Stronghold Legends
| Stronghold Legends | |||
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| Studio |
 Firefly Studios
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| Publisher |
 2K Games
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| Senior Developer | Simon Bradbury | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
October 12, 2006 | ||
| platform | Windows | ||
| genre | Real-time strategy | ||
| Game mode | Single player , multiplayer | ||
| control | Keyboard , mouse | ||
| system advantages preconditions |
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| medium | CD-ROM | ||
| language | German | ||
| Current version | 1.3 Steam (September 16, 2016) | ||
| Age rating |
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Stronghold Legends is a medieval castle and economy simulation released in 2006 by the British game developer Firefly Studios . Legends is considered the fourth part of the series and is the offshoot of Stronghold 2 .
Based on the graphics engine of Stronghold 2 , this time the theme is shifted more to fantasy - mainly sagas and legends . You have the choice of playing King Arthur , Dietrich von Bern or Vlad the Impaler (Dracula) , each of which also rules a different people. Thus Stronghold Legends offers a total of three different types and groups of special units.
Campaigns
In Legends there are three so-called legend campaigns, each dedicated to a different legend and thus also to a different people. Each of them has its associated relative level of difficulty, whereby the difficulty of the game can be set manually independently of this.
King Arthur (easy)
This campaign is about King Arthur and the knights of his round table, with Merlin in particular playing an important role. The environment in this story is lush and has numerous green trees. In order to continue with another campaign, you must have completed at least two missions from this one. In addition, there are special units such as B. Sir Gareth, Sir Bedivere, green dragon.
Ice cream (medium)
This section deals with Dietrich von Bern and his conquest of the north. It is a lot more difficult than its predecessor as it introduces numerous difficulties in the military and business. The environment is also changing: The area is now covered in a snowy ice theme, which in particular places the colors white and light blue in the foreground. In addition, there are special units such as B. ice giants, ice queen, ice dragon.
Evil (difficult)
In the third and final campaign, you play Vlad the Impaler. It is designed to be the heaviest of all. This can be seen above all from the many very strong enemy units and high requirements for reaching the next respective level. This time, the area is characterized by the distinctive red soil and dead trees. In addition, there are special units such as B. werewolves, wizards, evil dragon
There are also several short legend trails. Like the crusade marches in Stronghold Crusader , these offer a series of different battle maps.
Gameplay
Compared to its predecessor Stronghold 2 , which is generally considered a bit overloaded, the developers at Stronghold Legends tried to take a step back. For example, there are still plagues of rats, burglaries in the granary and other plagues in the form of random events, but they have significantly less influence on the game and should therefore make it less complicated again. Each legend has its own architectural style and availability. In addition, each legend has other special or hero units available. For example, while Siegfried and Vlad the Impaler are militarily favored because of mythical figures such as giants, fairies, dwarves or demons, the player with King Arthur has to rely more on the size of his army. On the other hand, you have an advantage with this in the defense of the castle, since it has wall-mounted mangers and its units are comparatively cheap.
popularity
As in its predecessors, the popularity rating is a key factor in building the castle. Farmers who are available as workers and soldiers only come to the castle if the popularity rating is over 50%. Plenty of food, beer and church services increase popularity, taxes or non-availability of food decrease it.
Lands
At the beginning of a game round you have a piece of land in which you can erect buildings. Depending on the map, there can also be neutral lands. These can be captured by troops or bought with honor, as long as neutral. You cannot build military or special buildings in conquered lands, but conquered lands produce gold, honor and raw materials that are transported to your home country. Visually, each estate adapts to the faction that it controls by changing the flag in the center of the estate, while the peasants' clothes change to the respective faction color.
goods
The goods and production chains are largely taken from the predecessor , but the relative construction costs of various buildings have changed significantly. Goods such as wood or stone are always localized and must therefore be transported between production, storage and processing locations. When building buildings, trading and recruiting soldiers, however, the necessary materials are used directly in the warehouse.
Gold, fame and honor
As in the predecessor, there are the resources gold and honor, and fame is newly introduced. Gold can be obtained through taxes, the sale of goods, and the control of neutral lands. Almost all military units are recruited with gold. As in the predecessor, honor is received through the provision of fine food, a varied range of food, church services and victory statues. Melee soldiers and all special forces are recruited with honor. Glory is gained when melee units kill enemy units. With fame, only victory statues can be erected that regularly generate honor.
military
Each faction can recruit soldiers and special forces, the Arthurian faction and the evil faction can also build siege equipment. Some units can fly, that is, move freely across the map, and some special forces can climb walls without aids. With the exception of dragons, military units have no training time but appear immediately. A difference to all previous offshoots of the series is the location of the unit spawn. In Stronghold: Legends, units appear directly in front of the recruitment building, but in all previous offshoots they had to run to the recruitment building before they could be commanded.
soldiers
The available soldiers (lancers, bow and crossbowmen, pikemen, maces and swordsmen, knights) are the same as in the previous version . The weapons and armor required are unchanged, but the costs have been modified. All melee units except Lancers now require honor for training, while ranged fighters can be recruited without honor. Horses for knights are no longer bred, but can be purchased for honor.
Siege devices
The siege devices are largely taken from the predecessor . However, there are also innovations such as the werewolf thrower, which can catapult werewolves over walls. In addition, in contrast to all earlier titles in the series, tribocks can now be set up and dismantled as desired.
Special forces
Each faction has a building for recruiting special forces. Unlike soldiers, special forces do not require weapons or armor, just gold and honor. Some units are heroes. You can only have one copy of each hero. Heroes have a special ability that can be actively used. In addition, each faction can hatch a dragon . In contrast to all other units, the dragons have a training period, and a dragon automatically dies after a short time.
- Round table
- In addition to their dragon, the Arthurian faction only has hero units. In addition to the magician Merlin , the knights Sir Gawain , Sir Gareth , Sir Lancelot , Sir Galahad , Sir Parzival and Sir Bedivere can also be called. The green dragon can set generic units and buildings on fire.
- Ice tower
- The ice faction has the ice queen as a hero unit. Ice maids, polar bears , ice giants , white witches (ranged flying units), white wolves and dwarves are also available. The Ice Dragon can freeze enemy units.
- Wizard tower
- The evil faction has a magician as a hero unit. In addition, demons (arsonists who can climb walls), hellhounds, crawlers (wall climbers who convert enemy ranged fighters), werewolves, giant demon bats (flying, explosive kamikaze units) and Saxon warriors can be recruited. The black dragon can set generic units and buildings on fire.
Defenses
Each faction can build walls, simple towers, observation towers, defense towers and gatehouses. Depending on the faction, additional stationary defenses are available, for example pitch trenches, pitfalls or cages with fire-breathing dragonlings. Walls and towers can be destroyed using siege devices and some units. Flying units like dragons can move unhindered over defenses.
The multiplayer mode has also been revised: It also has an economic mode, which, unlike in the predecessor, cannot be played as an "own battle" in single player mode.
Like its predecessors, Stronghold Legends also offers a scenario editor in which you can build your own levels and campaigns. This gives the player a comparatively large number of options: In addition to the possibility of dividing the map into different lands, there is also the possibility of adding sound effects (e.g. wind in the trees, snowstorm, animal sounds, city noises etc.) in different parts of the map to distribute. It is also possible to include several missions in one scenario.
Development history
After the announcement in February 2006 and a demo, Legends was officially released on October 12, 2006, almost a year and a half after its predecessor Stronghold 2 . Because the game contained some bugs, two patches were released by February 2007, which also added some new functions. At this time Stronghold: Legends was on version 1.2, because GameSpy Technologies switched off its servers on May 31, 2014, the multiplayer mode was no longer playable. Firefly then announced a solution via Steam multiplayer, with which a final patch should also appear. Patch 1.3 was released on September 16, 2016 and is the latest version of the game (as of April 13, 2020). In addition, the patch for players of the version published on DVD was offered for free download on the manufacturer's website.
reviews
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Despite mixed to good ratings for the fresh concept, the game was criticized because of the still unresolved AI deficiencies from Stronghold 2 and the partly "unfair" level of difficulty added by the new mythical creatures. ( Metacritic : 57 out of 100).
Steve Butts from IGN thinks that since the first release from “a sort of castle simulator with a little warfare on the side” (German: “a kind of castle simulator with a little warfare”) the series has grown into “a game about warfare that just happens to have castles in it ”(German:“ a game about warfare that happens to have castles ”). The possibility of strengthening an army with giants, dragons and other mystical beings is quite interesting and brings new tactical possibilities. However, the new units are not properly balanced and mostly not worth their construction costs. The combat mechanics were also unsuccessful. Without collision detection, “melees usually degenerate into huge clumps of different colored tunics mixing around” (German: “hand-to-hand fights become huge piles of different colored garments”) and complex formations for troops are not possible. “What's really depressing though is that the game has completely divested itself of any indication that it comes from a line of more building-oriented games.” (German: “What is really depressing, however, is that the game completely dispenses with any hint that it comes from a series of more structure-oriented games. ”) In Stronghold Legends, almost everything is only used for the production of military units, and there is no longer any economic or sandbox maps. Overall, instead of a castle simulation that stands out from the crowd, “a fantasy strategy game that's easy to overlook” (German: “a fantasy strategy game that is easily overlooked”) remained.
Eurogamer's Jim Rossignol also finds the mythical units an entertaining addition to the army. However, the desire to build castles in detail was already satisfied by the predecessors. In addition, the sieges are not a real joy. Compared to other RTS games in particular, the number of movement commands required for the units is exhausting. And the cumbersome balance of money and popularity to keep the castle alive is unchanged. Only those who have already played comparable games such as Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends can try Stronghold Legends.
PC Games thinks "the idea of reaching into the bookshelf of European legends instead of the well-known robber baron and crusade scenarios is actually fantastic." However, the implementation was only moderately successful. Because the "presentation of the environment is at best to be called old-fashioned" and one is tempted to "check the calendar whether it really is 2006". Other technical deficiencies such as incorrect announcements also significantly clouded the fun of the game. These “would still be somewhat forgivable if Stronghold Legends did not make just as many mistakes in gameplay and game design.” With a few exceptions, the mission design is very varied and the level of difficulty fluctuates greatly between under- and overstrain. And unit behavior is also out of the question for an RTS game .
Web links
- Stronghold Legends at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stronghold Legends for game tips. Retrieved July 17, 2012 .
- ^ Test of Stronghold Legends on pcgames.de.Retrieved on July 17, 2012.
- ↑ Test by Stronghold Legend on 4players.de.Retrieved on July 17, 2012.
- ^ Jim Rossignol: Strongholds: Legends. In: Eurogamer . Gamer Network , accessed October 19, 2014 .
- ↑ Stronghold Legends Test at PC Games. Retrieved February 14, 2020 .
- ↑ Reviews of Stronghold Legends on computerbild.de.Retrieved on July 12, 2012.
- ↑ Stronghold Legends Test at IGN. Retrieved February 14, 2020 .
- ^ Meta ranking "Stronghold Legends". metacritic.com, accessed October 19, 2014 .
- ↑ Conclusion from Stronghold Legends on gameswelt.de.Retrieved on July 28, 2012.
- ↑ Metacritic : Average rating (English), based on 19 articles. Retrieved August 18, 2012.