The next chapter in Firefly Studios' real-time strategy series, Stronghold: Warlords is Firefly's first game to recreate the castle economies of the Far East. In Warlords you take command of Mongol hordes, imperial warriors and samurai clansmen as you lay siege to Japanese castles and fortified Chinese cities. Besiege historical warlords using new gunpowder-fuelled siege weapons, classic units and a completely new way to play Stronghold.
This is not the best strategy in the last several months, I will easily find a few better ones, but I can consider the return of the Stronghold successful.
Stronghold Warlords is definitely one of the best Real Time Strategy games in recent years. Building a Stronghold, keeping your People fed and Happy and getting properly prepared for upcoming sieges or Invasions is Extremely Enjoyable. On the other hand Graphics are not As we would expect from a 2021 game and AI may behave strangely from time to time....
If you've ever played a Stronghold series in the past, you'll feel at home again. And that is perhaps the greatest weakness of the game. Developers were afraid of innovation, so we have a title that overslept that it's 2021. Instead, it's just a mediocre game that will soon be forgotten again.
Stronghold: Warlords is a good strategy, but not good enough to take series back to its glory as there's nothing really new and exciting about the game's formula.
Warlords doesn't bring any fresh ideas neither to Stronghold series nor to the RTS genre. The only worthwhile piece here is the fascinating peaceful campaign.
