‘Stronghold Crusader II’ Review

Platforms PC
Developer FireFly Studios   Publisher FireFly Studios
Genre Real-Time Strategy

Just like its predecessors, Stronghold Crusader II is a medieval-themed real-time strategy title composed of two sides: an economic and a military one. Before going-up against your opponent(s), you’ll need to manage your population, build-up a hefty castle, and after both are in good shape, start training an army. It’s not the most complex of RTS games out there, but striking a balance between your popularity with the peasants and defending yourself from upcoming attacks – all while raising an army – is a joy to experience.

As mentioned above, a good leader always takes care of his/her subjects. In Crusader II, this means providing them with food, booze, and building churches/mosques. Of course, when lacking either of said requirements – or all, for that matter – you can always “bribe your way” to the peasants’ happiness. Finally, every last servant needs a place to live, so constantly building hovels for them is a must. As any Stronghold player knows, a happy subject is a future soldier in the army.

Feeding your loyalists means building various types of farms or sending others to hunt. Providing them with ale means building hops farms, breweries, and finally – inns. Organising a mass requires candles, so you’ll need a few buildings for that, as well. Don’t have the patience for all those? Not a problem, as you can always simply purchase everything; just remember that money doesn’t grow on trees, and that it’s better to use your constructing materials – wood and stone (which also require their own structures) – to build said farms and workshops. Finally, earning gold can be done either by taxing your population, or by selling unwanted materials.

Just like everything else, training an army requires more than spending a ton of gold. You’ll also be required to build workshops for bows, armours, swords, etc., in addition to readying fresh horses. All these weapons are crafted from either wood or iron, so besides feeding your population, you’ll need to start gathering said materials fairly early in the game. Of course, if you’re the impatience sort, you can always hire an entire different set of soldiers – mercenaries, to be more precise – which require only gold. Although that renders the other set kind of useless, especially because of the all-powerful archers that are able to shoot while riding.

When your kingdom is finally in order, it’s time to take the fight to your opponent(s). Sieging another one’s stronghold is usually a slow-but-steady process of bringing your army closer and closer to his/her gates. You’ve got your archers, swordsmen, cavalry – even assassins – and above all else, you’ve got the highly-crucial catapults which will tear down your enemy’s walls and towers. Of course, the exact same thing can happen to you, so positioning archers on your walls and readying some mercenaries to go out and destroy the enemy-catapults is a must.

Crusader II also features several types of dynamic events, such as locust-swarms, lightning storms, weddings etc., all of which have either a negative or a positive outcome on your popularity. You’re obviously not responsible for said swarms or storms, but when the peasantry is angry, the first one they’ll blame is their lord. Figures, right?

Besides a tutorial introducing you to the very basics of Stronghold Crusader II, the RTS also includes three ‘Learning Campaigns’ describing King Richard’s first crusades into the Holy Land and Sultan Saladin’s response. The Custom Skirmish mode allows you to battle eight different lords (each with their own personalities and styles of attack) over 30+ maps, while the Sandbox mode gives you access to three maps in which you are free to develop the biggest and most successful strongholds, without ever being interrupted by any opponent. Of course, there’s also a multiplayer Deathmatch or Team Deathmatch for you and your friends to enjoy, in addition to the return of the fan-favourite Skirmish Trails from the original Crusader, which is basically a set of pre-determined custom skirmishes. You can even allow other players control over your castle, if you so desire.

On the technical side, Crusader II crashed on me a few times, and there were also a few moments where I was unable to select my units. Still, the game’s launch-state is a far cry from Stronghold 3’s, which is a total win.

Honestly, I am a tiny bit disappointed with the game’s presentation. Most notably is the absence of a day-and-night cycle. It was present in Stronghold 3, so it’s curious that Firefly Studios omitted it in Crusader II. Additionally, even though I very well understand Crusader II’s desert theme, I would have still liked to see more varied environments. On the flip-side, the game’s physics have been improved over its prequel, and the soundtrack makes a return from the original game, which is for the better, since it still perfectly fits with Crusader II’s theme.

When everything is said and done, Stronghold Crusader II is clearly the best entry in the series. It basically takes the original’s formula and adds new units, opponents, maps, all built on an enhanced engine originating from Stronghold 3. Fans and newcomers alike will definitely spend countless hours, be them offline or on.

The Good

  • Balancing the Economic and Military Sides is a Blast
  • Lots of Missions to Complete, in Addition to the Return of Custom Skirmishes
  • New Opponents and Units

The Bad

  • Mercenary Units are Overpowered in Comparison with the Other Set
  • Omission of the Day-and-Night Cycle

The Score 8.9