- a lot of reused assets from previous games (stronghold 1 and 2, crusader), reused voicelines, reused music, etc.
- no skirmish mode, the game mirrors the list of campaigns of the og stronghold and stronghold 2, there's military and economic campaign, some sieges, 1 additional campaign, some free builds, that's it.
- no speed selector, the game feels too slow at times, a lot of units move way too slowly. it takes forever to hire units, because the peasants will restock based on your popularity, more pop = less cooldown time on peasants gathering at the fire
- controlling units can get messy, especially ranged units like archers, because sometimes when commanded to attack they start closing distance instead of shooting, while the enemy is in fact in range of their attack
- a lot of bugs: some are minor and funny, while other are softlocking you from completing a mission. for instance, the game seems to have no idea what's going on with units that go and stay under trees, they can get stuck there and you will never see them again.
- the whole honor thing is so cumbersome, just not a welcome addition to the game in my taste, it's been here since stronghold 2 tho, so i guess the devs really like it
- overall the game feels like stronghold 2 a lot, but without rats and poo on the streets. still, other issues that made that game a mess are still present here,. There are some fresh ideas tho (for example, night time as fog of war concept is pretty cool i guess), but you don't get to enjoy them too much, cuz most of the time you're either bored by sluggish gameplay or annoyed by bugs.
it is a really sad game, cuz it feels that not much was learned from stronghold 2. the game also tries to reconnect aesthetically with the first stronghold, introducing some old characters, but does not really change the core of stronghold 2.
sloppy. sad. sour. stronghold
