Stronghold Legends Critic Reviews

This time around there are more units to build as well as new traps and siege equipment to help out on the battlefield.

Despite my own selfish reservations, the switch to an attack focus is a very good thing.

Sadly, regular combat again proves Stronghold's downfall. Units require extreme babysitting.

Solid and full of promise, but it never quite delivers the goods.

A thoroughly enjoyable game with a deliciously retro feel, despite the somewhat improved (but still lack lustre) graphics and the adorably camp accents.

The campaigns are vast and varied, with interesting stories to hold you attention, while the three Legends Trails offer up even more varied missions with a much stronger emphasis on castle building and besieging.

I was disappointed to see the developers add the fantasy elements, which threw me a bit once I started playing. The game is still entertaining and with the map editor and online play I still feel this is a decent game.

It’s somewhat ironic that by attempting to take a more RTS-led approach, Firefly has robbed Legends of what’s made the Stronghold series so endearing.

It may take a pretty thick suit of armor to fully embrace Legends but if you can stomach many, many defeats you'll be rewarded with the particle-laden powers of witches, wizards, magical nights and fire-breathing dragons.

The fantasy armies really do provide a fun twist, and the castles that are rapidly erected in Stronghold's clever building system are stunning. Ultimately though I wish this game had been Sandcastle: Legends, but it completely wasn't.

This entry, however, is hardly legendary.

It's perhaps a little unfair to criticize a game for not being what it never intended to be but we're still confused that Firefly decided to take a step away from the series' castle simulation roots and opt for this rather generic and bland RTS experience.

It works, it's competently put together and it does indeed run like a dream on any old machine. Yet it is totally lacking in any spark and there really is an unbearable sense of ennui from the very outset of the tired looking and cliched intro sequence.

Say good-bye to the historical authenticity of Strongholds past and hello to one generic, seriously flawed fantasy RTS.

Legends has ruined many of the fun elements of previous Stronghold games, and reuses clichéd real-time strategy themes such as dragons and magic that really make no sense at all to the final product.

When the core gameplay is lacking, any variation on "blah" comes out as "bleh."

There's really no reason to buy this game, especially if you're expecting anything resembling a return to Stronghold's roots of castle-building sim.

Everything about the presentation has a rushed, sloppy feel that belies the game’s lengthy development cycle and preexisting source material.

If you are going to make combat the central focus of a game, that combat better be, at the bare minimum, on par with other real-time strategy games, and Legends fails miserably in that regard.