Review: Stronghold 2
Over Thanksgiving, I purchased Stronghold 2
for $19.99 from Office Max. I was in the mood for a real-time strategy
game, something a little different than my usual sci-fi fare. Stronghold
2 certainly seemed to fit that bill. It featured medieval castles,
catapults, trebuchets, archers, polemen, etc.
The graphics
in the game are 3D and more than adequate to the task. It was very easy
to tell units apart on-screen, buildings looked unique and recognizable,
etc. Rotating the camera in the game proved to be rather difficult, so I
rarely tried. It just wasn’t worth the effort.
The sounds
are also adequate and not overdone.
The controls are a bit
strange. To select a unit, you left-click on it. To move it, you
left-click where you want that unit to go. Most of the time, this works
fine. Sometimes, however, this makes it difficult to select and move
units that are located close together.
There appears to be
a “tech tree” of sorts in the game, where you can initially
make only spearmen and archers. Supposedly you can also make armored
troops, swordsmen, and a variety of others. Unfortunately the manual
doesn’t explain this well and it’s certainly not clear in playing. After
playing several levels of the single-player campaign, I still can’t make
a mounted unit or a sword-swinging unit. I’ve no idea why or how. Worse,
my AI opponents all seem to be able to produce these units in quantity,
and their units seem to take 2-3x the damage mine do before dying.
In addition to the “invisible” tech tree, the game
also suffers from a “wash, rinse, and repeat” mission design.
That is, at the start of each mission, you begin with almost nothing.
You have to scramble to gather resources, build defenses, and construct
units to defend and/or attack. Meanwhile, the computer throws wolves
(which eat archers and spearmen for breakfast), bandits (who can kill
several of your units with one of theirs), enemy forces (which can kill
several of your soldiers with one of theirs), time limits, and more at
you. Once you’ve managed to beat the level, the cut scene explains that
you’ve decided to move to another castle for the next mission (i.e.,
rinse away all your progress) where you start all over again (i.e.,
repeat).
Sometimes, the cut scenes make some very lame
excuses for the “rinse” part. For example, after fighting my
way through one map, my “character” and another decide that
they need to use their enemy’s castle because it’s better located and
will be easier to defend. Below is the castle they think will be easier
to defend:
