I wondered how good Stronghold Crusader II actually was, since it didn't get as much negative buzz around it unlike pretty much any Stronghold title that are not the 2001 original or the first Crusader from 2002. It was really cheap on GOG recently, so I decided to give it a go. Mind you, these are my impressions based on about 6 hours of play, and a lot of singleplayer experience in the first two games in the series (but not the “bad” ones much), so there might be more to it than what I have presently experienced.Even taking into consideration the fact that Crusader II was the first mainline title FireFly published on their own, and that they tried to have a Gambitious crowdfunding project fund a part of the game but failed, the game shows corners being cut in many aspects. Animations are 2003-level stiff, physics are poor and clipping issues happen everywhere, LOD range is pathetic, the iconic lord messages are amateurishly rendered (hey, remember the Bink video format? FireFly does) and annoying, the scribe's responses are inexplicably scarce where they would previously tell you every bit of information on time, not seeing a single visual glitch in a match is more an exception than a rule, and there is even a strange distortion affecting the sand surface when scrolling and zooming for some reason. Even learning campaign missions are comparatively more punishing than those of pretty much the entire first halves of Stronghold 1 and Crusader 1 campaigns.

Sep 22, 2014  STRONGHOLD CRUSADER 2 VERDICT. For old, war-tested Stronghold players Crusader 2 is a triumphant evolution of the game that they’ve held dear for the last twelve years. For the rest of us though, there is perhaps no better time to see what all the fuss is about.

Also, peasants don't speak their minds when clicked on anymore, which makes the game lose a lot of its charm.All things considered, it's still satisfying to fill up the area around your keep with all these various buildings.And I did not even reach the worst part. Compared to its 2002 predecessor, the economy has been drastically changed. Walls are more expensive than before, ending up in far longer castle construction time, which is contradictory to Stronghold's original idea as a castle simulation married with an RTS formula. The most effective food production system, the one around bread, is now incredibly more expensive to create, as the cost of a single mill has been cranked tenfold and has one operator instead of 3, while wheat farms and bakeries are also harder to build! Sure, this makes the food production lines more viable, but going from one extreme to another is not really how balancing is done properly. Resources can be bought and sold directly from the stockpile/granary/armoury, so the market is now a 500-gold decoration that “generates gold” and has a not-that-useful auto-sell feature. Superfighters download. Hovels have smaller capacity depending on the distance from your keep, and churches/mosques need candles to work, which were changes ported from Stronghold 3.

Estates from Stronghold 2 also make a sort-of return. The fear factor system is completely removed, as are all customization options except for the player's shield and the Crusader/Arabian lord appearance toggle. At least you can choose your color in skirmishes and multiplayer now.Thankfully, for all these steps back, there are steps forward. Firstly, the UI is probably the best one so far in the series, since it can be configured to show no, some, or all resources in the top left, so you don't need to scroll back to your stockpile/granary/armoury to see how your economy is doing.

The same goes for the popularity meter, which can now be expanded at will to manage food and ale rations, tax levels, and worship frequency. Then, we finally have the ability to transport iron by ox tethers, which is was frustratingly not possible in the originals, and the much-needed ability to repair buildings and walls instead of just replacing them for full price, which especially comes as a good trade-off for the increased wall prices.William knows that before doing any physical activity, including waging war, you need to do a good stretch.Then there is the subject of units. I've seen some complaints on how the changes in this aspect have been made – some completely new units were added while others were removed. To that I can only reply – well, no shit. Other RTS titles, in particular the Command & Conquer series, have done this exact thing long before Crusader II did, and that did not diminish the overall unit variety or gameplay.

On the contrary, both the Crusader and Arabian armies now have quite a few interesting options with their new units. Crusaders got cheaper swordsmen and more varied and apparently sturdier late-game heavy infantry as well as the versatile Rangers that are both ranged and melee fighters, and the weak Conscripts, which need no weapon production and are easy to spam. Likewise, the Arabian forces have replaced some of their useless units (Slingers, anyone?) with really cheeky oil pot throwers and the admittedly situational whirling dervishes. Slave drivers are a new unit that buffs the existing cannon fodder slave unit, and healers are a most welcome (if really slowly working) addition. Crusader Spearmen (now called Men-at-Arms for some reason) are semi-ranged in the sense that they first shoot their spears at range, and then proceed in a knife fight for a while, not unlike antic Roman legionaries, but they can't seem to miss their spear shots. At least Horse Archers are no longer OP.Engineers are no longer separate units, and since oil pot throwers do the same as old engineers with oil pots in the originals, they can now only be seen hauling siege engines.

Now, these siege engines have also been altered and I don't think I like the way they did that.