ADVISOR: âWolves are attacking, my lord.â [sounds of battle] [sounds of battle]
ADVISOR: âWe await your orders!â [sounds of battle] After finishing last year off with some⌠interesting games, I figured that Iâd start the new year off with something lighter. Eh⌠I said LIGHTER. Okay, there we go. This is âStrongholdâ. Itâs a castle simulator and a Real-Time Strategy game. The original âStrongholdâ came out in 2001, which was then followed up by âStronghold: Crusaderâ in 2002. Thereâs also another one, but⌠weâll save that⌠[MLG montage aural assault]
Thereâs also another one, but⌠weâll save that⌠Then, in 2013, all of the games were released in HD. Well, sort of⌠They added widescreen support, fixed some bugs and compatibility issues, but it wasnât a visual overhaul or anything. Iâm alright with this. It was cheap, price-wise, and if you already own the original versions on Steam or GOG, you got all the new ones for free. So this was more like getting a nice patch out of nowhere. To give some background: I got this for Christmas in 2001. I actually still have it. That doesnât seem like a big deal, but back then, the game took me by surprise. Because, if you play this game on Christmas, the game knows it. ADVISOR: âMerry Christmas, my liege!â But it goes even beyond that. ADVISOR: âGr-reatings, Lord Mark!â ADVISOR: âGreatings, Lord John!â I tried a lot of names. âStrongholdâ knew just about every one. ADVISOR: âGr-reatings, MEGADEATH!â Yeah, I looked, and there are a lot of names here. Itâs not essential or anything, but it is pretty neat. Anyway, letâs get started. OLD MAN: âAhh, life in the old castleâŚâ OLD MAN: âHappy times them wereâŚâ [*plonk*] OLD MAN: âThe people were all so much friendlierâŚâ [music rises dramatically] The intro sets up a darker, dirtier, more true to life view of the middle ages. Everything is dirty, all the people are sick. Weâre not opening up with a classy chess game in a nice castle. This sets the game up for being grittier. [battle cry interrupted by sudden confusion] OLD MAN: âOh, yes⌠And then, there were the neighborsâŚâ [screams of agony] So was âStrongholdâ a dark, gritty game, where hard choices will have to be made? Well⌠Not really. But yes, a lot of people will die to fire â that part is true. Right from the menu screen, youâll find that âStrongholdâ has a lot of game modes. There are Combat maps, Economy maps and, of course, Free Build. Thatâs not even counting the map maker. Itâs not on âWarcraft 3â levels, but whatâs here is solid. There are still tons of custom maps out there to download. Still, if youâre brand new, youâll probably wanna start with the Military Campaign. It doubles as the tutorial, introducing new mechanics with each mission. So, for the time being, Iâm gonna focus on the Campaign. The story is very simple: you play as the son of the Kingâs advisor. Your father was killed by mystery bandits, and the King has been imprisoned. Now the inbred version of Dead Cell rules the land, and itâs up to you to stop them. The narrative doesnât have any complicated themes, or really anything noteworthy. The writing and dialogue is also very simplistic, but itâs clearly aimed at kids. Probably between 10-12 years old. The Campaign never outright says what age youâre supposed to be, but itâs heavily implied youâre way too young to be doing this. Enemies will refer to you as a child. So, for me, and probably most of you, itâs not worth getting into. It would be like me turning on a show made for little children, and complaining that itâs not stimulating me enough. To give an example: thereâs a character called The Snake, who looks like this and has a catch-phrase. THE SNAKE: âR-relax! By the time we return from our hunting trip, the problem will have resolved itself. Trus-st me.â THE SNAKE: âShow some backbone! My contingency plan is already in motion! Youâll have your county back soon enough, trus-st me.â There is a part in the game where you make a bargain with him. Do you think you would buy a car from this man? Or a hotdog? THE SNAKE: âDuc de Puce wishes to meet us in this valley, surrounded by cliffs.â Hmm⌠THE SNAKE: âItâs a trap! Sir Longarm was right!â You get it. Admittedly, the animations for the characters are a lot of fun, and the voice acting is fantastic. While the characters are one-dimensional and predictable, they bring such enthusiasm to the role that you wanna see what happens with them next. THE RAT: âItâs unbelievable! Iâm running out of counties, and, they'll be coming for me next. Iâm DE-EWMED!â THE PIG: âI make wool sock die in much pain. Heheheh... (*grunt-grunt*) Heheh...â THE PIG: âI pull out teeth, cut off toes, break knees. He-heh-he-heh-heh⌠Most fun I have for long time, heh!â THE PIG: âHow did you do? Did you hunt down your prey?â THE WOLF: â(Snarl.)â THE RAT: âNot again!! I... I donât believe it!â THE RAT: Iâm surrounded by⌠IDIOTS! How can YOU have beaten my troops?!â ANNOUNCER: âThe Pig addresses the people of his newly conquered county:â THE PIG: âYour realm is mine now, so do as I say! All will pay a high tax and live a life of pain! Muahaha, hahahaha, heh! (*grunt*)â You know what? The Pig has some pretty good ideas. I wonât write him off yet. Now, if you wanna save England (or maybe America), youâll need to build, collect and fight your way to victory. Since weâre already on the subject, letâs talk more about the gameâs presentation. Like I said before, the HD version doesnât overhaul the graphics, but they really didnât need to. I think this spritework has held up incredibly well. All of the different unit and building types are sharp and easily distinguishable. Buildings also have cross-sections, so you can see all the workers doing their thing inside. This is a game where your tiny village can become gigantic, and youâd think things can get cluttered up, but it never happened to me. The visuals are detailed enough to look pleasant, but not so much that it starts getting confusing when your town gets busy. Most of the buildings have these 3D animations and sound effects and tell you where the workers are. It makes it simple to see whatâs going on at a glance, rather than needing icons or menus everywhere. Itâs very clean. All of the buildings have a lot of different animations. In most RTS games, someone just whacks a tree, and then brings the âMinecraftâ blocks home. Here, you see them chop down the tree, bring the logs home in trips, and then refine them into planks. THEN they drop them off in town. And here comes the local fletcher. He turns the wood into bows or crossbows, and then drops it off at the armory. Besides being some neat detail, it also shows you how efficient your city is. If this guy is hobbling across town â somethingâs wrong. Some maps can be more confusing, so you do have the option to flatten buildings, and also flatten the terrain. This is good for planning out your street layouts, and also for fights that get too confusing. The HD version also added a âzoom outâ feature. This is great for the bigger maps (not so much the smaller maps), and itâs a good addition. You can rotate the map, but some buildings will rotate with you, which can be disorienting. Youâre given a lot of tools to help you tell whatâs going on, but sometimes, itâs just not enough. Some maps can feel like playing a tower defense game (weh⌠it kind of isâŚ), but I had situations where I THOUGHT I was plugging up holes, then the enemy comes, and itâs like: âohh, they can walk over those rocksâŚâ So that can be annoying. Sometimes, you wanna make a building, but someone is wandering around there. Well, you have to wait for them to leave. Itâs also worth mentioning that some units have way choppier animations than others. Itâs the one thing I wish the HD version had updated. Still, those are my only gripes with graphical and building stuff. As for the sound, I want you to meet the Advisor. His voice is burned into my brain. ADVISOR: âSight your granary, sire!â ADVISOR: âOur granary stocks are growing, sire!â ADVISOR: âOur treasury is emptyingâŚâ Itâs almost a problem for me. Not only do I hear him when I see him, but if I see, like, a similarly hooded man â I think of him. While thereâs nothing really standout about the sound effects, the voices really stick with you. SUBJECT: âWood needed.â SUBJECT: âWood stocks are too low, sire.â ADVISOR: âCanât place that there, mâlord.â ADVISOR: âCanât place that there, mâlord.â SUBJECT: âDouble rations? Great!â ADVISOR: âNo taxes is good taxes â thatâs my motto!â The callouts are, once again, a good way to keep tabs on things, without using menus. Sure, you can easily check, but you can also click on a peasant. PEASANT: âWe have so much food nowadays, Iâm getting really fat!â The soundtrack is great, and changes, based on whatâs going on. The music seems authentic for the setting. Period-appropriate instruments, with a dash of Gregorian chanting. When the chanting comes out before the mission â thatâs when you know itâs serious. [quiet chanting]
THE WOLF: "Muhahahahaha!" [quiet chanting] Uh-oh⌠[sounds of hectic battle] Onto the gameplay. Most of the singleplayer game modes have a difficulty. These adjust a few factors. For example, if itâs an Economic mission, youâll need to gather more materials. An easier difficulty for a Siege Attack gives you more troops. If itâs a Siege Defense mission, then the attackers will get less troops. So, thankfully, the difficulty doesnât adjust the stats or efficiency of anything â just the quantity of them. The game is still fairly relaxed on the normal difficulty, and on the hardest, it makes some maps a decent challenge. You donât need to radically alter your playstyle for a harder setting. You can somewhat divide âStrongholdâ into the city building and management side, and the Real-Time Strategy game side. The military is dependent on your economy in several game modes, so Iâll talk about the management side first. Also known as "getting into agriculture". COW DARKHOLME: âBe gentle, huh?â There are two keys to survival: one is that your lord must stay alive, and two is that your city must stay alive. Now, in order to attract new slaves, you need to⌠uh⌠[flipping pages] âTo attract persons with freedom disabilityâ, you need to have some amenities. These are the dark ages, so food is a good starting point. You could eventually get people happy through advanced methods, like religion, getting everybody hammered and entertainment. Of course, people might slack off if thereâs entertainment. You could build a garden, but OSHA hasnât been invented yet. That means you can put Winnie the Poo dangerously close to the childrenâs maypole. Now, he could get tired of the Shakira routine. Itâs possible he might be fed up from work and then feed up on villagers in the town center. Thatâs what we call âa bear marketâ. [bear growl] Disregarding the finer points of economy, if your popularity is high, people come to the castle. Actions people donât enjoy include starving them of food, raising the taxes too high and not preventing home invasions. Those make people want to leave the castle. You donât have to just make wholesome entertainment. [bear growl]
You donât have to just make wholesome entertainment. You can also build bad stuff. These will scare people, but make them work harder. When I was younger, I would only build a single gallow. I thought it would be for criminals and quick. Now that Iâm older, I understand mankindâs depravity more. Iâve opened up some more options. Itâs all about maintaining a balance between popularity and efficiency. Because, on one hand â sure, making wheat into bread is the more efficient food source, but it takes a lot of materials and workers to set up. It needs a lot of space and time and special farmland for the wheat. All the bakeries⌠Youâre gonna need a lot of bakeries. And people are happier if they have a variety of food. Iâve been to school⌠Depending on only one food source is risky. Itâs up to you to figure out how to balance it all and account for any disasters. You canât make booze if the hops are ruined. No cheese if the cows die of disease. Well, we could do something⌠SOLDIER: âHere comes the cow!â Donât forget about the rabbits! Anything that can go wrong â will go wrong, and you should prepare. Rabbits can join the invaders for all I know! Things could look fine, then it turned out a woodcutter lead 5000 wolves home. Donât let them eat the boss! These arenât âAge of Empiresâ wolves â these are âStrongholdâ wolves. Theyâre relentless. Theyâre evil, smelly wolves who litter and have soul patches. They donât deserve life. There always seem to be something to work on â whether itâs trading in the market or fortifying your town more. Itâs not the most intricate game, compared to other city managers, but whatâs here is solid, and itâs fun to see all the components moving. This is where military units come in. You need a free worker, money and materials to train them. So, to expand, you need more housing for free workers, weapons manufacturing centers and, of course, ways to get more money. Then there is the castle-building itself, like constructing towers, drawbridges, traps. Keep caged up wardogs, make emplacements for fire arrows, and even put⌠siege weapons on⌠the big towers⌠(whispering) Why isnât this in the game? So, once again, the building and management part is great, but letâs talk about the combat. Itâs refreshing that every unit in the game remains useful. Spearmen are weak, but they can push away siege ladders. Crossbows penetrate armor, but donât fire nearly as fast as regular archers. Swordsmen are very slow, but can dish out and take a lot of damage. Macemen are fast, and can brake through the armor of swordsmen, but you need a lot to be effective, since their armor is very weak. So it avoids the rock-paper-scissors formula. That part is really interesting. In a siege, you can use tunnellers, fill in the moat, build different engines that use different ammunition types. Combat has so many options. The biggest problem is the control and the pathfinding. Troops only have 3 stances. There are no formations, thereâs no attack move â thereâs nothing that a lot of basic RTS games had in that time. The result is moving groups of units at once can feel very clumsy. And then, during that, you start getting pathfinding issues. Itâs especially bad when youâre trying to climb up a wall. Check this out. Right here, Iâm putting a siege tower on the wall. Except, even when itâs down, I canât order my units to just climb on the wall and attack everything around them â I have to click on a specific person to get them all up there. Itâs the same thing with ladders. And that is a very strong man, by the way⌠The thing is: after about 10-15 seconds, the game will let you climb up on the walls or behind the walls with the regular movement. This is annoying when youâre dealing with a lot of layered walls â and you will be. When the units actually get on the walls, then combat plays itself out. The AI is also afflicted by some weird pathfinding. The AI makes a lot of bad decisions in general. They donât charge at once, but send their units out in waves. Like here, when they send vulnerable units out. Or here, when they charge ladders with archers, and archers probably arenât gonna be climbing the wall. There could be a reason they donât all charge, and I suspect itâs due to the most powerful unit in the game. Youâve seen it already. In most RTS games, fire is just a damage indicator for a building. Not in âStrongholdâ. [panicked screams and crackling of fire] Thereâs really nothing like having questionable pathfinding AND invisible fire traps. Itâs insanely effective. Especially when your enemy will still walk single-file into it. At least, now, when Iâm inside, past⌠Nope, itâs here too. If this game has a meta, itâs fire. I really donât know what else to say about it. Itâs incredibly satisfying to pull it off, but when itâs done to you â man⌠SOLDIER: âLet it burn!â [panicked screams] ADVISOR: âWe have survived the enemyâs onslaught!â Thereâs no real counter to it, besides trying to bait it out. Once youâre caught in the fire, itâs between you and God. That reminds me: this game doesnât have a singleplayer Skirmish mode. Iâm gonna guess that the AI couldnât handle it, but I know a game that does have it. ADVISOR: âGreetings, sire! The desert awaits you!â âStronghold: Crusaderâ was sold as a standalone game, but itâs more of an expansion pack, if youâve played the first game. Our setting has moved half a world over. The game now takes place in a Holy Land â a time when religious Europeans looked towards the lands of Christ. They looked, and they didnât like it. This time around, there are four Campaigns, with four missions each. Theyâre pseudo-historical events, rather than the story of the first game â which is fine. Like the original game, itâs mainly for teaching you the mechanics and the new stuff. The original game had lots of siege maps and invasion maps to play around with, and âCrusaderâ has none of those. Instead, thereâs a campaign of 50 Skirmish missions and a bonus campaign of 30 more. And you could set up a standard game of it with your own parameters. What the first game lacked, is now the main game mode. Then again, they still have Free Build. Most of the buildings have a new look to reflect the setting, and that goes for the units as well. There are also a handful of new buildings, but the biggest change comes in the new units. Theyâre Arabic mercenaries. You only need free workers and gold to hire them. This means, you can rush in the first seconds of the game. However, some units, like slingers, are effective in groups, and cheap to recruit. So you can counter a rush by giving your people rocks. Some of the new units are just worse versions of their European counterparts, but hey, you can get them out quickly. Then you have more interesting ones. You can now use the harassment plague of horse archers. Assassins are the first sneaky boys in the game. They can only be detected from close range, and they climb up walls. If they stand on a gate, they will open it right up. This is a cool option for punishing someone whoâs overextending with walls. The new units are the biggest addition, but things were changed in other areas as well. Letâs look at the presentation. Some of the old UI icons now have color. Alright. Of course, the biggest change is the environment. Itâs a lot more obvious where you can plant crops now. Itâs also worth mentioning that a lot of these maps are much, MUCH bigger than the original game. Some of them are meant to accommodate 4v4s. The new desert landscape makes resources easily identifiable. Itâs nice, but, unfortunately, my biggest problem is still here: itâs still difficult to tell whatâs going on with the cliffs and rocks. You still need to be extra careful with walls. I do admit that it happens a lot less often, compared to before. Most of the maps are much better about it. The spirit of the character performances is also carried over. In fact, they might have turned it up a bit. ANNOUNCER: âA message from the caliph:â CALIPH: âRemove your army from sight of my castle walls at once!â CALIPH: âWatch your back, knight! Wa-atch yo-our ba-ackâŚâ CALIPH: âYou have not seen the last of me, INFIDEL!â ANNOUNCER: âA message from the Lionheart:â LIONHEART: âA smell of victory is in the air, my friend!â Then you have the new music. This stuff is good. It is not common for a game to get a Middle-Eastern soundtrack. The production values are excellent. Sometimes, the songs are complimented by the European music, and sometimes it goes the other way. I find it fascinating to listen to, and it compliments the visuals perfectly. The gameplay has gone through a rebalance. Some buildings produce ridiculously faster. Alcohol and religion give significantly more happiness. Now you can utilize bad stuff more to increase efficiency. Or you could squeeze out some insane new tax rates. Firetraps are much rarer, but there are new units that can cause fires. Except that now you can build a well. Now when there is a fire, Jerusalemâs bravest can go out and take care of it. Your people will still give their life to drop off some cheese or bread, so you canât save everybody. Overall though, the pathfinding and AI is a lot better. The army is still lacking mechanics, and the buildings still canât make rally points (correction: they can with a hotkey), but the AI and pathfinding improvements are great. Yeah, itâs still clunky, but combat is more fun, and you feel more in control. The original âStrongholdâ is still well worth checking out. Itâs definitely a more relaxed game, compared to its successor. Some people just consider it a tutorial for this game, and I can understand why. âCrusaderâ turns the game into an RTS with the more in-depth economy. The combat isnât a game-changer, but itâs improved. I do wish so you could properly play the forces of Allah, but you all share the same pool of stuff. So, consider it an expansion of things you had before, rather than something entirely new. So, despite their flaws, these are solid games, and Iâd recom⌠I forgot⌠ADVISOR: âGreetings, sire!â (gun arming) ADVISOR: âThe desert (*bass*) awaits you!â Ugh-h⌠Okay⌠âExtremeâ is like âCrusaderâ, except now you could have 10 000 units. KING THEODEN: âTen thousand?â Yeah, 10 000. You can also use powers anywhere on the map, which charge from this bar over here. Summon some knights. Get rushed by hundreds of enemies at the same time. Be an angry D&D DM, and drop rocks on people. Hey, wait, the rocks didnât even hit them yet! Are these hitscan rocks? Brave the âCrusader Extremeâ trail! I can only beat two of them by rushing assassins. My victories stopped pretty quickly. Thereâs this one map that is a 3v1, and the enemies never stop coming at you. This might be one of the hardest RTS games Iâve ever played, and probably for all the wrong reasons. I tried an Extreme Random Map, and that was interesting. Someone out there said: âWhat if the computer wasnât covered in lions, but the playerâŚâ [stifled snickering] "What if..." [take two] âWhat if the playerâŚâ âWhat if the player was COVERED IN LIONSâŚ?â đđđ Theyâre sleeping. Theyâre sleeping next to the spawn. just started the game, and someoneâs dead! I sure wish that I could live over there, where the lions donât live. I canât do it⌠I canât look at it. What do you say about something like this? đ This was sold at retail 6 years after âCrusaderâ came out. Itâs included in the HD version for free now, so, who cares⌠So, thatâs âStrongholdâ. I never bothered to try the sequels. I think it holds up nicely, and you could get it cheap on GOG, Steam or a lot of other places, I think. I could recommend them â the first especially â to just about anybody. So, Iâll see you next time! Thanks for everyone backing me on this, for reasons I donât understand! I appreciate it. Announcements! Eh⌠The next video is the guide. Itâs coming. Anyways, onto the questions. âWhat are the top 5 channel goals for this year?â I donât have any numbered goals. Iâm doing better than I thought I would. I wanna get out more videos than last year, and that shouldnât be a problem. âDo you watch your old videos in their entirety?â No. My audio equipment was terrible then, and now I know more, so now they bother me. âAre there projects youâve put a lot of time in, but ended up dropping?â Oh, definitely! The most I put in was for âAmnesia: Machine for Pigsâ, but then I realized I would need to probably go back and record âPenumbraâ, and record the first âAmnesiaâ, and I realized: if I ever wanted to do that, I would probably start at the beginning. There have been some others, but not with that much time put in. I did get some things working that I didnât think were an option before. âExtra rations!â âWhat is your opinion on the Activision and Bungie split?â Probably the same as most people: I hope Bungie can make a good game again. Iâd like to do a âMarathonâ video at some point, but I remember being lost a lot when I played it, so that might happen again. Might not be a good idea. Alright, more videos to come soon! THAT GUY: âSuctio-on!â (*hwip*)
There just hasn't been a castle sim like Stronghold 1 and 2. I wish there was a more modern game that would focus more on the economic side rather than just the military side of the time period.
I can't give Mandalore's channel enough of a recommendation. He's such a good reviewer. I've watched every single one of his videos and jump on every one that he uploads.
Such a relaxing voice, and great comedic timing.
Stronghold crusader is legit, the extreme version is pure garbage, and the original has nothing thta crusader lacks. Highly recommend stronghold crusader!
ah this takes me back, I remember being absolutely terrified of the advisor's upset face and would never raise taxes (much to my own detriment)
Mandalore is by far my most favorite youtuber. He is the only one I will drop everything and watch because I want to instead of being bored and looking for something to do.
One of the things I love about traditional RTS is the base building. I like turtling and building a massive fuckall army to âa-moveâ into the enemyâs base and watch the carnage. This type of play would get punished in multiplayer of course.
Stronghold is the Turtlerâs RTS. If you can make your castle defend itself without much micro on your part your playing it right, and when you need to attack, there are plenty of options to choose from.
Damn, he always throws in a few gachi references, but this one was packed. Nice.
I got stuck in the last quest of stronhold for ten years. (just kidding i still havent beaten the wolf to this day)
Is that Sir Patrick Stewart to the left?