Stronghold Kingdoms is one of those MMORTS games that is so smartly made that a player could play relatively casually and still survive. I wish I would have kept up with my old city, but I let it go and had to start fresh this time around. I'll be happy if I even survive any of them! Eventually, players move into the Third Age. Many things like stock exchanges and forums are wiped for the server when a new age is reached, and things start again using these new settings. The map doesn't really matter each server will be within a different stage or age, depending on how much gameplay has happened or how long the game has been going on.Įach age (First, Second or Third) offers different gameplay elements that include speedier units and other types of play. Right now I am playing on a map that is modeled after the United States, but there are other servers that feature a more common European locale. Last, I really enjoy the massive scale and different server types within Stronghold Kingdoms. It's not like a system of buying power, but it's definitely a unique take on a familiar buffing system. I am only a tiny village, but I use my cards to speed up my scouts and to buff my food output, but I'm sure that later in the game, the higher-end cards can make the difference between winning or losing a massive battle. There are more rare cards, and players can buy booster packs or swap cards in order to buff up existing towns and units. Essentially, these cards can be bought with real money or earned through in-game play and will offer different benefits like speeding up units or increasing the output of a resource building.
#Stronghold kingdoms gameplay battle movie#
As far as I can tell, battle in Stronghold Kingdoms is instantaneous, although players can watch a replay of the battle that works like a miniature movie with animated soldiers and scary sound effects.įourth, Stronghold Kingdoms offers a unique buffing system in the form of collectible cards. I'd like to see battles that make the invading army stay in position for at least as long as it might take to travel to the location. It's pretty common for an MMORTS to feature massive armies that can take a long time to train, outfit, and feed, and those large armies might take a long time to travel across the map to a target, but once they arrive, they simply make contact with the target and start the trip home. I have to say, though, that I wish attacks took longer than they do.
There are variations to army and scout movement speed as a player becomes more skilled or grows in size, but overall I rarely feel as though I am being so far left behind that there is no point in joining a server. Stronghold Kingdoms lets players do the normal AFK-building thing with towns and makes research work over real time, and combat feels appropriately timed. An MMORTS has to strike a balance between combat speed, building speed, gathering speed, and other systems that have to not only work in concert but must feel as though they belong in the same world. Watch live video from Massivelytv on TwitchTV If you need help, the game or the community will provide it. There are also a number of YouTube videos from players who are much smarter than I am, and the community itself is very helpful and friendly in my experience. Sure, I would always rather have a pop-up video for in-game help, mainly because I can get easily get a day-busting migraine when forced to read too much text on-screen, but the developers make it easy to look up information. If you have a problem with understanding how a certain system works, the official website and wiki has you covered. (The game's absolutely hideous website, on the other hand, looks as if it came directly from 1998. Individual parts of the game are hard on the eyes, but the entire package works smoothly.
#Stronghold kingdoms gameplay battle windows#
The character creation screen (basically a flat image that is actually quite charming) doesn't really belong alongside the tiny workers and army members who populate the other windows in-game.įortunately, the entire game runs so easily and comes in such a neat little downloadable package that it feels like a toy world, the perfect impression to have while playing an MMORTS. One area of the game will look as though it was made at a different time or by different people than the rest of the game. I can appreciate the lower system requirements because that makes the game playable on machines with very low specs, but sometimes the game can be sort of ugly. Nothing within Stronghold Kingdoms will take your breath away. It would actually be more accurate to describe it as well- delivered or say that's a well-built but imperfect game.