Customer Reviews

Stronghold (Mac)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

MacPlay have done a great job porting the PC game over to Mac. The game plays well and looks good. I haven't noticed any bugs.

The game is a riproaring Real Time Strategy/city builder game where you get to build a castle and its economy (everything from wheat farms to armorers) and then defend it against raging attackers.

The game is a terrible simulation of siege warfare because it confuses months and minutes. Unlike in Warcraft, nothing takes time to build, provided you have the raw materials for it. You can be building new walls or training up fresh archers in the same time it takes for enemy spearmen to climb ladders up your walls. You never have enough time to plan your castle, while in "real life" you'd have nothing but time while the masons laboriously placed stone on stone. It's also silly that spearmen can level a stone castle wall just by picking at it. These were clearly decisions to make gameplay more exciting, and if it's a fast game you're looking for, you'll like those decisions. If you like a thoughtful game like Civ 3, look elsewhere.

In case you didn't already know, Stronghold is a game in which you build a castle kingdom from the ground up. You start out as a Nobleman whose father was murdered. Seeking revenge, you start your own kingdom to combat the 4 other armies populating the continent. In the early stages of the game, you start off with a small keep and then gradually throughout the game, you gain abilities to build walls, towers and gates as well as industry buildings such as bakeries, mills and so forth.

My favorite part of strategy games such as Age of Empires or Warcraft is learning the different types of buildings and having them all work together, forming a system that aids you against your foes. Of all the strategy games I've played, Stronghold achieves this best. The controls are a little clunky (it was designed to be used with right/left clicking) but I got used to it fairly fast. I also like that you can change angles; something that hasn't seem to have caught on in the RTS genre. The popularity meter is another favorite of mine. If you raise taxes or lower rations, your villagers won't like you as much. But if you leave it at no taxes and full rations, the villagers will eventually love you. You'll find that sometimes you have to balance things out; you'll have tons of money but no food, so in order to keep the villagers from hating you, you half their rations but give them all a small bribe. Or vice versa. Last but certainly not least, the setting is very authentic. The voices can be a little cheesy, but they keep teh game from becoming too dreary. Overall, it really draws me in and makes me feel like I'm really a Nobleman who owns a village.

At $[money]less than most games out now and with tons of replay value, I give Stronghold a 5 star rating.

I have a Mac and I'm a big long-time fan of Stronghold. If you don't want to pay $100+ for this game, there's a better, and legal, way.

First, buy the Stronghold Collection for PC on Amazon. That comes with all the original Stronghold games. Then do a search for for wineskins on the web, looking for example for the website called Paul the Tall. You'll find his site.

There you'll find complete video instructions on how to:

1. Setup your Mac with the program Wine (free, easy to install).

2. Download the proper Wineskins (also free) for the program you want to play (Stronghold and Stronghold Crusader,* Stronghold 2, etc).

3. Follow full video instructions on how to install your legal version of Stronghold to play on the Mac.

*(Stronghold, Stronghold Crusader, and Stronghold Crusader Extreme all use the same Wineskin).

Admittedly, this takes a little bit of tech savvy, but in reality it really just takes paying attention to instructions. That's what I did, and it all worked out just fine. It took about 1 hour to really get, and setup. And now I've been playing and enjoying Stronghold on my iMac with zero problems whatsoever, for over a month.

And it cost me $20. That's it. And now I can play any of the games in the collection, on my iMac, at no extra cost.

Hope this helps, and have fun Stronghold fans!!!

This is probably the best strategy game I've ever played. It had two campains, a military one, which is very well done, and an economic one, which is good too.

You fight four tyrants to take back your land. Each of these lords has a different approach to fighting you.

I also love the fact you can create you'r own levels. Make you're own military campain and have a friend beat it! Very fun game. 5/5 for sure!!

This is clearly the best strategy game made by Macsoft. Unlike Age of the Empires, the characters actualy are realisticly compared to the buildings. Towers with siege machines must be maned by enginers, same with other siege machines. People can walk on the walls, work places must have pesants working at them, and everything is just great. The graphics are great too.

This is really a great game. I just bought the mac version because I remembered having so much fun playing the PC version when I was in high school. I've heard mixed things about the different sequels that have been made but the original version is really outstanding. I played my way though the military campaign in about a week and had a lot of fun. It's challenging but not so hard that it detracts from the fun.

I know that now the mac version of this game is going for no less than about 70$ (which is what I paid for it) and often more but if you can get it for less than 100$ I think it is worth the price.

This game is finely crafted and fun. It's a very complete Mac game in that it has 2 campaign modes for single player, a free build mode, multiplater both through GameRanger and LAN, as well as level editing tools for creating your own maps. It plays well on a G3 or G4 Mac, and is very stable. The gameplay is the best part, especially multiplayer. Highly recommended.

I must admit that my first impression of this game was not very favorable. I had started playing several of the economic and although I found the game relatively engaging, it still fell short of the gameplay I experience in Age of Empires 2. That said, i moved on to play one of the Siege games and found it very disappointing since my troops were difficult to direct and the game seemed rather confusing and the action to be taken appeared overwhelming. I would have given this game 1 star.

However, after several more attempts, I quickly learned that this game really offers something for everyone. If you simply want to play an economic campaign, you can do so, if you are into warfare, no problem. What I was looking for was some nice balance of both - the game does not dissapaint here either. there are so many different ways to play this game that it keeps me coming back for more.

Yes, it took some time to understand what each character or item in the game can do, but once you gain such an understanding, the game is a lot of fun.

One of the best real time strategy games on the market! A must have for anyone who enjoys medieval warfare mixed with strategic economical building. I highly recommend this game to all gamers! :)

this game is awsome. the gamplay is great and its incredibly fun to pour hot oil on people. if you want a game thatle last you at least 3 months then get this . (...)