Yiiiiiihaaa

Good Walking Horror Game

Great game! Neverhood Vibes, 10/10 would recommend!

I've been playing Stronghold Crusader since its original release, and it's easily one of my favorite games of all time. For the past 20 years, I've booted it up at least once a year, every year. This "remake", however, despite a few decent improvements like the shift-click functionality for unit creation, feels like a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ step backward.

I honestly don't know what game the 94% positive reviewers are playing, but this is downright unplayable for me. It genuinely feels like this game was taken over by people who have never played the original. And have no idea wtf they are doing.

I am requesting a refund as I simply cannot get any enjoyment from the feel of this game. I've beaten the first level of the original campaign, and I refuse to play any more. It's like staring into an uncanny valley – a botched attempt at a remake.

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1. Consolidating multiple game modes and all 20 years of content into one game. This is a smart move.
2. Quality of life improvements relating to being able to create 5x units with shift, or all available with ctrl. No more needing an auto-clicker for that! Though it's silly that this isn't also applied to the marketplace.
3. More AI, more content. Always welcome.
4. Ability to repoint custom rally points for newly created units. A definite plus.
5. Asking users what kind of schema we want; old vs. new. At least there's an acknowledgment of different preferences.
6. 800x800 Maps Big map, good map. Go big or go home.
6. Building Houses If you build a house, you wont be obstructed by a woman/kid/person, just like you wouldn't with a chicken. Good decision.

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0. Zoom In / Zoom Out is Mental
Whoever designed the zoom in/out has clearly never played the original game. You used to cycle between distinct zoom levels; now you slowly zoom in and out. This makes navigating the game impossible.

1. Graphic Downgrade - UI
This isn't an upgrade at all. All UI elements feel watered down. The original UI perfectly showcased the game's elements. If you truly believe this is better for new users, I would strongly advocate for an option to use the original UI for all buildings.

2. UX Nightmare Part 1
Almost every UI element is in a different place compared to the original. We're talking about every single UI being reshuffled. If you've played Stronghold for 2000+ hours like I have, this is simply unplayable.
Solution: Give us an option to have the old UIs. Don't fix what isn't broken. The only parts that are genuinely improved are the ability to repoint generated troops and the shift/ctrl unit creation.

3. Stronghold Hotkeys Are Missing
Stronghold Extreme had hotkeys for things like firing ballistas; these have been removed from this version.
Solution: Add the hotkeys back!

4. Graphics (Overall Visuals)
They truly don't feel upgraded; they look worse. The 3D look takes away from the original game's charm. I just don't like it. The previous style was far more cohesive in terms of the art style of all elements. Right now, we have many elements in different color palettes and shadings. Previously, the game had a consistent shading; now it all looks like it's made from plastic.

Unit colors are also a huge downgrade. There is a reason why Starcraft, Starcraft 2, Stronghold1/2 had very strong color palette for the unit team color. Right now instead of very strong red, you have a "more realistic" version, which takes away from the usability and ability to easily distinguish the units. By making things more realistic, you make things a lot less readable which in case of a strategy game is the most important thing.

Solution: Keep all the gameplay and content, but bring back the previous art style. Maybe add it as a setting at the beginning of the game? Seriously, this is a downgrade, not an upgrade.

5. Main Menu UI - Lacks Original Feel
The main menu UI has none of the original feel that the game had before. The previous UI was actually a lot more readable than it is now. It just feels generic now.

6. Scribe - Unreadable Information
Not only does the Scribe model look like he is retarded, but the information is unreadable. The current font, compared to what it was, makes it significantly harder to read. Again – if it's not broken, don't fix it.

7. Missing Animation
The animation of the guy who hits you with an axe at the beginning of the game, I think, gave a really strong feeling of a huge dude clad in armor swinging that axe. It feels empty now.


8. Character animations
They were not improved, the characters look really out of place. It is something I noticed with the forced perspective of 3d characters in a 2.5d game - the sprites look just so much better. If they were upscaled with more quality it would look a lot better overall than it does now. Imho it should be a priority to add the existing art assets into this.


I get it that this is made by an indie team, but they really f***ed it up.

This is my first negative review in a really long time.

All you had to do was make the original game work on ultra-hd and possibly upscale the texture packs. I genuinely waited for this game and all I really needed was consolidation of content between extreme and classic and maybe some of the improvements that I listed in points 1-6. But seriously, I feel terrible. The roadmap shows a lot of cool stuff for content and new features, but to be honest the most important thing would be to add the legacy art/ui's to make it enjoyable to old players who want to buy this for nostalgia. Happy to share more feedback, right after playing this game I loaded Stronghold HD to get my soul cleansed, and it played very well.

Until those things remain as they are there is no way I am touching this abomination.

For all other fans reading - maybe I am stupid and I somehow missed some kind of a setting and it was just a bad dream. Please tell me otherwise. :(

Fun game, looking forward to the next things planned on the roadmap by the devs, 10/10 recommended. :)