Stronghold 2

"This.. is a true, honest, great game. No strings attached."

Stronghold 2, the sequel to Stronghold and Stronghold: Crusaders, is a great game. More control and less control at the same time. You have hundreds of different ways to run your kingdom-- a military kingdom? We got it. A happy, joust-filled, feast-eating kingdom? We got it. A kingdom based off trade? We got it.
Yet, with every true, pure game, there are problems. However, those problems are eclipsed by greatness. Unlike most Kingdom RTS games, this one actually has one single storyline; and it has more forms of free play than many others. I'm going to review this game just like a normal, non-Kingdom RTS game, and it will still be up to par with greater games.

Story

In order to avoid and spoilers, I'll make it plain and simple. You start off as an unnamed man riding with your lord, Sir William. After running away from a kingdom and using your lordly powers to fight your way away, you must help some monks-- and it's then that the true story starts. After a mysterious attack by Olaf the Viking, you have an unsteady alliance with Edwin Blackfly, you have to rescue some monks from hundreds of wolves, destroy a siege camp, and destroy some bandits. After doing all three, you learn that the missing King has sent a letter. You learn that the King thinks that Sir William is plotting for the throne, and then, after Sir William goes riding with Blackfly, he is imprisoned by Olaf, but even though you see with a cut scene, your character doesn't actually know. Olaf then decides to attack, and The Bull, a rather hefty man, attacks with Olaf, and you must defend your castle from both. After defending two sieges at once, you must siege The Bull's castle, and kill the Bull. After killing the Bull, I'll leave you without any spoilers to a true storyline.
Rating: 10

Sound

Beautiful sounds, and the people actually have accents. There's a few little glitches when you make troops move (if you click multiple times, then you hear the footsteps as if they were walking THAT many times) and with a bit of ambient sounds, but besides that, a great work of art. Also, water sounds are just quite soothing. Maybe a bit loud.
Rating: 9

Music

Great, beautiful music, and at the right times. Actually quite better than the voice acting. Not much more to say here.
Rating: 10
Composite: 9.5 (Rounds to 10)

Gameplay

Oooh, boy, let's get to this. You start off by placing some normal buildings, spam some woodcutters, make houses and farms and it just boosts off of there. After securing an economy with a free marketplace, you're able to buy or sell anything to start off your kingdom. Using the supplies you've built, you can now start making a feast or some more, different farms. If you pick a feast, you can build five buildings for five different feastly items, and you'll have a feast every few months. That boosts honor, and anything left over can be sold for more money. After about a year, you can now proceed to make stone and make a few dozen iron mines. With the iron mines, which you don't really need, you can sell it for much, much gold, which starts off a true economy. You now get to make anything and everything-- but, with people, you now much build some extra things. Building several guard posts and a courthouse will get rid of the criminals, but putting a torturer's guild will really rehabilitate them. You can torture them into rehabilitation or just kill them, but it's good to do both. Then, you must get rid of the abundant human waste with Gong Pits, and rats with a Falconer's Post, and then an Apothecary to get rid of disease. Afterwards, just build as you please, and make sure you get Jousting-- it's a ton of fun.
Rating: 10/10

Glitches, mistakes, goofs, etc..

A few sound glitches, as per usual, but on Chapter Four there is a very big glitch that inconveniences many. Sometimes, while doing Free Build, there will be an automatic loss, but if you just restart the game, it'll be fine. There is a bit of lag, and a couple of spelling and punctuation mistakes with the civilians, but other than that..
Loss of Rating: -2

Overall

Story: 10
Sound: 9
Music: 9
Composite Sound: 10
Gameplay: 10
Glitches: -2
Overall Rating: 9

In the title, I mentioned, 'a true, honest, great game. No strings attached'. There are many 'games' out there, but not many.. true games. Stronghold 2 is a true game. It has a good story, good sound and gameplay, many styles and difficulties, and requires you to think. Not many games are quite as true as Stronghold 2. Thank the lord for Stronghold 2.

Rating: 9

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/09/06