I've had my eye on Crusader 2 for some time now, and it's finally made its way onto Steam with a preorder trailer.
The Stronghold series hasn't had a strong entry all the way since the first Crusader in 2002. I still care about the series because the first couple titles (Stronghold and SH: Crusader) were extremely fun and memorable strategy games. It's the only RTS game I'm still aware of where there's so much emphasis on fortifying your base (with a castle), and I love how you're given the freedom to design your own castle.
Other things I found memorable about Crusader...
- Stellar music
- Only RTS I've played with somewhat realistic fire mechanics. You can set fire to an enemy castle, watch the fire spread, and eventually burn down. Or if someone sets fire to your castle, you'd better hope you have enough peasants manning the wells to put it out.
- Self-maintaining economy, you simply make the buildings - peasants get jobs, they start harvesting resources, and start crafting new ones all on their own. If the peasant working the job dies, another one automatically takes his place.
- You could decorate your castle with happy decor or evil decor, affecting the peasant's military and work ability. There are also some additional hidden tricks and easter eggs with some of it.
- Enemy A.I. has several different personalities, each featuring their own difficulty level, castle designs, tricks, military strategy, dialogue, all complete with an animated face. Some A.I. will even exploit some of the game's dirtier strategies (constantly trying to set your base on fire from the beginning)
- Coolest victory condition ever: you lose when your Lord dies. He had a mind of his own and would often stroll around, but you could take direct control of him when necessary. He was a strong bugger too, capable to taking on a small legion of men all by himself.
Anyone else really looking forward to the new Crusader? I hope they come through...
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