Stronghold 3
| Stronghold 3 | |||
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| Studio |
 Firefly Studios
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| Publisher |
 7sixty THQ
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| Senior Developer | Simon Bradbury | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
October 25, 2011 | ||
| platform | Windows , Mac OS , Linux | ||
| Game engine | Vision engine | ||
| genre | Real-time strategy | ||
| Game mode | Single player , multiplayer | ||
| control | Keyboard , mouse | ||
| system advantages preconditions |
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| medium | 1 DVD-ROM , download | ||
| language | German | ||
| Current version | 1.10 (May 11, 2012) | ||
| Age rating |
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Stronghold 3 is a medieval castle and economy simulation by the British game developer Firefly Studios for Windows , Mac OS and Linux , which was published on October 25, 2011 - and thus for the tenth anniversary of the series. Stronghold 3 is the seventh title in the Stronghold series and should be based largely on Firefly's first Stronghold title . Unlike in the previous parts of the game, for the first time it does not use a game engine developed by Firefly itself .
action
In addition to the mode for free building, historical battles and the tutorial, there are a total of three comparatively short campaigns in Stronghold 3. Each has its own action that builds on the other. The result - unusual for this game series - is a three-part storyline.
Military campaign
The story of the "Return of the Wolf" military campaign begins ten years after Stronghold and five years after Stronghold 2 . The opponent Duke Volpe, also known as "The Wolf", known from Stronghold and Stronghold Crusader , was healed after his severe fall from the castle tower (see story Stronghold ) and now wants to take revenge for his defeat together with the sons of his old allies by he tries to invade the land of the protagonist, who is often referred to as "The Boy".
Economic campaign
In the economic campaign "Lady Catherine's Abbey" , the ruler Lady Catherine, who already appears in the military campaign, tries to strengthen her country again after the war, in which many cities and villages were destroyed. To do this, she would like to rebuild the destroyed abbey, raise animals and hold church services again.
Bonus campaign
The "Blackstaff campaign" , which was only added to the Gold Edition, is a parallel story to the military campaign. The storyline fits into the military campaign after 5 missions. It is about Thomas Blackstaff, who sets out with his army to kill "the rats" (the sons of Duke de Puce, who died in the first part) and to liberate the lands they occupied.
Gameplay
The new physics technology is the prerequisite for some of the new optical features such as times of day, weather effects, beacons and hay bale throwers. Buildings can be rotated freely and built across the map, so that the player is no longer bound to the grid of the predecessor.
The complexity of the game system has been reduced, which is mainly reflected in the new bar for the simplified handling of taxes, food rations and similar popularity factors. Another example of this is the disease system based on Stronghold and Stronghold Crusader and the now increasingly used events that can be called up in the groin.
An example of a completely new function can be found primarily in the construction of residential buildings. The further away it is from the keep, the fewer residents it can hold and thus brings in fewer taxes. This phenomenon can also be found in the external size and appearance of these, which should make the medieval settlement look more realistic.
Development history
According to the developers, the main goal was to simplify the game principle and, at the request of the fans, to bring it closer to that of the first part. Overall, administration and management in Stronghold 3 should mainly become less complicated.
Instead of relying on a graphics engine developed in -house, as was the case with its predecessors , Firefly licensed the vision engine from the German middleware provider Trinigy . In addition, the game uses the Havok physics engine and the PathEngine to find the way. Instead of prepared animations, the Havok physics engine was used to calculate destruction (e.g. from catapult fire), which significantly improved the destruction effects of buildings.
For the German-language version, an exclusive fortress was added, the Marksburg .
After several so-called "developer diaries" of the development team, in which contributions on various aspects were shown before the publication, the game was released on October 25, 2011. Due to strong complaints about the lack of some basic functions and many program bugs, the developers apologized several times for the unplayable condition and published a total of ten patches within a comparatively short period of time from the release date to May 2012, which were automatically installed via Steam . Most of the problems have been fixed in these, and functions have recently been added. Even so, many players still consider Stronghold 3 to be very flawed.
The Gold Edition, released on May 25, 2012, contains new castles, the patches up to version 1.10 and the additional "Blackstaff Campaign", which is intended to target advanced players with challenging missions.
reception
Stronghold 3 received mostly negative reviews. ( Metacritic : 47 out of 100). It was often referred to as "unfinished" because almost every aspect of the game was flawed. In addition to numerous program and logic errors, inaccurate placement, “unfair” game balancing and faulty AI, the poor military campaign and the non-contemporary graphics were criticized. The lack of a skirmish mode, in which the player competes on a self-selected map against various AI opponents, also met with great dissatisfaction.
Most trade journals, however, improved their ratings after the first patches appeared in the form of follow-up tests.
- Computer Picture Games : 3.59 out of 6
- GameStar : 60% (original rating) / 69% (follow-up test of Stronghold 3 Gold )
- GamingXP : 70% (October 29, 2011)
- GameSpot : 4.5 out of 10
- IGN : 5.5 out of 10
Web links
- Official website for Stronghold 3 (English)
- Stronghold 3 at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Story video on stronghold3.com (English). Retrieved August 1, 2012.
- ↑ Article “Focus on the economic campaign” on onlinewelten.com. Retrieved on August 6, 2012.
- ↑ a b Firefly: Second Developer Diary: Physics on YouTube . Retrieved August 3, 2012.
- ↑ a b Preview on gamestar.de.Retrieved on August 3, 2012.
- ↑ Firefly: First Developer Diary: The Basics on YouTube . Retrieved August 5, 2012.
- ↑ Interview on strategyinformer.com Retrieved on August 5, 2012.
- ↑ Article about the second developer diary on pcgames.de.Retrieved on July 17, 2012.
- ↑ Article on pcgames.de.Retrieved on July 17, 2012.
- ↑ List of all developer diaries on youtube.com. Accessed August 1, 2012.
- ↑ Announcement of the release date on pcgames.de . Retrieved August 1, 2012.
- ↑ Article on onlinewelten.com Retrieved on August 1, 2012.
- ↑ Article on gamestrend.de ( Memento of the original from June 12, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 18, 2012.
- ↑ Announcement of the patch 1.10 on pcgames.de . Retrieved August 1, 2012.
- ↑ Stronghold 3 Gold on computerbild.de.Retrieved July 15, 2012.
- ↑ Stronghold 3 Gold on pcgameshardware.de.Retrieved July 15, 2012.
- ↑ Metacritic : Average rating (English), based on 29 articles. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
- ↑ Announcement of the 1.6 patch on gamestrend.de ( Memento of the original from December 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 9, 2012.
- ↑ a b Martin Deppe: Stronghold 3 in the test: Bu (r) g renovation . October 28, 2011. Retrieved July 12, 2012.
- ↑ Pros and Cons on 4players.de.Retrieved on July 28, 2012.
- ↑ Rating on computerbild.de.Retrieved on July 12, 2012.
- ↑ Martin Deppe: Stronghold 3 Gold in the test: Gold, bronze or still sheet metal? . May 25, 2012. Retrieved July 12, 2012.
- ↑ Rating on gamingxp.com ( Memento of the original from May 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 6, 2012.
- ↑ Review on gamespot.com (English). Retrieved August 6, 2012.
- ↑ Review on pc.ign.com (English). Retrieved August 6, 2012.
