So it isn't a sequel, and it's certainly not an expansion pack. Bradbury is very clear on this point - Stronghold Crusader 2 will be, well, Stronghold 3, which is a game that Firefly plans to make "in due course". Crusader was probably the best-received of the Stronghold games, and this is an expansion and extension of that game - but it's not Stronghold Crusader 2. That's why Stronghold Crusader Extreme exists - it's very much one for the fans, and ought to keep them happily ticking over while Firefly works out where to go next with the series. That success has allowed Firefly to retain its indie status for almost ten years, so it's understandable that the studio's top priority is keeping its loyal Stronghold fans happy.
Stronghold crusader series#
Firefly co-founder Simon Bradbury reckons that the series has sold four million units so far, spread over three releases - the original Stronghold, Stronghold Crusader, and Stronghold 2. There are plenty of Stronghold fans out there, too.
Stronghold crusader update#
It's a departure for the developer - but fans of the studio's best-known game, medieval strategy title Stronghold, shouldn't fret, as there's a major update to that in the works as well. Hardcore fans will be the ones to exploit all there is in Stronghold Crusader Extreme.Last week, we took you on a brief tour of Firefly Studio's forthcoming "shot in the arm" for the dungeon-crawler genre, Dungeon Hero. And, in that case, it's far less expensive to simply pick up Stronghold Crusader at a bargain bin price. This is stuff either so advanced or challenging though that most newcomers to the franchise should just stick to the original game.
You get the entirety of the original Stronghold Crusader and you also get the Stronghold Crusader Extreme executable which opens up the new content. Stronghold Crusader Extreme actually installs two different executables to your PC. Meanwhile, the audio remains plain, with a handful of voice cues to warn you of impending action but otherwise everything is communicated in text. The 2D art and animations that were workmanlike and charming then look a bit crude and primitive now. This means that in an age of 24 or 30-inch LCDs the game gets blurry and pixelated as it's stretched to fill up the screen. It has a whopping total of two different resolution options: 800圆x768. This is a six year-old game and it looks like it. The problem is that there's almost been nothing done to update the gameplay or the graphics. So it's easy to see why FireFly is rereleasing one of the older games in the series rather than a newer one. Then the series fell apart as it transitioned to 3D, with games that were often bug-laden and unpolished. It's a solid formula, and there's a reason why the first two Stronghold games sold more than a million copies worldwide. Though more extreme in some ways, this is still a six-year old game and it shows.
Thankfully, you can have bowyers turn lumber into bows, blacksmiths hammer iron into swords and armor, tanners to turn your cows into leather armor, and you can use all of these weapons and equipment to outfit peasants to fight.
There are quite a number of economic chains, and each mission basically challenges you to develop your land quickly and efficiently in order to brace for an oncoming assault of enemy forces. The chains are a bit more complex than that, though, as you'll need to build a mill to process the grain into flour, and then a bakery to turn the flour to bread, for example. Building hunters' posts in the woods provides venison, planting wheat in the fields means that grain can be harvested, woodcutter huts let the tree killers get to work, and so on. You play as the lord of a medieval castle and its surrounding lands, and your job is to develop the complex economic chains that provide food, weapons, and goods for your people. In case you've never played one, Stronghold games are economic strategy games of a sort.