Like any good egg, Stronghold 2 is polarised into two distinct sections. For the peace-loving management enthusiasts there is a pleasant campaign within which you slowly fashion and maintain the economy of your own thriving castle. Warmongers will find more interest in the battle-orientated side of things, defending your castle from enemy assault, and then laying siege to your castellated contemporaries in turn.
For some reason, Stronghold seems to have gotten confused over the kind of pace it chooses to follow. Initially, you imagine things have been streamlined with a lot of the waiting parts cut out. For instance, most buildings are built instantly; no need for labourers to come and knock it up. And when you recruit troops, they are generated at once; no need to wait for some loading bar to slowly churn them out.
Fair enough, so far so good. But then ask your peasant to cut some trees. He will idly amble over to his post, and then lethargically start chopping, eventually riding his cart at a trickle back to your stockpile. Or setup a workshop to build archery bows, and the craftsman spends several in-game minutes laboriously crafting each bow, before wafting sluggishly over to your armoury to deliver each one individually.
This incongruous mix of instant response for some game elements yet languid reactions for others makes for a rather odd experience. Obviously this was done in order to balance the game properly, but it is just a little too disconcerting to gain too much respect from hardcore gamers.
Let’s take a closer glance at the castle management side of the game. Simply put, although it is relatively competent at what it does, it features absolutely nothing that we haven’t seen before. Mission tasks vary, from gaining popularity, or cash, down to exterminating rat colonies, or starting new food farms. Another slight criticism here is that there is never enough info available for you to really know thoroughly what is going on. There are just a few essential stats that give you a rough guideline, but you can’t, for instance, find out the productivity of an individual farm or warehouse. You can only get the overall figures.
Also, you need a lot of space in order to cope with the challenges the game throws at you. Space to build the necessary buildings for survival, as well as the ones facilitating the success of a mission. The problem is, there is simply never enough room. Even shoving all your buildings up close to each other right the way throughout your territory, you will always struggle to find room for entire selection of buildings that you require. Essentially maintaining your castle feels like little more than a challenge to build all the available structures as quickly as you can, ensuring the continuation of your castle and its economy.
Warfare. This is where things pick up a bit. But only slightly. Castle sieging is clearly Stronghold’s chosen focus, and it does it fairly well, with a variety of different troops all playing individual roles in the assault. However, in the post-Rome: TW era, our senses are already attuned to what we know is possible. Despite Stronghold’s linear focus on castles, it has to be said that Rome does the whole siege thing quite a lot better.
Stronghold’s warfare is just a little rudimentary, slightly unbalanced, and somehow not as spectacular as it should be. Plus the missions are decidedly on the wrong side of ‘tough’, necessitating numerous restarts and precise military manoeuvres in order to snatch victory.
With an update to 3D graphics, visuals are still not amazingly spangly, but at least improved since the previous title. The fiddly camera is a bit of a nuisance too, until you get used to its strange way of moving around. As regards sound, I never really understood the mix of about four different dialects for different units. The most extreme being the Brummie Spearmen and Cornish peasants.
On a positive note, goodly amounts of bonus review points have been awarded for the exceptional use of names within the game. Your peasants are all individually monikered. Such cheerful fellows as Peter Horselover and Darrin Peebucket reside within your crenellated abode.
You might just be better to hold out for the Rome: TW expansion pack on its way. Although adequately diverting, Stronghold is neither professional nor enticing enough to hold the attention for any extended period. Entertaining certainly, but fails to comprise the sum of its parts. Two parts that is. Just like an egg then. Yes…Adam Shirley
