not revolutionary and innovative like original stronghold; but new features are very fun
The Graphics are bit old-school you could say, but they are what they are. The graphics are simple so you could run massive battles at one time, without the computer freezing up.
Each person or thing in the game makes its own noise and if you have a lot of that same thing, for example if you had a 100 knights that would be a hundred knights making the same noise over and over.
The gameplay overall is very fun and should give you many hours of enjoyment.
Your position on the map is absolutely critical you want to be near an oasis to grow crops for food and at the same time you want to be distance from your enemy. The game will start getting harder by adding in more enemies and placing you further from the oasis, or it might not include an oasis at all. You don't however always have to defeat your enemies alone, sometimes you are given some allies. The AI isn't all that smart, and usually doesn't do exactly what you want and needs your help instead, but you can choose to completely ignore them and fight it your own way.
The Arabic troops are cheaper to make and don't require any resources like armor or bows but they are somewhat weaker than their Crusader counterparts.
I think this game is not better than original stronghold for two reason:
1) original stronghold was a innovative RTS game, but this game uses the same engine, graphics, sounds and ... however Some of the new ideas are really good and Arabic troops are interesting.
2) campaign; original stronghold had a very good campaign with a very good storyline. This game tries to have a storyline but if it did its easily ignored.
overall if you like original stronghold; you will like this game and if you didn't play first game; you must play this game!