Stronghold: Warlords

Boasting classic mechanics that have aged like a fine wine, the few additions to the formula make Stronghold: Warlords a worthy entry into anyone's RTS library.

Firefly Studios took its sweet time polishing Stronghold: Warlords as much as possible after announcing it nearly two years ago during E3 2019. I was looking forward to it ever since, as I couldn’t ignore a brand new RTS title being released during such a dry spell for genre, not counting the Age of Empires remasters. After countless delays, the game is finally out, and thankfully, it was worth the wait.

Stronghold Warlords plays to the strengths of the franchise and the change of scenery makes it feel more exciting and very different.

That being said, there’s not a great amount of variety in building orders or strategic planning, the campaigns are serviceable, and the visuals convey the theme but fail to really stand out for players. Since there is such a different underlying gameplay system present in Warlords, I’m tempted to recommend it. When it’s fun, it’s really fun. When it isn’t, it’s still totally competent. The final thought will have to come down to whether or not building and knocking down castles so...

Stronghold: Warlords approaches the RTS genre a little differently than most, and with varying results.

When I'm laying out a city or defending it from invaders, Stronghold Warlords is satisfying and almost chill. But it's a better castle builder than it is an RTS, and aside from a kind of aimless free build mode, there's not much of a way to ignore those lackluster elements. The dated unit models just aren't at all nice to look at, and make me wonder if a game of this budget wouldn't have gotten more bang for their buck going with a more stylized art direction. The historically-based campaigns have some cool missions, but the fact that every faction boils down to a weird amalgamation of such a ...

Stronghold: Warlords is a refreshing new look for the long-running siege warfare series, rekindling much of what made the series great in the early 2000s. However, there's a number of deep-seated flaws that Firefly need to make the focus of game updates and redefine for the series going forward.

While missions can be frustrating and the new diplomacy system is nothing to write home about, Stronghold: Warlords should satisfy devoted fans with its new, gorgeously realised setting.

There's always a time when you do one thing a little too much. My go-to move for a preview or review subtitle is to go with a song title or lyrics from an apt song. I wanted to go with "We Built This City" for Stronghold: Warlords, but I've already used that for Anno 1800. Then I had a thought. What is Stronghold: Warlords, if not stuck in a moment? It's just that the moment is a good one, somewhere around 2002 when Stronghold was at its prime.

Can the latest entry in the struggling series rebuild its strong foundations?