SH 2 has advanced the RTS genre and you will never be able to go back to games like RON or EE after playing it.
User Rating: 8.9 | Stronghold 2 PC
System Tested on: ASUS A7N8X-Deluxe AMD 3000+ (overclocked to roughly 3400+ speeds) 1 Gig Corsair XMS Ram @ 420 effective MHz BFG 6800GT OC (overclocked to 390/1.2 GHz) Difficulty: Comparable to other games such as Rise of Nations or Rome:Total War the difficultly factor is a little bit higher. You simply cannot approach this game like other RTS’s where you just box click a bunch of units and attack. Nor will sheer numbers give you an advantage if you’re on the offensive. In fact in the latest patch released the developers noted that they turned down the difficulty of some of the missions in the campaign. This game requires a little bit more thought than your average RTS. Learning Curve: Highly subjective but if you are an experienced RTS player you can expect to have a good understanding of the game within 30 minutes. After an hour or so of play you will also begin to adjust to the unique style of play. Gameplay: 9/10 – Unlike other RTS’s on the market there is a huge amount of options when it comes to how you want to play Stronghold 2. The main campaigns in the game are broken into the “Path of Peace” and the “Path of War”. Unlike just about every other RTS on the market there is an entire campaign for you to play through that focuses on just building your economy. You don’t have to fight against an enemy other than to protect your peasants from wolves and bears. It is actually a lot of fun to play through this mode because the game has a very deep economy system with so many options that I couldn’t possibly list them here or go into detail about them. The “Path of War” as you might guess not only calls for building a successful economy but you also will have to fend off large invading forces as well as do some invading your self. It’s also important to note that unlike other RTS games on the market the AI simply doesn’t build up forces and mindlessly attack you. The AI also seems to be very good at locating where the weak point is to attack. That said though the one flaw with the AI is that once they breach your defenses they seem to make a bee-line for your lord(killing your lord essentially means you lose). So its important to make sure that you have your lord well protected. Other game modes include a “free build” mode where you can build your economy and military until your hearts content and then you choose when you want an enemy to attack you. There is also a full game map/scenario editor that is extremely customizable. You can expect the scenario building community to be quite happy with the options available and expect there to be lots of custom maps to play with for download from fan sites. And if that wasn’t enough there is also a “Kingmaker” mode where you control several castles at the same time while trying to defeat the AI enemies. It is also important to note that unlike other RTS’s on the market, Stronghold 2 is unique in that there is a great amount of detail in the economy side of the game. It truly is a “castle sim” as well as an RTS game. You can spend a great deal of time in the game just watching what your peasants do. I really cannot stress this enough that the economy side of the game is unlike any other RTS on the market and you will end up being sucked into occasionally watching some of the events going on in your castle. You can hold feasts in your keep, jousting tournaments, hold court and sentence your peasants to a punishment of your choice. The game also features a lot of very “cool” things like releasing burning logs onto your enemies as the approach your walls. You can also lay pitch traps, man-traps, war dog cages and a few other surprises. Personally I found it to be a lot more fun on the defending side of the game but it is worth noting there is a huge amount of ways to go about attacking a defended keep. There are a multitude of specific siege weapons to choose from. Graphics: 8/10 – The graphics aren’t going to make you stare with your jaw open at awesome eye-candy but they also aren’t going to repulse you either. If you have a nice system to be able to turn up the graphics options the graphics are quite appealing. All the different peasant units have a very distinctive look them as well as the military units. You are able to zoom in on the action and you will note that Firefly did a very nice job of putting in the small details. Comparatively speaking to other RTS’s you won’t find the graphics lacking. Sound: 8/10 – There is a lot of varied sounds for just about everything that can go on in your castle life. A few of the sounds though can get irritating such as the “apple” sound. There is enough variance in sound though to make your castle feel alive. There is even varied random things your peasants will “say” to you when you click on them. They might comment on the tax rate or they might simply make a comment on what they are doing at that moment. Some of the things they say are quite funny as well. Value: 10/10 – Seeing as how Stronghold 2 does not even retail at the usual full price of $49.99 I simply cannot state how amazing the value of this game is. It has a lot more replay-ability to it than most other RTS’s on the market. You get 2 very distinct campaigns to play though as well as an endless variety in customization for skirmishes, including a full map/scenario editor, a "free build" mode, as well as the "Kingmaker" mode. The play options are simply far and above any other RTS because Stronghold 2 is also a castle sim as well as an RTS game. Reviewers Tilt: 9/10 – Stronghold 2 is very addictive and offers a wide variety of play options. This is definitely one RTS game that no fan of the genre should miss. It features a depth that most RTS games miss due their focus solely on the “fighting” part of the game. It is also a lot of fun to just play the “free build” mode and try to design an invincible castle and then put it to the test by choosing an invasion. If you really enjoyed games like Empire Earth or Rise of Nations then it would be a shame for you to miss out on Stronghold 2 due to its much deeper game play options. It truly is a game that has advanced the genre in terms of the economy side of it. After playing Stonghold 2 you will forever be spoiled to go back and play an RTS such as Rise of Nations. In my books any future RTS games that I pick up will be compared to Stronghold 2. As a final note I did not get into the Multiplayer aspect of the game but it should be noted that Stronghold 2 offers full support for playing Multiplayer games over the Internet or a LAN. 
