From a technical point of view not much has really changed as far as the graphical nature of the game. There are new unit types and the engine can handle upto about 10,000 units without complete barrage. The images are a bit dated, but still fun and when it came down to it I wasn’t bothered one bit that I wasn’t looking at photo realistic scenery. I had so many other things to take care of that I think attempts to make it more ‘visually appealing’ would have actually worked against the game instead of for it. Some of the interface work was a little annoying, like trying to get all the walls and stairs lined up, but I got the hang of it after a bit of trial and error.
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| I need more friends to drop rocks on! | And this is where I put my wall. |
The sound aspects work hand in hand with the game play, neither annoyingly over the top or stupid. The background themes are appropriately marshaled, though I did get to the point where I turned off the sound when folks were dying by the thousands. I could only take so many manly screams.
When I laid hands on Stronghold Crusader Extreme I figured it’d be nothing to win at least the first few scenarios. I enjoy a good strategy game and I’m decent at resource management and abject domination of my enemies. Not to mention the first few maps are always easy ones to just get you into the swing of things.
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| Woohoo! Deathmatch! | I love the chicken. |
Yeah, right… I died in the first five minutes. Even now I can’t totally tell you how it happened beyond: the screen loaded, I built stuff and after about five minutes a swarm of slingsmen wiped me out. Not only did they kill me, but also called me names while they were doing it! It was like the Zergling rush from StarCraft, but even more emotionally annoying since I died to a bunch of rocks. So I tried again…death by rocks….again…rocks…again…rocks…on about the fifth try I survived with a combination of luck, building in the right sequence and swearing at the computer. The startling part is how much fun it was to keep trying. The AI adjusted each time to what I was doing and the challenge kept up. It may have been similar units that clobbered me, but they came from various areas, based on what I’d done.
The rest of the twenty-mission trail was just as grueling. Many boards were me versus several AI enemies with help either a long way off or nonexistent. I died a lot, but all the dying made it all the sweeter when the victory message appeared on my screen.
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| Poor peasants. They’re gonna die. | Why do the enemies get a better starting base than I do? |
So there’s the first thing you can do, charge into the extreme single player game. Or, you can jump on your LAN with your buddies and clobber each other, (on pre-made or custom maps) which probably won’t give you much more time to hesitate than the AI does.
Top Gaming Moment:
STRONGHOLD CRUSADER EXTREME VERDICT
One of my favorite areas was the map builder. This is a chance to create your own challenges and aspects to the Holy Land. You can place structures both man-made and natural and populate your map with vegetation and animals. I have to admit that I populated a bunch of lions and then populated bunny rabbits in the same square just to see what would happen. The lions ate the rabbits and left little bloody spots behind. This game earns the name extreme, from the maps to the enemies to the combat. Even the map building is extreme, particularly if you’re the rabbits.
TOP GAME MOMENT
The first time I beat a map. The victory screen was such a happy thing. There was definitely cheering…there might have been dancing. I’ll never tell.
