Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition - A Success or a Failure
Stronghold Crusader Definitive Edition is not merely a remaster, it’s a love letter to an all-time classic. This extended version refreshes the beloved 2002 real-time strategy( RTS)" castle sim," for returning stagers alike or new-comers to this genuinely complete and polished experience. Through some very deliberate technical grey matter, a ludicrous amount of content and an absolutely inspired inclusion of hutch skirmish operations, Firefly Studios have unleashed a great package which firmly places Stronghold Crusader back in the pantheon amongst other RTS giants.
Deep down Stronghold Crusader is still a strong and complicated blend of megacity building, economic exploitation and siege warfare in the midst of lands where it clinks. Players will need to develop a thriving economy by carefully managing coffers of wood and gravestone and iron, as well as colorfully varied types of food, while building formidable castles and mustering armies good enough to defend against or wage war on rival lords. The game perfectly blends online spats of strategic resource management & political back stabbing with close-up real-time carnage and castle sieges.
Technical Prowess
and Minor Hiccups
Technical Prowess and Minor Hiccups
Crusader DE is very stable from a technical point-of-view. It rips along perfectly on cutting edge setups and 4K multi-monitor rigs, respects alt-naming without a blip — in short it’s a whiff of fresh air in the current gaming world. Across dozens of hours of playtime, crashes, bugs or glitches were rare.
The one major issue was during the co-op multiplayer. Never leading to a crash but the game would just shortly "resync" all players and suddenly you couldn't play. This appeared to be a random situation, unrelated to the numbler unit or number of chart faces. Simple as they are — and requiring no player input — these pauses were quick, sometimes annoying interruptions. There was also a bit of input lag in the co-op, but that could very likely be the cruddy cable internet more than anything else and – fortunately – it didn't detract too much from the fun in a game that rarely puts on lightning response demands.
A Treasure Trove
of Content
A Treasure Trove of Content
Stronghold Crusader DE is a whopping giant in content. Aside from the obvious visual and sound uplift, then there’s what else is packed with this definitive edition
- New AI Lords and Units: Four new AI lords with different castle designs and tactics, eight new Bedouin units. These troops, raised from a new Bedouin village, add fresh political paths: all-action notables such as the multi-tasking Heavy Camel (boasting both ruckus and ranged bushwhackers) and priceless Healer ideal for mending your fragile units.
- Full Steam Integration Play online, stay up to date with automatic updates, extended content support and more… including Trading Cards!
- Extensive Campaign and Trails: The battle for the Crusader states includes a new single player campaign that will challenge players with new skirmish stages, and 50 new achievements. Four new “Sands of Time” trails give 32 more operations and a completely fresh 10-charge hutch trail( playable solo with an AI support) offers a different way to ramp up the challenge. A further 35 tasks are contributed by no fewer than seven literal juggernauts, including two entirely new ones. That’s almost 180 single-player missions which should give you hundreds of hours to keep yourself entertained.
- Robust Skirmish and Freebuild: Including an 8+ map sandbox mode and a mind-melting freebuild mode that includes more options, tools, rampaging AI bad guys and work-in-progress systems than Ive ever had time to tell you about.
- Enhanced Customization: New features such as toggling on / off receiving the Crusader Extreme's assistance, strong walls, intestinal tyke and many more will provide better story throughout.
- Map Editor: Create your own custom maps, up to 4 times the size of the original ones.
There’s stuff here that will keep a huge fan going for months or more and when you take into account the multiplayer suite, it would likely be a long while/further than they can go with playing everything on offer.
The Co-op Revolution
and Future Horizons
The Co-op Revolution and Future Horizons
Of course, the new name Crusader DE is the co-op trail. These 10 subsequent operations are cunningly designed mystifications that challenge players to strategize trouble and, in the process, continue to increase their own strategic aptitude. They're impressively clever, often with "gotcha" twists such as split starting positions or lopsided resource distribution that make players genuinely work together and support one anothereven while they're managing their castles. The challenge is exponentially cranked up, providing suitably deep satisfaction as evidenced by one run that it took a critic (and their pal) four hours and a dozen or so restarts to get through. Only real wish would be for a post-definition “suggested strategy” or developer commentary to provide some idea of what the intended outcome was.
No the thing that really gets your bomb ticking, is Firefly Studios updated post-launch support. A dark timeline does promise more happiness over the next time, a lot of it free. The upcoming afterlife update adds a new lord, an eco-campaign (Crusader’s first), and a chart pack, as well as a paid DLC containing two additional AI lords and “Sands of Time” trail. The downtime update will see the DLC immolations be imaged, and its accompanying free league will come with a much-demanded editor that allows players to change AI castle designs or make their own AI lords and another new hutch trail and chart pack. But these will be so very reasonable priced add-ons, which makes the extended expansion all that much more lovely – if entirely previous Stronghold Definitive Edition DLCs are anything to go by.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Stronghold Crusader Definitive Edition is a bloody good remaster, and an absolute must-have- steal for suckers of rts games c simulators. Firefly Studios has modernized a genre classic without taking anything away from it, full of genuinely useful additions alongside great visual and audio tweaks. The dedicated performance is absolutely rock-solid, and the volume of gameplay on offer (not least the booby-trapped hutch operations) translates into hundred upon hundred hours of fun. There are a couple of minor hiccups in multiplayer as well, but those can easily be brushed aside when looking at the bigger picture of what that this definitive edition brings. With an excellent series of updates in tow, Stronghold Crusader's future has never looked better, confidently asserting itself as the leader in RTS reanimation. It’s back, baby – RTS gaming in its prime.
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