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Stronghold Crusader Extreme
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Graphics & Sound:
If you are familiar with Stronghold: Crusader, then skip to the next paragraph; most of the graphics in Stronghold: Crusader Extreme are exactly the same. For those of you who are not familiar with Stronghold: Crusader, it is a real-time strategy (RTS) game that puts you in control of a crusading Lord in the Middle East. So, right off the bat, you can expect a lot of tans... think lots of sand and stone. There are colorful elements, of course, the occasional oasis and the fiery reds and oranges of, well things burning, quite frankly. You have a isometric view of the playing field that can be viewed from your choice of four directions. (And, mind you - you'll need to switch between them to see the fine details of what you're doing during certain parts of the gameplay, as there's only a couple of levels of zoom.)
Stronghold Crusader Extreme does have some new graphical features not found in Stronghold Crusader, such as 5 new A.I. Opponents, complete with their own animations and voice-acting, plus 30 stand-alone maps and new buildings, such as outposts.
However, the most notable change, graphically, is the increase in allowed army size. That and neck-snapping speed are what puts the extreme in Stronghold Crusader Extreme. You can have over 10,000 (ten thousand) units on the battlefield at once! This make Stronghold Crusader Extreme feel like Stronghold Crusader meets Lemmings.
The music in Stronghold Crusader Extreme sounds foreign and exotic, nicely setting the scene for the medieval carnage you're about to unleash. The sound effects are pretty good, as well, but it is to be expected that a few thousand different units on a battlefield are likely to be a little annoying with their noise. |
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Gameplay:
You might be wondering if you have to already have Stronghold Crusader to play Extreme, or at least have familiarity with Crusader to know how to play the game. The answer to the first question is that no, Stronghold Crusader Extreme is a standalone game, so you don't need to have anything other than the appropriate system specs.
The answer to the other question is: yes, you probably should be familiar with Stronghold Crusader before you try your hand at Crusader Extreme - but, that's okay... the nice folks at Firefly Studios evidently realized that, since the disc actually contains not only Stronghold Crusader Extreme, but the original Stronghold Crusader game, as well. You're basically getting two games for the price of one.
For more information on the original, you can go read our Stronghold Crusader review. Newly added in Extreme are new tactical powers, such as calling for reinforcements, bombarding the enemy and healing. The massive armies that can be commanded in the game are a major selling point - and they affect gameplay more than they affect the graphics. Fail to make a solid wall around your stronghold or let the enemy break a hole in your walls and you'll watch in horror as the enemy literally pours into your stronghold like liquid death. You can create a massive army, too, but you'll have to be quick on the draw, because the A.I. doesn't hesitate.
The five new A.I. opponents are each unique and are formidable opponents, including: The Wazir, The Marshal, The Emir, The Abbot and The Nizar. Don't bother trying to remember their names now, though... you'll learn them as each one taunts you on the battlefield. |
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Difficulty:
Oh, my God. If you're looking for an RTS that will run you ragged and provide a challenge for players of the highest skill level, then Stronghold Crusader Extreme is the game for you. You'll want to try different strategies and find combinations that work with your resources, goals and playing style and ability. I find that concentrating on defense and building up commerce works well in the easier Stronghold Crusader games and, for that matter, even the Crusader Extreme custom map I made. However, when you start the Crusader Extreme Trail's 20 new and incredibly challenging missions, you'll find that you simply don't have enough time or resources to do what you want. With limited resources in remote locations and a throng of enemies camping at your doorstep, you'll need to call into play the " acts of God" options that are at your disposal (well, given time to build up, anyway). Lined up on the right side of the screen, this list of options gives much needed assistance with things such as an arrow volley, health increase for selected troops, deployment of a group of Knights or Mace-men... on up to a barrage of boulders. These can come in handy when you get to the endgame and need to finish off your opponent, but in my observations, if you're using these defensively, you've already lost.
Stronghold Crusader Extreme is, quite frankly, intended to be challenging... hell, it's intended to be downright brutal. It lives up to it's Extreme title, quite nicely. Luckily, if you simply can't deal with the difficulty, you have several options. You can play the original Stronghold Crusader, which is included in the box to give yourself a chance to build up skills. You can create your own maps, and make them as much to your advantage as you feel you need. You can play a custom game and select the A.I. that you wish to play against, from 16 A.I. opponents with a variety of skill levels and playing styles. You can play online against opponents of similar skill level; one of the things that makes Stronghold Crusader Extreme so difficult is the speed with which the A.I. plays - playing against a person slows down your opponents reflexes. Finally, even in the Crusader Extreme Trail, you can choose to skip up to three missions by clicking on the chicken - perfect for those levels you just can't seem to beat.
Difficulty is the one place that I could have seen as reducing the score for this game. However, I think that Stronghold Crusader Extreme does a more than adequate job of providing alternatives to plowing through these over-the-top difficult missions, to the point that it doesn't hurt the score, but merely provides same major league challenge for anyone who can play at those levels. |
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Game Mechanics:
Fans of real-time strategies who have gotten very good at playing them will cheer - and probably reel - at the torrential onslaught that Stronghold Crusader Extreme has to offer. Novices will be able to enjoy the game as well, however, since Stronghold Crusader is included in the box. This is a nice way to solve the age-old problem of a game being too difficult for some, while being too easy for others. If you haven't played before, then you're getting two games for the price of one. If you are a Stronghold Crusader veteran, then you just might be ready to try the Extreme challenges offered by the new version.
There are a couple of small issues that bothered me a bit. Specifically, the map has a limit to how much you can see, but it seems that the limit on the edges is different depending on what angle you're looking at it from. You may think that you've fortified around your castle completely only to find enemies pouring in around the edge of the wall, where you thought you had blocked their way. I find that when I am constructing castle walls - especially at the extreme edges - I have to flip through each of the four directional views to ensure that I am seeing the entire area right up to the edge. Luckily, there is a vocal cue that informs you when you've secured your castle. This, however, is not any help when you're playing late at night with no sound to avoid disturbing others. Another thing that happened to me a couple of times without an obvious cause is that I would build a structure, such as a wood-cutter's shack, and no laborer would be assigned to it, while clicking on it gave me a message indicating that it had no access to the stronghold. There were no obstructions, so unless it was simply too far away, I have no idea why this was occurring. Regardless, this seems to be an issue that goes away... however, with Stronghold Crusader Extreme, every second (or fraction thereof) counts, so this can get frustrating.
Stronghold Crusader Extreme is obviously intended as a way to provide new challenges to existing Crusader fans, but it also manages to provide an "easy way in" for those, like me, who didn't get a chance to check out the original Stronghold Crusader when it first came out. This is, beyond a doubt, the RTS-gamers' RTS. |
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-Geck0, GameVortex Communications AKA Robert Perkins |
Minimum System Requirements:
Windows 2000/XP/XP Media/Vista, Pentium III 500 Mhz, 128MB ram, DVD Drive, 850 MB Hard drive space, DirectX 7+ compatible 4MB video card, DirectX 7+ compatible sound card, 56k modem for Internet play, Microsoft compatible mouse and keyboard, DirectX 8.1 (included).
Recommended System Requirements:
Windows 2000/XP/XP Media/Vista, Pentium III 1 Ghz, 256MB ram, DVD Drive, 850 MB Hard drive space, DirectX 7+ compatible 4MB video card, DirectX 7+ compatible sound card, Broadband connection for Internet play, Microsoft compatible mouse and keyboard, DirectX 8.1 (included). |
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Test System:
Sony VAIO VGC-R820G:
Intel Pentium 4E, 3.2 GHz (Intel Grantsdale i915), 1 GB RAM, AMI BIOS, Realtek HD Audio, Radeon X300 Series (128 MB), 200 GB 7200 RPM, Serial-ATA/150 Maxtor HD, DVD-ROM, Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-108, Sony SDM-HS73 Monitor, Floppy disk drive, Cable Modem. |
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