Don't waste your money [Contains Spoliers]

[Exdiapolis]

I was very disappointed tin this latest installment to the Stronghold franchise. As a longtime supporter of the series from the Original Stronghold to the Crusader re-release, Stronghold 2 as well as Stronghold Kingdoms MMO, I was initially excited to see Stronghold 3 come out. When it was released to negative press, I was concerned and waited some time to allow Firefly to work out the bugs prior to buying the game. As it has now been one year since its release I incorrectly assumed that all is well.

I haven't played the Multiplayer so I cannot speak to the playability of that aspect of the game but from what I have heard, it is worse than the single player. I played the single player military campaign (there is a military and economic single player campaign) and was very frustrated throughout the experience.

First, the game has many bugs; mostly graphics bugs like unit expanding and floating away but then reappearing where they are supposed to be. These bugs while annoying aren't my major gripe with the game. I have two major gripes; the incomplete campaign and the overall playability of the military campaign.

The story of the military campaign has you confronting The Wolf, a character from previous iterations of the Stronghold series but with each successful mission, you are berated to find out that "that was too easy, there must be something wrong" as the story goes. This lack of originality in the story line seems like the script was written on a napkin during a weekend of binge drinking. As the final coup de gras in the story fail, after you complete the final mission, the final "winning" animation shows that the mission was a trap and The Wolf captures you. The whole story portrays your character as if it were some toddler fumbling though a fast food play land while the missions themselves are very challenging (but not in a good way but more on that later). To complete the story with: "the guy you have been fighting (and triumphing over) this whole time just pulls a fast one and beats you." it is like they woke up on Monday morning with a hangover and had to turn something in or get fired and this is what they came up with. I felt insulted...

The overall feel of the military campaign was frustrating to say the least. I loved the traditional Stronghold recipe and I am not sure why they decided to change it. The original feel that I liked was something like:

1. Start off and build a few troops to defend.
2. Build just enough economy to enclose the keep
3. Build stronger walls further out to give you more room for a more robust economy
4. Build a stronger economy that can support a military that will eventually be able to attack your opponent while defending from the constant onslaught of the enemy.
5. Once your army is built, zerg the enemy base.
6. ....
7. profit

Stronghold 3 has just enough hints of that to make you aware that they know the recipe but that they don't care. The strategy for completing all of the missions is to find the gimmick. Every mission either has a timer that won't allow you to build up a decent army, thus forcing you to find some gimmick attack/exploit that beats the AI or the mission won't have an economy at all; instead supplying you with a fixed number of troops at the beginning, forcing you to exploit terrain or attack a side. Maybe Firefly's intent was to make the player find the the weak spot in the castle and attack there but I found it more frustrating than anything and more often than not, found myself on YouTube looking for the gimmick only to be annoyed when I found out how. I didn't buy Stronghold 3 to solve a puzzle, I bout it to build a castle that can defend against the enemy, build a robust economy thus funding and fielding a vast army that can march out and tank out my opponent. If I wanted a puzzle, I would have bought a Rubik' Cube...

Overall, I can say that I was very disappointed with Stronghold 3. I feel cheated out of my money but more than anything I feel bad for Firefly. I love the Stronghold series and when they put out this garbage, it hurts the brand and makes it difficult to get funding to make the next (and hopefully better) Stronghold. Shame on you, Firefly, for releasing this trash. I would rather you have taken the extra week to finish this product before releasing than to tarnish your good name. I would have paid an extra $10 for a good game, as I am sure most loyal fans would, if you would have put out a good game. As it stands now, I will be gun shy about buying Stronghold 4 if there ever is one.

/rant

[p.bryan82]

well put

[iwatkot]

As an owner of all SH-franchise games I can say that SH3 is an epic piece of ♥♥♥♥. But still have not any other castle play games... So sad.

[shaneo]

I PAID $50 WHEN THIS CAME OUT FRAUD!!!!!!!!!

[James The Great]

Game is very broken and they've stopped patching it. It should not be allowed to be sold if the vendor no longer supports updating it to a stable version.

[Smokin' Joe Rudeboy]

well ♥♥♥♥. should have looked at this first before buying it

[SheshaAsh]

I'm sorry to say that I bought the game.. trusting that it would be like the others. After playing this game and reading the forums.. I'm done with FireFly. They got my money this time but never again. Bye

[Ichzilla]

i used my single use steam apprication trick to get a credit for my preorder on sh3 when it had just come out. the game it self was ok. but frankly it felt like a poor version of SH1 with just a new storyline and graphic update. totally not worth the 54 bucks i paid for the preorder on it. i had hoped sh3 would include SH1 and SH2 elements (sh1's cool story and sh2's skirmish mode) sadly it did not. game overall feels rushed (nice to know they patched the wolf/bear scaling ladder bugs at launch) if you love SH id stick to SH1/cruisader or sh2... sh3 is just too lacking. the physic elements are neat though. (i will say i wont preorder anymore SH games now. ill just wait for a demo/trial or something to try it before i buy it now.)

[Whiskey Medic]

I agree with the OP on every point. I'm still waiting on Haemimont Games to see the market void left by stronghold and bring the Tropico game style to the Medieval Manor. Substitute a Baron for El Presidente and Serfs for Tropicans... could be spectacular.

[Doug Forcett]

Thank you for posting. I am taking it off my wishlist. Seemed like a good product on the store front and in videos...but your review spoke more than those did. Thanks for saving me some money.

[Noizeknight]

YEAH IT SUCKS NOW!

[Noizeknight]

BUY 1&2 ONLY

[dikke neger]

i like it ;p if you make a map by yourself and play it? it's still fun
you can test your defence by the control panel,i think they were just saving money for stronghold crusader 2... it's playable so what?!

[2andy1]

I kind of like the new outlook and graphics of the game. But as obvious the con does outweigh the pros. It's hard for me to build when I have to perfectly align every single building and it could be quite time consuming when I want to mass build (maybe it's because I have OCD about building things neatly). The storyline was indeed dreadful. But nonetheless it's still worth trying. Though honestly I think Stronghold Legends have to be one of the best one. I like magical and dragon stuff.

[Joe]

yea when people come on a fourm for the first time as in yea i signed in just to come say how much i regret buying sh3 .
things are bad for them tjhose jerks how daRE THEY i bet they dont even play it them selves this was probly some going out of bussnes sham .

btw its sad to see this happen i remeber being a youn man and playing the first stonghold gods it was fun and stronghold 2 i loved but this is just sad to see it all end this stupid way

[R4V3N]

1 thing the game SUCkS elafant ♥♥♥♥♥