Despite not playing it yet, I can already tell the 'feel' of the game seems in a far better place then it was when we saw the preview. I'm glad stronghold seems to have recovered
The number 1 thing I was looking for in a new Stronghold game was fixing the way you can stack infinite troops on stairs and such, which completely nullifies their defensive utility in creating chokepoints on the walls themselves. From what I've seen, they haven't lifted a finger to address it.
When you posted the preview, I commented about the lack of color variety in the game. From looking at the footage, I can immediately say, the game looks much more colorful to me, and actually very pretty!
Crazy, finally a review that doesn't say that Firefly got it wrong and that was bad. Don't forget that Fire Fly Studios is a small development studio, and it did a really good job of that. Sure you can fine-tune a few little things, but it's one of the best 3D parts in the series. Thank you for the Review ^^
@@Tox1cAshes I know but I feel like the og stronghold game still has better graphics than the new 3d ones, might be because of nostalgia but I like 2d more than 3d
Why Stronghold Crusader still feels better?I still think that was the best game. East is Rich and varied in culture. Firefly must have prepared more and brought same variety in game. I guess I will wait for return if my favorite AI The Wolf.
@@Zade_95 Hahaha is there a demo of this game anywhere? I'd love to figure out for myself. I feel like the graphics really put me off. I don't need things to be photo realistic but this falls into my least favourite category of visual style. For units especially, I feel like the choice to emphasise the weapon a unit is carrying so that they are easily identified has not landed well here. I'm reminded of command and conquer generals and in 2021 I wouldn't say that a good thing 😅 but to each their own! Some people seem to like this style
0:30 that quote about Crusader 2 is hilarious. I liked GameTrailers back in the day (particularly the pop fiction series), but how could they get it so wrong. I wouldn't call the "two players controlling the same base" a novel idea, since some RTS games have done it long ago - like Starcraft 2 and Age of Empires2. I'm not sure if you can do it with the latest Steam versions of Age2, but I recall playing that with a friend on the CD version long ago.
I really didn't like the warlord system. It felt like a step back from the estate system in Stronghold 2, since it takes away the personal control and hands it off to an AI that may not do what I wanted it to. I like having the ability to micro the aspects of my domain's economy in detail, so the food rationing being split up is great, but the housing changes don't seem like a good addition because there's a certain optimal path to getting the best population boom without any negatives, which takes the nuance out of the system completely. This is a carry over from Stronghold 3 and Crusader 2, but something about the siege gameplay just feels sluggish and boring but I've never been able put my finger on it. Maybe I'm just an old school fanboy but Stronghold 2 is still the best 3D release in my opinion.
Hey Zade, thanks for doing this review. Had I just seen IGN's shallow take, I may not have given this a chance. Could you do a review for Stronghold Crusader 2? I've played Crusader 1 for hundreds if not thousands of hours, but crusader 2 didn't even get to 20 hours. I'm kinda hoping for some inspiration to go back and give it another chance, because I apparently completely forgot I even played it.
Hmm, if you are ever to return to it you may have to take a different aproach. Its not a bad game but expecting much from it can backfire. Its a differently paced game from any Stronghold, the siege and defence options are more limited because of lack of ladders and Siege towers, its fine when you take it as a quick agressive match but otherwise, maybe stick to others or Warlords. Again its not bad but it may be harder to get into after playing all other Stronghold games.
Honestly same for me. I think it's just that something felt "off" about crusader 2. I think it was the changed unit balance. The game was still worth it, got my moneys worth, just felt like a bore to play the campaign.
checked for myself, still no attack command, but compared to SH-2-C, they Sometimes stop and attack when moving. SH-2-C and this SH-W have very bad mechanic of "estate", which prevents players from building outside your castle area. [a bit like The Settlers but worse] Sounds reasonable at first, but game often gives very small areas to begin with and taking over "Warlords" doesnt expand your area Warlords are tiny outposts with "neutral" units+lord that give some benefits when captured. you cant build them eiter, just set by the game. In SH-W they limited even more building to the estate area, like farms. There is no way to expand starting area. In The Settlers player could slowly expand.
I really like the eastern theme that is not just only Japan, its a place that is rarely explored. Honestly might consider getting it. But i dont know if i would like the gameplay
I don't like how the scope was reduced, it used to be a massive game, massive armies, thick tall walls where you could put thousands of units on top of them, now the armies are what, 50 man strong?
Can i ask? How are the troop and building limits? Ive been looking around many reviewes but there doesn't seem to be a proper thingy that shows it, since in the 3 v 3 Firefly video it was seriously low [for Multiplayer tho] so i was wondering how is the limit on Singleplayer Skirmish?
From what you tell me Zade this sounds great but for some reason it just doesn't look right. I can't put my finger on it though. Guess I'll give it a try and refund if it's not convincing in the end
@@Zade_95 well there is a similar pattern for those kind of games. The first one being using stuff from other games. The music is the Viking raid theme from mount n blade viking conquest. Each time they put a building and a road the camera slightly tremble to exaggerate the epicness of doing such simple task. Typical of fake mobile game trailer. Edit: just looked at its steam page and the comments are already about how this is a scam x). The trailer shown is obviously a rendered one and not actually gameplay footage.
How do you increase troop limit in singleplayer skirmish? the devs mentioning about tweaking it on manual. how many maximum troops to deploy? thats why i hav second thoughts to buy the game.
The horrendous animations kind of kill this game for me after getting used to the high-quality animations of Total War, Company of Heroes 2, and Ancestors Legacy.
@@ronnical2489 Firefly Studios had 30 employees in 2017. Destructive Creations, who made Ancestors Legacy and before that Hatred, only have 22 as of today, and had even less back then, so no, it's not all explained by that. Go take a look at Ancestors Legacy animations. Looks like a top-tier AAA game despite having made by a tiny indie studio.
The hardest pill to swallow with Firefly is that we will never get a proper remake of Stronghold 1 ala’ “Definitive Edition” like AoE did which makes me endlessly sad cause there’s nothing any of their 3D games can do to look even 1% as charming. I still play the originals cause they still haven’t made a game to match them. And unfortunately it seems they never will, especially with the new Unreal 5 announcement.. next game is guarantied to look even more generic.
That looks like it may be a to aggressive temporal antialiasing (taa), but hard to tell from the video. TAA is amazing, but some devs implement it poorly. Also as a fan of object based motion blur, it really has no place here, and full screen motion blur as it appears here (whether through bad taa implementation or motion blur) is in nearly all cases a bad idea.
I personally do not like non-3D games in modern times. IMHO, 2.5D or isometric (engines, not the art design) are moronic choices, engineering-wise. Its OK to want to look in a certain way, but be 3D for God's sake. This doesnt mean I wont play 2.5D or 2D games. Classics are classics. But they were made 2D or 2.5D only due to technical limitations, not because anyone engineer or software developer would ever consider those better than 3D.
Tbh what I see and what you say seem to be so unrelated to me. Maybe I am just way too focused on the old titles but this game looks like gimmicky, boring, forgettable, 6euro trash from some suspicious key site. I will certainly give this game a shot in like half a decade when it is on sale for the aforementioned 6 euro. I got crusader 2 for 2 euro and regretted even that.
Opponent AI? Pathfinding? Unit balance? Multyplayer? Big things to skip out on. Also, although the art direction and lighting are good, besides the effects you really should have mentioned the animations. They look... Not impressive. The game still looks pretty good, a better release than Crusader II and a worthwhile game in all likelihood, although unfortunately nothing special.
It's very meh overall tbh. -Super small maps -Limited build space -All castles end up looking the same -All factions are the same -only 4 different enemy lords -no real castle design -warlords end up being the main focus -graphics are outdated -Boring campaign missions -very few skirmish maps. -every game felt the same no real strategy. Campaign felt like going through the motions and doing the obvious.
@Sungindra Setiawan Stronghold 1's Campaigns characters were cartoonish as hell. The in-game graphics where pixalated, not realistic. That criticism doesn't really make sense to me.
I agree. Just look at the ground textures, really bland and ugly looking. Compare it to the first game at 11:15. Like that 20 year old game is far easier on the eyes than this game.
@@aspicboat The beach texture is indeed idiotic, its very muddy and it reminds me of what was used in Pre Alpha footage, but if you are comparing it to other maps like rock and normal grass texture, there is lot of sharpness, even some maps with more vegetation spread around.
This looks like a game that came out in 2005 or something, not 2021. Also doesn't look anything like a Crusader game. Might be a decent game on its own but i expected more by this point.
Does not look like a Crusader game? What were you expecting? Ofcourse its doesn't take place during the Crusades, we have known about the asian setting since 2019. Not at all a surprise.
@@rubz1390 Hah fair, i meant to say Stronghold, not crusader. Take the name away and nobody would have thought this is a Stronghold sequel, just some mediocre title.
The game is a massive step from Stronghold Crusaders 2 and it shows. I do believe that there is still polish that is left to be desired for. Considering Firefly had an official discord, this is the first time they are directly interacting with fans, so feedback on bugs and issues will be easier to facilitate. Cheers!
Despite not playing it yet, I can already tell the 'feel' of the game seems in a far better place then it was when we saw the preview. I'm glad stronghold seems to have recovered
Glad that could translate through the video - it was a point I tried to make quite a bit!
Just commenting to give a special like to "motion blur sucks, everyone hates it".
i love it
i like it
6:42
"gla postal service"
"nothing stops the mail"
I prefer the Libyans in Red Alert 2.
"I will send a clear message"
@@Marinealver Red Alert 2 is arguably the best C&C game.
I see you are a man of culture.
i have a good feeling about warlords,also do paraworld next
Man paraworld was cool but as a kid i hated the unit caps. The story was great.
Para world with dinosaurs from like 2005? Did they make another?
The number 1 thing I was looking for in a new Stronghold game was fixing the way you can stack infinite troops on stairs and such, which completely nullifies their defensive utility in creating chokepoints on the walls themselves.
From what I've seen, they haven't lifted a finger to address it.
Units don't stack any more. Each tower has a maximum number of units it can hold.
When you posted the preview, I commented about the lack of color variety in the game. From looking at the footage, I can immediately say, the game looks much more colorful to me, and actually very pretty!
A strong foundation for a Stronghold remake :P
OK Why The Hell Is This Channel So Underrated :(
No clue
Stronghold is back baby!
Crazy, finally a review that doesn't say that Firefly got it wrong and that was bad. Don't forget that Fire Fly Studios is a small development studio, and it did a really good job of that. Sure you can fine-tune a few little things, but it's one of the best 3D parts in the series. Thank you for the Review ^^
Sigh just make a stronghold game with 2d pre rendered graphics already
The entire game studio is built around 3D. 2D is a pipe dream, it can almost certainly never happen again.
@@Tox1cAshes I know but I feel like the og stronghold game still has better graphics than the new 3d ones, might be because of nostalgia but I like 2d more than 3d
Everything after the original looked. so. generic.
I don't get it
Not to mention 2D performs better and is usually more readable.
6:32 that's a catapult, the inferior siege weapon.
TRUE
Why Stronghold Crusader still feels better?I still think that was the best game. East is Rich and varied in culture. Firefly must have prepared more and brought same variety in game. I guess I will wait for return if my favorite AI The Wolf.
And still
This game has to have some of the most polar reviews I've seen in a while!
I know right - just watched Merchant's and it's basically the polar opposite of my own. Always an interesting topic to discuss afterwards lol
@@Zade_95 Hahaha is there a demo of this game anywhere? I'd love to figure out for myself. I feel like the graphics really put me off. I don't need things to be photo realistic but this falls into my least favourite category of visual style. For units especially, I feel like the choice to emphasise the weapon a unit is carrying so that they are easily identified has not landed well here. I'm reminded of command and conquer generals and in 2021 I wouldn't say that a good thing 😅 but to each their own! Some people seem to like this style
Nah I don't believe so unfortunately. You could the steam refund system though without any worries I think?
@@Zade_95 interesting idea. I always forget about that option 😅
😈
0:30 that quote about Crusader 2 is hilarious. I liked GameTrailers back in the day (particularly the pop fiction series), but how could they get it so wrong.
I wouldn't call the "two players controlling the same base" a novel idea, since some RTS games have done it long ago - like Starcraft 2 and Age of Empires2. I'm not sure if you can do it with the latest Steam versions of Age2, but I recall playing that with a friend on the CD version long ago.
I really didn't like the warlord system. It felt like a step back from the estate system in Stronghold 2, since it takes away the personal control and hands it off to an AI that may not do what I wanted it to. I like having the ability to micro the aspects of my domain's economy in detail, so the food rationing being split up is great, but the housing changes don't seem like a good addition because there's a certain optimal path to getting the best population boom without any negatives, which takes the nuance out of the system completely. This is a carry over from Stronghold 3 and Crusader 2, but something about the siege gameplay just feels sluggish and boring but I've never been able put my finger on it. Maybe I'm just an old school fanboy but Stronghold 2 is still the best 3D release in my opinion.
2 is my favorite over all but o haven’t played this one yet. It’s on sale for 10 bucks though so I’m going to try it.
Hey Zade, thanks for doing this review. Had I just seen IGN's shallow take, I may not have given this a chance. Could you do a review for Stronghold Crusader 2? I've played Crusader 1 for hundreds if not thousands of hours, but crusader 2 didn't even get to 20 hours. I'm kinda hoping for some inspiration to go back and give it another chance, because I apparently completely forgot I even played it.
Hmm, if you are ever to return to it you may have to take a different aproach. Its not a bad game but expecting much from it can backfire. Its a differently paced game from any Stronghold, the siege and defence options are more limited because of lack of ladders and Siege towers, its fine when you take it as a quick agressive match but otherwise, maybe stick to others or Warlords. Again its not bad but it may be harder to get into after playing all other Stronghold games.
Thank you! I certainly will at some point, but no plans to do it in the next little while :)
Honestly same for me. I think it's just that something felt "off" about crusader 2. I think it was the changed unit balance. The game was still worth it, got my moneys worth, just felt like a bore to play the campaign.
Cannot wait for a 40k mod for this game.
Did they manage to add move&attack ? Or is it still janky meele combat like in SH-2-C?
checked for myself, still no attack command, but compared to SH-2-C, they Sometimes stop and attack when moving.
SH-2-C and this SH-W have very bad mechanic of "estate", which prevents players from building outside your castle area. [a bit like The Settlers but worse]
Sounds reasonable at first, but game often gives very small areas to begin with and taking over "Warlords" doesnt expand your area
Warlords are tiny outposts with "neutral" units+lord that give some benefits when captured. you cant build them eiter, just set by the game.
In SH-W they limited even more building to the estate area, like farms.
There is no way to expand starting area. In The Settlers player could slowly expand.
I remember checking the firefly website every day waiting for stronghold 2 and being tremendously disappointed. same happened for 3.
The first Stronghold had charm, this one, looks more like a "product"
First one was a product too. Just because something doesnt appeals to your tastes doesnt means others wont find it "charming"
@@marbleman8144 This game looks like ass
@@marbleman8144 the game looks like ass, its not charming, and its not good
I really like the eastern theme that is not just only Japan, its a place that is rarely explored. Honestly might consider getting it. But i dont know if i would like the gameplay
I just spent $12 on this game. It seems to be worth that much, as a Stronghold fan. Great review!
Thank you! Hope you enjoy. Easy buy for $12
dude have you not played Stronghold Crusader 2 before? most of the new things you talked about were already a part of sc2 like the coop mode
Not much, and about 5 years ago. Was mostly comparing to the original :)
I don't like how the scope was reduced, it used to be a massive game, massive armies, thick tall walls where you could put thousands of units on top of them, now the armies are what, 50 man strong?
As long it doesn't crash for no reason and if its fun to manage the game. Then I say its a ok game.
They are heading in the right direction but still not enough to reach the quality of Stronghold 1/Crusader 1.
Leagues better than stronghold 3
@@jeremyalgood7230 well that's not hard at all :D
Can i ask? How are the troop and building limits? Ive been looking around many reviewes but there doesn't seem to be a proper thingy that shows it, since in the 3 v 3 Firefly video it was seriously low [for Multiplayer tho] so i was wondering how is the limit on Singleplayer Skirmish?
I'm not sure on the exact amount, but I certainly built a ton of both and didn't notice hitting the cap
@@Zade_95 Great then, it was one of the things that really puts me off whenver i played Crusader 2, so im glad it seems to have increased.
500 max for all players in mp
@@jacksheldon8566 Eh thats, i guess singleplayer is fine but for MP that is seriously overkill low.
From what you tell me Zade this sounds great but for some reason it just doesn't look right. I can't put my finger on it though. Guess I'll give it a try and refund if it's not convincing in the end
I'd recommend it, that's the benefit with getting on Steam - refunds are easy and painless and basically made exactly for this lol
Color palette feels like a sci fi game
I'll wait for a sale it seems
Viking city builder trailer feels like a scamy mobile building game.
Hard to say without playing it, I thought it looked pretty cool!
@@Zade_95 well there is a similar pattern for those kind of games. The first one being using stuff from other games.
The music is the Viking raid theme from mount n blade viking conquest.
Each time they put a building and a road the camera slightly tremble to exaggerate the epicness of doing such simple task. Typical of fake mobile game trailer.
Edit: just looked at its steam page and the comments are already about how this is a scam x).
The trailer shown is obviously a rendered one and not actually gameplay footage.
How do you increase troop limit in singleplayer skirmish? the devs mentioning about tweaking it on manual. how many maximum troops to deploy? thats why i hav second thoughts to buy the game.
So there's basically no campaign story?
There is, they are just like shorter lenght, more like how Crusader had multiple tiny campaings, rather than Stronghold 2 and 1's full on stories.
Crusader2 had basically no story at all, this is already a vast improvement on the standards they set for themselves.
Not any worth playing for, imo
I don't see wheat, flour, or bread? Can you make wheat, flour, or bread? I want to make wheat, flour, and bread!
nah they make rice
geniall!! nao conhecia, achei lindo demais
As long as I can clearly tell what the units are one the screen it doesn't matter to me what the graphics are.
Do a review on Battle Realms
I have been throughly enjoying this one actually, significantly better than Crusader 2
The horrendous animations kind of kill this game for me after getting used to the high-quality animations of Total War, Company of Heroes 2, and Ancestors Legacy.
@@ronnical2489 Firefly Studios had 30 employees in 2017. Destructive Creations, who made Ancestors Legacy and before that Hatred, only have 22 as of today, and had even less back then, so no, it's not all explained by that. Go take a look at Ancestors Legacy animations. Looks like a top-tier AAA game despite having made by a tiny indie studio.
Zade, you ever going to check out Ai war 2?
One day perhaps :)
Hey Zade, you should check out Tom Clancy's EndWar
I plan too! Not sure when, but sometime :)
The hardest pill to swallow with Firefly is that we will never get a proper remake of Stronghold 1 ala’ “Definitive Edition” like AoE did which makes me endlessly sad cause there’s nothing any of their 3D games can do to look even 1% as charming.
I still play the originals cause they still haven’t made a game to match them.
And unfortunately it seems they never will, especially with the new Unreal 5 announcement.. next game is guarantied to look even more generic.
What advice would you give in which game Ukraine, India plus NATO can play against the "new axis" China, Iran, Russia?
I think stronghold Franchise should stick to isometric visuals. They are much more pleasing to eye
look at their recent release! they brought it back :)
That looks like it may be a to aggressive temporal antialiasing (taa), but hard to tell from the video. TAA is amazing, but some devs implement it poorly. Also as a fan of object based motion blur, it really has no place here, and full screen motion blur as it appears here (whether through bad taa implementation or motion blur) is in nearly all cases a bad idea.
that all aside - the most important question - does it try to scare ya at 03:00 in the morning?
jk
I think theyre ready to remake the original stronghold..
I personally do not like non-3D games in modern times. IMHO, 2.5D or isometric (engines, not the art design) are moronic choices, engineering-wise. Its OK to want to look in a certain way, but be 3D for God's sake.
This doesnt mean I wont play 2.5D or 2D games. Classics are classics. But they were made 2D or 2.5D only due to technical limitations, not because anyone engineer or software developer would ever consider those better than 3D.
Tbh what I see and what you say seem to be so unrelated to me. Maybe I am just way too focused on the old titles but this game looks like gimmicky, boring, forgettable, 6euro trash from some suspicious key site.
I will certainly give this game a shot in like half a decade when it is on sale for the aforementioned 6 euro. I got crusader 2 for 2 euro and regretted even that.
Opponent AI?
Pathfinding?
Unit balance?
Multyplayer?
Big things to skip out on. Also, although the art direction and lighting are good, besides the effects you really should have mentioned the animations. They look... Not impressive.
The game still looks pretty good, a better release than Crusader II and a worthwhile game in all likelihood, although unfortunately nothing special.
This painted towers and black walls looks so strange.
Crusader 2 is more organic, coherently looking game. in the artistic sense.
It's very meh overall tbh.
-Super small maps
-Limited build space
-All castles end up looking the same
-All factions are the same
-only 4 different enemy lords
-no real castle design
-warlords end up being the main focus
-graphics are outdated
-Boring campaign missions
-very few skirmish maps.
-every game felt the same no real strategy. Campaign felt like going through the motions and doing the obvious.
this game looks even worse then I have expected.What is this ? 2003 , or 2021 ?.This is Bsss.Why dont they make Stronghold in a beautiful 2D ?
Is this sarcasm? Looks great to me
@Sungindra Setiawan Stronghold 1's Campaigns characters were cartoonish as hell. The in-game graphics where pixalated, not realistic. That criticism doesn't really make sense to me.
I've played it for 15 hrs, it looks really bad, and performance leaves much to be desired
I agree. Just look at the ground textures, really bland and ugly looking. Compare it to the first game at 11:15. Like that 20 year old game is far easier on the eyes than this game.
@@aspicboat The beach texture is indeed idiotic, its very muddy and it reminds me of what was used in Pre Alpha footage, but if you are comparing it to other maps like rock and normal grass texture, there is lot of sharpness, even some maps with more vegetation spread around.
Why does it look like it's both night and day ? It's quite awful.
Looks cheesy so I left it. Might check it out now.
This looks like a game that came out in 2005 or something, not 2021. Also doesn't look anything like a Crusader game. Might be a decent game on its own but i expected more by this point.
Does not look like a Crusader game? What were you expecting? Ofcourse its doesn't take place during the Crusades, we have known about the asian setting since 2019. Not at all a surprise.
Fair to say - I think it looks pretty good but obviously art is very subjective! Appreciate you watching :)
@@rubz1390 Hah fair, i meant to say Stronghold, not crusader. Take the name away and nobody would have thought this is a Stronghold sequel, just some mediocre title.
@@NuStiuFrate Dunno looks like a Stronghold sequel to me. Same mechanics since 2000
@@rubz1390 Eh i guess we can't agree on this one but good luck enjoying the game anyway.
SHAME ON YOU FIREFLY!
7 F* YEARS AND THEN WE GET THIS SHIT!
this game looks so meh like i would just pass and i hope some of the older games get remasters and interface updates
i think it should be cheaper
Wouldn't be against that for sure
The game is a massive step from Stronghold Crusaders 2 and it shows. I do believe that there is still polish that is left to be desired for.
Considering Firefly had an official discord, this is the first time they are directly interacting with fans, so feedback on bugs and issues will be easier to facilitate.
Cheers!
The art style is such a turn off. Looks like a cheap mobile game
yeah fyi @Zade if you want to review Shadow Tactics its 90% off right now
Could you do a video on Shadow Tactics?