"A Real-Time Strategy Game where cover ACTUALLY matters!"

Stronghold: Crusader holds a unique place in my RTS junkie heart. It doesn't feature the simple two-resource system, speed, or sheen on Starcraft, but boy, does this game have style. The setting being around the time of the Third Crusade (you know, the one where Lionheart and Saladin duked it out?), the game has a medieval feel- one very unlike Warcraft, because of the fully human armies you assemble, the lack of spells, and the whole plethora of resources thing.

For gameplay, Crusader is the general RTS fare, with some differences. Instead of having worker units ordered to build buildings and gather resources, buildings appear instantly, and buildings themselves produce resources, as long as you have workers able to work for you. It is very easy to raise armies, command them, and to build castles. The gameplay is not very flexible however, as all games come down to creating a more effective or bigger army/castle before the other guy. Besides the redundancy, the gameplay offers many satisfying moments, like when thirty siege weapons slam a barrage of stone into your enemy's castle, or the first time you watch the garrison of archers and crossbowmen on your walls rain arrows on your enemy.

Which brings me to the title of this review. The Game Engine. How you create your castle directly affects how your troops do. Arrows get blocked by walls, unlike games like warcraft where units can fire through buildings with enough range. Every ranged unit in Crusader, from a slinger to a fearsome trebuchet can be neutralized by throwing a layer of stone between it and its target. Fire also plays a big role- a single building lit on fire can cause an entire castle to become an inferno, burning everything within to a crisp.

Building a castle is simple and easy. Place walls, towers, nice defensive traps, throw some archers or engineers with boiling oil onto the wall, and you have a defense that will shred unarmored troops, until the siege weapons roll in. Then you suddenly need knights, macemen, or your own defensive weapons to keep massive stones from crushing your walls. For units, there are two distinct sets, being the European 'Crusader' units, and the Arabic 'Mercenary' units. Both units have strengths and advantages, but a mix of both works better than relying on one or the other.

With gameplay that offers many interesting different ways to solve the same goal of every game, solid controls, and a very good approach to castle building, siege warfare, and defense, Crusader is a RTS gem that should not be passed up.

Gameplay: 8/10

The graphics in this game are the proverbial mixed bag. The terrain looks very accurate, but the desert terrain is also very unflattering. Every unit looks very good- especially when they're a dying corpse on the ground- but when they fight you get a massive stack of units who can overlap one another. Besides these few gripes, the graphics in this game are very good for a game that is this old.

Graphics: 7/10

In Second Sight, the music literally bleeds the horror atmosphere. In Crusader, the music is a glorious mix of 'desert' style music, and music heavy with brass that leads to that 'going to war' feel. Besides the music, which is superb, the audio is very stylish- you can hear arrows being fired off, you can hear the crackle of flames, and the screams of your enemy's people as they walk into those flames and die. All these sounds create the atmosphere, the extra touch that makes the game come alive. You can cringe at the crossbowmen's arrogant replies to your orders, and the fanaticism of your swordsmen. And you can also hear the rat and the snake plead for their sorry, pathetic lives, but that's another matter.

Audio: 9/10

Control is everything in a game. Without it, the Zerg can't move, you can't KO your brother who decided to pick Bowser in SSBM again, and you very well can't control an army. Crusader sports very nice controls- including a very streamlined way to create buildings without having to constantly order a unit to do so.

Control: 8/10

In closing, Crusader is a game that is great fun to play. The atmosphere of the game paints both sides of the conflict- Arabic and European alike in very favorable lights, and it does a very good job of simulating what such a conflict would entail. The game is well worth the 10-15 dollars one would now pay for this game. And it doesn't require a disc to play after you install.

So buy this game if you're a RTS fan. It offers unique spice.

Final Tally:
8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/19/08

Game Release: Stronghold: Crusader (US, 09/25/02)