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Stronghold 2

Score: 56%
ESRB: Teen
Publisher: Apus Software
Developer: Firefly Studios
Media: CD/1
Players: 1 - 8
Genre: Real-Time Strategy

Graphics & Sound:

Despite its new 3D appearance, Stronghold 2 is uglier than its predecessor. Never before have I been this disgusted to see a game try to upgrade from 2D to 3D simply because that’s what the rest of the industry is doing. The level of detail is awful from any distance, and the textures do little to alleviate the problem. Animations are slow and painful to watch, and there are mass amounts of clipping, especially when groups of units try to move around. If it’s any consolation, the cut-scenes are on par with other games, and they have a dry comic air about them, something that made the first game a treat to play.

The sounds aren’t as bad as they are uninspired, bland, and forgettable. The sounds of your townsfolk performing their routine work are adequate with saws, horses, and rock quarries all emitting their respective noises. However, battles sound like kindergarten squabbles that involve silverware. Siege weapons might as well be Nerf guns, and the voices miss the mark as well. Finally, the music is dreary and doesn’t seem like it belongs.


Gameplay:

When the original Stronghold came out, everyone who ever dreamed of living in a castle rejoiced. People were finally able to construct their own castles that looked cool and were sometimes effective defensive structures. Now, in the sequel, the gameplay has been kept mostly the same, but it seems stripped down. Stronghold 2 suffers from an identity crisis; it has veered away from castle building and instead concentrates on graphics, a boring campaign, and a broad yet thin line of options.

As in the previous games, there are two styles of play that you can choose from: Military and Economic. The Military mode lets you either play the Campaign or a Skirmish type of game. The Campaign follows a knight as he searches for his king who was kidnapped in a siege. The game begins in what can only be described as the antithesis of castle building; it’s more like point-and-click adventures or resource collecting for the first handful of missions, and by the time you get to your first castle, you are thoroughly bored of it all.

The Skirmish mode is more fun, but still lacks polish. Here you can battle with up to seven other A.I.-controlled opponents on teams or deathmatch-style. For some reason, there are very few European-style maps. Instead, battlefields like North America are included to do war on. Skirmish is generally boring as players start out rather close to each other, and neighbors’ castle walls usually wind up right next to yours. Whatever siege strategies you employ in the rest of the game get thrown out the window here as armies converge on each other in a bloody mess in the middle of the map.

Those thirsty for quick battles will find a different mode to quench their thirst. This part of the game is the only one that stays true to what the Stronghold series is all about. It quickly pits you in either the defensive or offensive position during a castle siege, complete with troops, food, and equipment. The first to lose all of their units faces the rack.

The Economic mode has been left alone the most, which is for the best. If you fancy ruling over a thriving city, stockpiling goods, and building an impregnable fortress at the same time, this pacifistic path is for you.


Difficulty:

Stronghold 2 has more frustrating moments than challenging ones. The A.I. is brutal during castle sieges in the Campaign, giving you barely any time to react to their attacks. The pathfinding makes for some seriously difficult moments in the heat of battle. Despite the various difficulty settings, Stronghold 2 lacks challenge and ends up delivering a boring and frustrating experience.

Game Mechanics:

The one thing Stronghold 2 fixed that was wrong in the older games is the view. The ability to zoom helps beyond measure, and a convenient over-the-top view is also available. But it seems that for each thing that Stronghold 2 did right, it got two things wrong. When building castle walls, they instantly pop up instead of taking time to build. Also, if your Lord of the castle – a single guy that walks around the keep – gets killed, you instantly lose. This is a lackluster way to finish a game and an even worse way to lose.

Stronghold 2 is rife with bugs. Missing textures, models, crashes and the like plague an already terminal experience. The developers would have been better off creating another expansion for the original title instead of experimenting. The result of that experiment is a mockery of the original game; both fans and interested new-comers would do well to avoid this title.


-Snow Chainz, GameVortex Communications
AKA Andrew Horwitz

Minimum System Requirements:



Windows 98/ME/XP, 1.4 GHz Processor, 256 MB RAM, 32 MB Video Card, 2.5 GB free hard disk space
 

Test System:



Windows ME, AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz Processor, 256 MB RAM, 128 MB GeForce FX 5200 Video Card, 40 GB Hard Drive, Creative Labs Sound Card, Cable Modem Internet Connetion

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