If you’re a regular around these Strategy and Wargaming parts, you probably know that I am a massive Stronghold fan. In fact, I consider it to be one of those series that shaped my taste in gaming, and overall the trajectory of my life since then. I started playing this series even before it came out, since I vividly remember playing a demo of it at a FNAC store before, and being extremely impressed that the game had walls that you could put soldiers atop. This might not sound too impressive in 2026, but remember that at the time the only RTS title I was playing was Age of Empires 2, and that mechanic was nowhere to be seen. Heck, it would take more than 20 years for manned walls to be a thing in Age of Empires, with AoE 4.
I also have a longstanding tradition of always having Stronghold Crusader installed on every machine I own, and memories of playing it with my cousins as a kid are some of my most cherished. For full disclosure: I did not enjoy Stronghold 2 and 3, and I have not played Stronghold Kingdoms. Suffice to say, I favour Stronghold and Stronghold Crusader above all others, and I still consider them to be one of the best examples of RTS design of all time. I also fall squarely on the side of those who ask, “Do we really need a 3D Stronghold game?” After playing the Stronghold 4 demo, I am afraid to say that answer still remains.
What’s on the demo? The Steam Next Fest demo has a tutorial, a 1v1 and 1v3 skirmish, and a free build mode. For the purposes of these first impressions, I have played the demo and the skirmish. I never had much interest in the free build mode. Things didn’t get off to a great start because I am unable to finish the game’s tutorial, as it refuses to move forward after I place my walls and towers. This might be me doing something wrong, but at least give me the option to skip that step if that’s the case, and why is there an option to skip the whole tutorial in the tutorial mission? Strange choices. Also, there’s no save function in the demo, which forced me to restart the tutorial several times and to save a skirmish session late at night, because as an adult it’s hard to find a way to play for an hour uninterrupted. That single decision alone had me quitting the game for the first time. However, the next day I kept thinking about Stronghold 4, and decided to give it another go.
So, let’s start with the positives, shall we? Well, fortunately for both of us, this is going to be a quick one, as the positives are few and far between. I think the most positive aspect is that the team working on Stronghold 4 has decided to keep the game’s formula rather faithful to the first Stronghold. There’s not a massive overhaul of most of the game’s mechanics, and thank God that’s the case, because when they decided to change something, it was not for the better, but more on that coming up next. The other positive aspect of the game is that there’s more stuff. There are more economic buildings, more defensive options, and more units to play around with. That, to me, is the only thing Stronghold actually needs: More options. When they did that with Stronghold Crusader Definitive Edition, it was something I praised extensively in my review. So, if the team has decided to expand the player’s options, can someone please explain to me why they have also decided to limit the way I can play with this unnecessary honor system?
You see, the game features a system where one accrues honor over time. Reach a certain threshold, and you can then unlock new buildings and new units. Now, if you remember correctly, in the original Stronghold and Stronghold Crusader, there was no such system in place, and the unlocking of new options arrived gradually, as you collected the necessary materials to set up ever more complex production chains. The games had, one might say, a natural sort of progression. To me, it’s insane how this system even made it past a production meeting of the game; it truly is. What’s the point of having something that arbitrarily limits player freedom? There’s no reason for this system to exist, and it adds nothing interesting or valuable to the game. It’s just there to block the player’s progress. This alone is enough for me to not want to touch the game again, because I know it’s going to have implications on other things, like economics.
Oh yeah, this honor system also blocks economic buildings behind it. Remember those maps that were built around a specific type of resource like Stone and Iron in the other games, and you had to build your economic strategy around that? Well, I don’t see how that might come to pass in Stronghold 4, because you only unlock access to quarries and iron mines later down the line. This whole thing is baffling, and whoever suggested this honor system really doesn’t understand what made the fan-favorite games so special. You could remove this system from Stronghold 4 tomorrow, and it would instantly become a better game. Even in the available 1 vs 1skirmish map, there’s an iron mine I wanted to rush as soon as I had enough wood to improve my economy, but the game artificially doesn’t let me do that unless I reach a threshold because… Fuck me and fuck you, that’s why. Good Lord, I’m so annoyed at this stupid idea. Why railroad players into this progression and limit the available strategies they can employ? And don’t even get me started on how I suspect this might have an impact on the mission design, because with this system being so integral to the game, how can you design missions around it? Am I missing something, or am I exaggerating in my reaction? Help me make sense of this.
Now that I got that out of my system, let’s talk a bit about the game’s presentation, because Stronghold 4 isn’t doing itself any favours in this regard either. One of the things that made Stronghold and Stronghold Crusader so special was its unique art style of 2.5D isometric pixel art with a gritty medieval aesthetic. Buildings might have been 2D assets, but they were designed with an amazing amount of detail, and they were proportional to one another.
Buildings had accents of color that made them immediately recognizable at a glance and gave towns a sort of lived-in feel. I can remember things like the Apothecary building looking beautiful, the Orchard trees having deep red apples that you spot from a mile away, and the wheat fields having wheat lying in there with an almost golden glow to it. Now compare that to this:
There’s nothing of the sort here. Stronghold 4 feels like it’s in a perpetual state of dusk; buildings all look brown and washed out, and units are impossible to discern from one another at high elevations. Remember the wheat fields I mentioned previously? Look at those in that picture. There’s no change in the ground below it in any of the farms. Why are buildings so small as well? Everything looks out of place. Even the soldiers look way too big compared to the walls. What sort of imposing castle is that when it feels like units could just vault over each other and reach the top? Another thing I want to mention about the game’s presentation is that everything looks eerily quiet. This should feel like a busy medieval town or castle, with people talking, animal sounds, day-to-day stuff that’s missing here. Well, at least I guess that goes hand in hand with the feeling that towns in this game feel lifeless and boring.
Finally, because my blood pressure is starting to rise just thinking about this, I just want to say that, to add to the ridiculousness of this whole affair, I saw that man-at-arms chuck their spears before combat, and then use their swords. I paused the game and quit right there and then. I don’t know how much you people know about medieval history, but this is just… Whatever, do what you want with Stronghold 4; I’m done with this.
To round things up, I came out of this demo disheartened, to say the least, and the question I asked still remains unanswered: If going 3D is needed, it still remains unanswered, because right now I don’t see the point of it. I do like that the team added new stuff to the game, and I want to be able to play around with it, but then to lock this up behind a mandatory progression is just crazy work. If I still get a review key after this article goes up, I’ll play it and review it, because I want to see what the team manages to do with the game’s campaign design given all these limitations, and because I want to see where the story goes. If I don’t get a key, then I’ll just go back to playing my good old Stronghold and Stronghold Crusader.
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