Stronghold Warlords review. Our hops have devoured the weevil

 Another good strategy that will be quickly forgotten.

If you consider yourself a hardcore RTS connoisseur, then  Stronghold Warlords is  definitely worth playing - to expand your genre horizons. And if you want “just a good newer game,” then you're probably better off trying something different. We figure out how it happened.

Among critics and seasoned gamers, the habit of complaining about the death of the strategy genre somehow disappeared by itself, quietly and imperceptibly. Firstly, the number of genre hits did not increase from constant complaints. And secondly, real-time strategies and turn-based projects about the art of winning have come out more or less regularly lately. So the long-lived Stronghold series reminded of itself with a new part.

Let's make a reservation right away: the Firefly studio released the best games of the Stronghold franchise in the first years of its existence. And this, for a moment, two decades ago. Since then, under the Stronghold brand , both good things and outright failures have come out, like the third number part in 2011. The new game did not fail. But she did not return the times of the Firefly triumph.

Five campaigns open in sequence. For the Golden Horde will be allowed to play closer to the final

But the choice of the historical setting in Warlords should be recognized as successful. The developers have shifted the focus of attention from the old woman of Europe and the Middle East to medieval Asia. Now passions are simmering in Japan and China, and Mongol-Tatar nomads have also received their portion of attention. And the wars in prehistoric Vietnam, divided into dozens of small principalities, look quite exotic. Yes, we recently saw a similar picture in the re-release of Age of Empires 3 , where we were offered a massive Asian Dynasties expansion . At the same time, the new Strongholdstill carries a certain freshness in its surroundings. Such details as national background music will please the inhabitants of the middle lane in any case, we are not spoiled with such exoticism. Or here are the unit's duty phrases in pure (probably pure, not tested) ancient Vietnamese dialect - this is unusual and this sets the right tone for the action. 

A strong economy is not as difficult to establish as in the early games of the series.

Stronghold has always differed from other RTS by its serious attitude to the peaceful phase of the gameplay and fiddling with capricious inhabitants. Stronghold Warlords is no exception. The economy and social prosperity of your town is time consuming and requires a lot of attention. There are a lot of resources for buying and selling, rice is the head of everything. We regulate how satisfying our subjects will eat, and taxes from the population regularly replenish the treasury. Fans of Age of Empires will be surprised at the importance of such importance as the popularity of the ruler among the people. 

For her, for popularity, you need to keep track of both. Hungry and impoverished villagers scatter around the district in search of a better life, and our possessions will turn into wastelands. A dexterous administrator will constantly play with the level of taxation, hand out surplus rice to the smerts, put up a couple of gilded statues to raise their spirits ... A slight bewilderment arises in terms of realism: popularity among commoners was hardly so changeable at a time when the executioner profession was considered very popular. But tinkering with the village in the peaceful phase turns out to be much more interesting than letting the dogs of war off the leash. 

The four-meter statue of Hotei contributes to the well-being of the workforce

Combat in Stronghold Warlords is fleeting and often goofy. Sometimes the battle resembles a fight near a wine glass. The wounded soldiers strive to take a place in the front ranks and die from the first crack, the arrows do not try to escape from the pot-bellied shield-bearers, and the enemy's peasants touchingly stomp right towards the invading squad. This is especially striking in the single player campaigns, where artificial intelligence in every possible way demonstrates its incompetence. As soon as the player stops wasting time and money on crooked shooters with blowpipes and gets to the elite archers, victory in the campaign is assured. 

A dozen Asiatic Legolas from a safe distance will pierce any enemy with arrows, including the warlord. Enemies will steadfastly endure a shower of arrows until they die to our delight. It is especially dramatic when out of a dozen spearmen who have found themselves under your fire, the only (!) Fighter rushes into the attack ... The most, apparently, the smartest, sorry for him even. The presence of an active pause simplifies the path to victory even more, although without it the battle turns into a sheer mess. 

Soldiers are very fond of the "Let's set the number" tactic

Online war is another matter entirely. The active pause for obvious reasons is disabled, the multi-colored armies begin to act intelligently (in most cases). In addition, we have in our hands the whole really rich set of buildings, units and mechanisms. For example, the walls of your district center can be defended with clever contraptions such as boiling water vats or powder traps. And in campaigns, the entire toolkit is given to us literally a pinch. You can choose the optimal number of participants in the competition, the presence or absence of AI opponents, different maps and modes. At the moment, online Stronghold Warlords is full of people, apparently RTS fans have missed this gameplay.  

In Warlords, there were also mechanics that were unusual for other RTS. For example, capturing and holding control points is presented here as a relationship with neutral warlords. There can be half a dozen of them on the map, and if you conquer such an NPC, he will serve faithfully. Until your enemies conquer it. Allied chiefs of neighboring provinces will earn diplomacy points, which is an especially valuable resource. Communication with them is designed as a separate menu, and there you can do something to help an ally and demand certain services from him. 

Maps are usually small, and capturing all neutral kings is a matter of minutes

Unfortunately, the trend towards simplification of game development has made its way to Stronghold as well . In the new game, you will not find some of the features from the previous releases. So, it doesn't matter where exactly you build a residential building. And before, the prestige of such a house decreased as it moved away from the city center - everything was like in real life, and residents were in no hurry to move into a house on the outskirts.

Warlords graphics are pretty due to the abundance of bright colors, the chosen setting obliges you to do this. But the construction process is alarming: the building selected in the panel simply appears on the map, as if by magic. You might think that this was done to raise the overall pace, but the thought creeps into my head that the developers simply saved on construction animations.

If you love the RTS genre, then Warlords is definitely worth your attention, money and time. Well, if you are just getting acquainted with strategies, then it is not difficult to find the best option for entering the genre.