alright but not got a massive amount of gameplay life in it.

[Prussian to the Iron]

which patch do you have downloaded? with a city of maximum size, i only needed i think 2 or 3 gong pits. thew secret is to cram as many buildings of the same type as close together as possible. then you only need 1 or 2 to clean up all your food production!!!

why is it sad that it is linear? most games are..................

[pevergreen]

So its an RTS, not a city building game? Because you compared it to R&F: Civ's at War, which is an RTS/FPS (sorta FPS) hybrid.

Ceaser II was a city builder, Phaoroh is a city builder.

I've been tempted by the Stronghold series a few times, but better games keep being there, like SF IV now.

[Raz]

The game is terrible, I honestly regret paying money for that game, which has only ever happened once before. Out of the box the game just explodes on you with terrible flaws (try stopping your soldiers as they go through a staircase). If you can survive long enough to apply patches the game still shocks you with some lethal CTD's and exceptionally poor AI. Anyway so I slipped stronghold 2 back in it's box after patch 1.3.2 (or some v1.3 patch). Afterward I just played Stronghold 1 and Stronghold Crusader and never touched SH2 again.

Please Note: I'm a gameplay over graphics kinda guy - I play morrowind over oblivion, mtw over m2tw, final fantasy III over X, and I play roguelikes which are so graphically impaired that you just cannot, under any circumstances, take a screenshot and expect someone to be amazed. So naturally you'd expect my opinion on Stronghold 2 to be quite unimpressed. Heh.

[Prussian to the Iron]

well, ive never encountered any CTD's. the staircase thing is right though, but ive only encountered it maybe 3 times...


@pevergreen: actually it is more of a city-building game. perhaps the comparison was off, but the other games there were city-builders too.

[Veho Nex]

I played Stronghold: Crusader a lot for a couple years. Very fun game, though very simple mechanics. I heard over and over again that Stronghold 2 didn't compare, and I never played it.

It doesn't but its a great game. Its hard to find games that compare to SH:C though. Its like comparing Medieval 2 to Medieval

[caravel]

I've also only played the original SH and SH:C games. I heard SH2 was not much good at all.

As to SH/SH:C, to be honest I liked the artwork, the sound effects and the overall design of these games. The big part that ruined these games was the AI. Much like any RTS basebuilding game it simply trains units and sends them at you in batches with no real co-ordination.

It is very easy to outsmart the AI by building a honeypot trap:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

You simply leave an opening in the walls and line it with about 4 large towers - do not build a frontal gatehouse - to form a kind of open barbican. It's then just a case of filling the towers with archers and the walls with crossbows. The enemy will always come via that route and will be systematically shot down every time. They won't bring much if any siege equipment because they think they can simply walk in.

In all honesty you're better off with a game like MTW.

[Prussian to the Iron]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

You simply leave an opening in the walls and line it with about 4 large towers - do not build a frontal gatehouse - to form a kind of open barbican. It's then just a case of filling the towers with archers and the walls with crossbows. The enemy will always come via that route and will be systematically shot down every time. They won't bring much if any siege equipment because they think they can simply walk in.

the sad part is ive tried that before, and they still used ladders.......

[caravel]

the sad part is ive tried that before, and they still used ladders.......

Which Stronghold 1 or 2? I don't know about 2, but for SH 1, ladder bearers are shot down like anything else. Also always dig moats to keep the enemy funneled into attacking where you want them. Any trying to fill in the moats won't last long under the constant volleys of arrows.

[Prussian to the Iron]

I havent gotten a chance ot play the free-play much yet, so i haven't gotten to build too many moats :P

they are meant to be used en masse............

SH2.

[Raz]

Ahh, SH2 laddermen are much tougher than SH1 & Crusader. I remember having to fire just a single arrow or crossbow bolt and the ladderman would drop like a fly. You could also make a flaming honeypot trap in crusader with the firethrowers on the inside walls. A single flaming corridor for knights to walk through... wonderful.

Side note: Now that I remember Stronghold 2, I did love building up corridors of walls and placing flaming log traps on the sides. Hilarious times.

[Veho Nex]

My favorite strat for fighting people in sh:c was to make pitch fields that would cover as far away from my base as possible, and then I'd surround the important part with a moat. but the pitch always needs to be in a + shape with 4 or 5 squares in between, you save a lot of pitch and cover a lot of ground that way. Many a foe would die before reaching my moat, which unluckily for them always had archers and assassins.

Then you had the 10 minute peace time games where it was a race for gold and water pots/mills. After ten minutes sleep the pots and mill mass recruit vast armies in a matter of seconds.