Get ready, she came, everyone expected and, it would seem, beautiful – Stronghold 2. If you were not familiar with the previous part of this game, or have no idea what the “castle simulator” genre means, then in this project you will feel like a real medieval lord. Your responsibilities include: feeding peasants, building walls and towers, recruiting and managing an army. The list can go on indefinitely, but the main aspects are named. Even though Stronghold 2 is now completely in 3D and promises us a great time, a fly in the ointment has been added here too, and a rather big one at that. Weak plot, stupid AI, lots of bugs – overall it ruins the game beyond recognition. What did we get? Let’s see…
Here is your castle, and there you are – a powerful lord. Below, near the fire, peasants gather, who are subsequently used as labor. If their level of happiness is high, they continue to arrive; if not, alas, the castle becomes empty. Happiness depends on several factors, such as: food, presence of rodents in the castle, entertainment. The nearby warehouse stores weapons, wood, stone… You can also increase your wealth by building special buildings where a certain product is mined/made. But don’t be so scared, Stronghold 2 economics won’t keep you busy for long. A couple of mouse clicks and, oops, production is up and running. The main emphasis in the game is still on military operations and strengthening the castle.
There are a few gameplay issues https://chilli777-casino.co.uk/ that should be addressed. Let’s look at this with an example. You have built three sawmills that produce wood well, filling your warehouse. There is enough forest, and one mining point should be turned off. But no, it won’t work like that: either you completely stop the production of the entire forest, or you simply demolish one of the sawmills. Cruel. It often happens that it is necessary to transport some of the workers from the sawmill to the quarry, and here you will receive a refusal. First, demolish your sawmill so that free people will appear, and only then he himself will run to a new job. In the system!
Stronghold 2 includes two types of campaign: peaceful and military. The point of the "peace" campaign is that the state is suffering economic decline, and you should quickly fix everything and put it on the right path. Missies are almost the same – accumulate a certain amount of this by such and such a time. The enemies in this case are either bandits looking for easy money, or wolves wanting to taste the warm meat. For calm and especially leisurely people, the campaign may appeal, but for upstarts and future commanders the way is open for the second type – a “military” campaign. Don’t expect an easy ride here. Not only do you need to completely rebuild the castle, gather an army, but then you also need to hold this castle, or go on the offensive. The campaign is still built very nicely, for example, in one chapter you will experience several missions on the same map. That is, having built a castle once, you won’t have to build it in the second mission – there are much more important things to do.
It’s worth noting that both campaigns don’t really force you to strain your brain and think day and night: “How to win?"You just need to study the stupid AI of the enemy and then you can act according to the same scheme, regardless of whether you are defending or attacking.
The easiest way is to surround the entire castle with a cheap wooden wall in several rows. Look what you’re doing, stupid computer!! He sends his entire army to demolish these very walls, and your archers, standing nearby on the towers, calmly finish them off. Even if the enemy has siege weapons, it will be of no use, he still doesn’t know how to use them properly.
Once you are done with the campaigns, which may take you about 15 – 20 hours, you can begin further exploits. Free mode – a real "castle simulator". Nothing special, just building and living, living and building. Do this until you get bored. There is, of course, a game on the Internet that is also not worthy of our attention.
The biggest difference in the second part Stronghold from the first – the presence of 3D measurements. Now you can scale the picture, rotate the camera as you please! However, it’s worth thinking about because the graphics don’t look good. Weak animation of soldiers and peasants, "sinking polygons". For example, a peasant is walking with firewood, and a cart passes through him. At first it’s funny, then it makes you sick. The sound is present, nothing more can be said about it.
At the moment, patches have been released that fix many problems, but, alas, they will never be able to fix everything. The built-in mission editor tries to draw you into the game at least a little more, but still, it’s not enough. The result is obvious: the game does not deserve the attention of even the most ardent fans of the series.