nerdiest game ever loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool

It pains me to say this because of how much I loved the first game. But everything magical about stronghold was ruined when they went 3-D. Firefly mastered 2-D settings... but.... I can't even play this game without it crashing in the first ten minutes. Besides that.. there is hardly anything resembling an online community..... and they scraped half of the settings that made us all fall in love with SH1… Expand

As a stronghold fan, I'm really disappointed. This game is unfinished. It's not a finished game, even it's not a beta release. Nearly nothing works in this game. First, the graphics are nearly the same as in Stronghold 2. Second, there is no skirmish. What the hell? Just remember the good skirmishes of Stronghold Crusader. Where is it now? And the campaigns are wasted. Also, the maps are tiny. Maybe much smaller then the maps in Stronghold 2. There are some "historical" castle sieges (such as in the previous Stronghold sequels), but these are really bad too. Finally, the multiplayer. Ahhh..... you can play only in four maps (2 map is 1v1 and 2 map is 2v2, there is no 3v3 or 4v4). The whole game is unplayable. I think there is no more words to say....don't buy it, it's a complete waste of the sea of p.o.o.… Expand

I don't know why this game has netted such bad ratings. Yeah, they scrapped skirmish mode (which consequently scraps kingmaker). No one would argue that that was a good decision. However, if you take this game for what it does well, i.e. it's single player campaigns, then for Stronghold vets like myself, this game has many improvements over its predecessors. Ignore Firefly's attempt at a multiplayer, and just stick to the single player campaign. Don't pay the $40 asking price though - wait til it goes on sale on Steam.… Expand

Alright, the game is fun, and it has all the right mechanics. But it's broken beyond belief. The graphics are glitchy, the animations are retarded and then enemy attacking is just as bad.'

I had a group of spearman spawn behind me while I was attacking their lord. What the hell.

All the hype built around this game was of no use as the developers of this game have delivered nothing but an unfinished,rushed and an uninteresting game. I advise you not to waste your money on this game.

do not listen to the person called "Lucifercrow" for was hired by firefly to try and get as many sales for this abomination of a game that is called "stronghold 3" his main goal being to sell as much **** as possible before running away

the reason why this is called for is because of one thing, the game upon 6 months after the disastrous launch it faced (similarly to swords in the stars 2) is still broken in many areas or missing many features which would be a standard copy and pasting (in terms of design, etc)

where to begin

multiplayer
although multiplayer is not a selling point for many people it should be said that if a game announces that it will have it then it will stick to it's promise, what we got instead was a mutliplayer game which cannot even be played because it has extremely poor performance issues which essentially break mutliplayer (not to mention latency spikes when more than around 80 units are on the screen

Skirmish
a stronghold game without a skirmish mode? well this isn't really stronghold (just stronghold slapped on as a title) stupid designs
who the hell though it would be a good idea to have every unit (except ranged units) be able to destroy stone walls? i can understand wooden but not stone, walls from not only being rendered useless in stopping an attacking force (without siege units) from entering but they also made walls provide NO BENEFITS to those are stationed on them that's right your archers can be killed even in the tallest tower that is available there are many reasons why this game shouldn't be bought but the biggest reason upon all is provided by Firefly themselves, for the simple reason that will censor anyone whom may speak ill of there game, they have even locked there own forms to prevent people from putting others off this game (or perhaps to prevent them from taking responsibility for the game anymore?)

and the best thing about firefly, as of the new DLC that was added to the game they have publicly announce they will not SUPPORT it anymore, that's right, they will not fix multiplayer or any other bugs which have been reported numerous amounts of time by the community

so in all i hope this tiny review helped put you off this abomination, the money can be put towards something else (anything better, even nickleback)… Expand

The Stronghold series has a deep hole in my heart. I have always loved the series. Stronghold 1, Crusader are far the best, SH2 was buggy and ugly too, but still a new fun way to play. Now, Stronghold 3 tries to be original, from its former releases. It failed. Stronghold 3 fell in the same trap as Command and Conquer 4. A big failure. The game is too slow. Multiplayer fails. And no Skirmish or Trail. This was the most important factors in the earlier games, why throw them out? And granary and taxes interfaces, is now narrowed down to an action bar. The MUSIC! ooh the music does not fit the Stronghold series at all. So unorthodox, and wrong. It's not Stronghold anymore, and it has not been succeeding. Still, i give it a 5, because it still has the old Stronghold peasant voices. GG… Expand

I love the stronghold series but i freaking hated StrongHold 3. It was a complete bugged mess that was so hard to beat it was virtually UN-enjoyable. I hear there is a new patch out that i will try and if it helps the game i will give a better review.

Really dissapointing sequel. Is it even a sequel. Nothing seems to have changed. Maybe the graphics are a little better. Bland picturecard story telling. Poor line of sight mechanics. Poor troop control.

In my opinion its is nothing like Stronhold 2 which many people feel in love with. It has instead carried on with the same interface gameplay etc. as Stronhold Legends.....which i also thought was rubbish.

this game is definitely a zero. From the first underdeveloped slew of garbage that entered my computer, it was a nightmare. My primary reason for being so annoyed was that there was no skirmish mode. You could "re-enact historical sieges", but you couldn't generate a skirmish mode? With that aside, I created an account here to complain about the dlc, and how you couldn't just buy it- you had to purchase the game again. So, at 31.99 with 20% off they are trying to re-sell their underdeveloped game, with one addition campaign that nobody will ever play. I have nothing against dlc, but to charge for a whole game that still doesn't contain the basic components of a castle building sim is just ridiculous.… Expand

"People are coming to your castle," the scribe would say now that Firefly has released patch v1.10. There have been alot of positive reviews with this patch. Its been a successful comeback and it is quite relieving for those who couldn't play the game in the beginning due to those ghastly bugs. Though there are some superflous reviews of the same comments stating that the game is too pallid without a kingmaker, this won't bother the true Stronghold fan because with this latest patch, the game won't feel like a beta version. It is now stable and playable with it's full performance.

ECONOMIC

The economic campaign might prove very difficult to those who are new to the series. Collect 600 bread, 6000 Honor with very limited space, you can hear the wolves howling nearby and your armory is empty. What to do now??!
Some aspects of the Economic can appear simple and dull when in fact it is very difficult. Building placement can be daft since the borders take ample space for a small building. Especially since House size is still dependant on the distance to your keep. The Economic region of the game has an incredible plot but...repetitive gameplay. If you enjoy collecting the same resources every mission this might be for you. There is minimal combat with a few wolves and bandits in every other mission but it is still fun to play. There are new useful features in this particular patch that includes Auto-sell. Lets not forget to mention that you don't need to spend wood in the beginning just to place a market at the start to save yourself from any economic troubles. Market is no longer needed so place a wood shop or two and some farms and start your game!
There have been alot of praises in the forums that things in the game run smoother now that peasants walk faster and produce more food! One of the things you'll notice among your first mission with this patch is as soon as you place a wood shop, the peasants are not walking like turtles anymore. They're so much faster that you no longer have to put those extra 10 farms just to speed things up when you only need about 5. Noticable and helpful tweaks from the patch are how fast bread production is. I nearly had to place 10 bakeries just to speed up the process. Well FEAR NOT!! This problem has been resolved along with Honor meter out of sync.

COMBAT:

I was just simply fascinated when I completed the story 10 years later. Firefly managed to keep the story true and even the release date of the game similar to the original. If you havn't played Stronghold 1 I advise you to stop reading and play Stronghold 1 first before you step into Stronghold 3. You'll just be blank and thoughtless not knowing what happened when the past is mentioned.
The combat missions are fresh each one after another. There will always be new tasks and stronger foes in every mission. Night time seiges are rare. There will only be about 3 of them. If you enjoy night time seiges as much as I do you can try out the freebuild! Stronghold 3 players might notice that there will be alot left in their stockpile since the peasants are faster. Every mission I play I always have weapons left that I never got to use and more resources than what I need. Sell it all with Auto-trade!
I would always have to put about 6-8 weapon production buildings when now all you need is 2-4 (depending how far weapon production buildings are to your stockpile and how far the armory is.) It is good to see some extra materials every now and then...and a little extra gold. Unlike stronghold 2 that you can pretty much build an army without a church or entertainment, its partially mandatory in Stronghold 3. There won't be one building you havn't used after you finish the game. You need almost everything at your disposal to survive 30-60 minute waves of armies.
Knights are coming to your walls and you don't have pitch. You need peasants but there's 10 more seconds for another to spawn. Its time to lower your taxes and boost church services in order to balance out your peasant spawn time. Spawn time might not be a problem in the economic campaign since you have church, entertainment and decorations. Its a differen't story in military campaign. There will be buildings to help but it might be more demanding if you place military buildings since you see platoons of men-at-arms on the mountains marching to your walls.
If the offputting reviews are deterring you from purchasing another Stronghold game well you can pretty much ignore them. Those reviews are outdated. The same people who bashed the game are the same people now praising the game with this new patch. They're now playing the campaigns and whispering to one another what happens in the story. I conclude this review with a recommendation of the game and to say its worth a try.… Expand

Stronghold 3 has had quite a lot of negative reviews because of the poor game. I completely agreed but after hearing they brought out new patches I decided to give the game ago once again. The game is a lot smoother now and you will encounter much less bugs and it's worthy of the Stronghold game title. I adore this franchise, and I'm glad I can speak good of it again - and I am hoping people will try the game with the patches. Firefly games wanted the game to be good, but they HAD to release it, hence why an unfinished one was released at launch - and you know what, at least it's being fixed. Only complaint: Fix the multiplayer.… Expand

Milking of the money teat at its very worst. This game is nothing more than a transparent attempt to bilk money from Stronghold fans by selling the title and not the game. In fact, I'm not sure there is much of a game. Horribly unbalanced, buggy, and ridiculously boring, the campaign is closer to a CIA interrogation than entertainment. Avoid this at all costs - oh, and in my opinion, avoid anything from SouthPeak if this is the kind of drek they foist on people.… Expand

I've been playing stronghold for over ten years now, and Stronghold 3 is still not as good as the first. That said, it improves a lot on stronghold 2 and as the game continues to get patched and updated it improves. For anyone who, upon reading older reviews, decided not to get this game perhaps you may consider it again. They've improved it a lot, I actually enjoy playing the game now. Sure there's no skirmish mode, but they have random events in free build (controllable random events at that) and they have a good campaign to play. If you let yourself get into the game it's really quite nice, the sound and graphics pull you into the castle mood. I played this game for the first time in months this past weekend and it sucked me in for hours. I was quite pleased with the work Firefly has done to improve it.… Expand

This is a very good game. They got it right after the failure of stronghold 2. Its pretty much like the first stronghold. The voice acting is awesome, the new features really nice (while still keeping the old ones from the first game). They also kept the interface more similar to 1 (2 was very bad), and the music is also good.

The bad side is that there is no hard/easy mode, and the game is far too easy. There are also some minor things which could have been improved such as have scenes instead of just images on story, but overrall, the game is very nice. People rating it low have no idea what they are talking about or never played the first stronghold/don't really like this kind of game (which, along with 3, are the best ones).… Expand

i enjoy this game its very fun just like the other strongholds its addicting and fun.and if like other players the main reason this is bad is because this is a very hard strategy for hardcore strategy players if u cant play the game right dont write a bad review because its too hard for u you just suck its not fair for the makers so just shut up and play the game.get better at it and it will be fun turn the difficutly down if u have to and use the glitches 2 ur advantage… Expand

Some bugs ive noticed after the TENTH{yes 10th}patch.
Knights on invisible horses.
Units that walk thru walls
AI that is beyond horrible
Units commands are broken
Multiplayer is still for the most part unplayable.
These are a few of the bugs i witnessed in 15 mins of gameplay
Worst release ive seen in 10 years easily.
STAY AWAY FROM THIS TITLE.........
BUYER BEWARE

This game ruined stronghold for me. The only improvement, comparing to stronghold 2, is the graphics - and they're not good at all. The game is buggy as f'''k. It's takes an effort to even control your units and get them to move at all.. Just a really. bad. comeback. I don't even want to go into details, because if not the basics are in order, you really can't enjoy the game at all. Not worth a penny.… Expand

An insult to Stronghold Crusader.
Let's not even talk about this game, let's talk about a good Stronghold - Crusader, a classic 2D RTS with excellent gameplay mechanics and serviceable graphics, 3 is terrible in every aspect, it doesn't have as much content to be terrible at.

Well first of all! I like this game! I just buyed it and played true the campaign and 1-2 online matches and loved it! Itâ

Game originally was not all that good. unbalanced food system, wall bugs, and a ai that kick your ass. this is no longer the case though i say you should check this game out now with the last three updates they have fixed many of the bugs and glitches that made this game bad. strongholds allways done this and any good stronghold fan knows this.

Anyone notice most of the good reviews were all around the same dates in OCT 11?? Firefly employees joined en-mass, to leave a review perhaps? Thanks all - I was going to buy this on STEAM. Will avoid it now and go play outside :P

Do you want to know the difference between stronghold 1 and 3? the PRICE,stronghold 3 has the same price that STARCRAFT 2,but with 1992 graphics and full of bugs,POOR game interface,poor sound,poor voices,just like DOS games from 1992. SUCKS SO HARD bro,go buy it or throw your money to the river its the same

STUNNING GAME! runs perfectly well on my machine. no complaints whatsoever. i dont think iv ever bought a game that deserves zero, but this is the type of game i love. (and it plays folk music while u play :) )

I have really only made an account to comment on this game (which in my opinion is quite important because of its implications for firefly). My first comment is where on earth is skirmish mode and kingship my two favourite things about stronghold two. My second commnt is on the quality of the campaign, at heart the campaign has the right ideas but it hasnt worked on the little things I had expected would come out of games at this era like sketches instead of videos in my opinion is ridiculous and some of the glitches really annoy me because they come out of nowhere but however apart from a few small mistakes the campaign isnt that flawed. The multiplayer on the other hand sums up all my problems with the game it is slow ineffective and practically impossible to use WITH TINY MAPS FULL OF GLITCHES. I mentioned at the start the implications for firefly what Iam saying here is the failure of some aspects of the game could bring an end to the stronghold series which in my opinion would be disastorous as i have stronghold 2 i bloody well love it so in short firefly NEED TO FIX THIS GAME.… Expand

There is potential for a decent game. But it crashes constantly. I have been unable to past level 6 of the military campaign because of a consistent crash. I just cannot proceed any further. I sent all the log files that the developer requested weeks ago but they have not been able to fix it yet. They just released a new patch today (January 6th, 2012) and it did not fix the issue so the game is still unplayable for me. I don't really even mind the crashes because it keeps me from playing this game that was so unbalanced it was ridiculous. Like I said, the concept has potential but the execution is horrible.

Here's an interesting glimpse into the problems you can face - this is taken from the release notes of the patch today:

- Fixed the issue with the campaign not continuing after loading in a save game from the main menu.

Take a minute to absorb that. Here were are, 3 months after launch and they have finally fixed a bug that made it so that saving the game was worthless. Sure, you could save the game. But if you dared load the game it made it impossible to continue with the campaign. I ran into this bug myself and reported it on their forum and they had it fixed about two weeks later. So picture what happened to me... I started Level 2, saved the game and quit. Came back the next day, loaded the game and completed Level 2 after about an hour of playing. I then wasn't able to advance to Level 3 because of this bug. I had to replay Level 2 from the beginning without Saving and Loading. This is just the tip of the iceburg with problems. It is very apparent that anyone buying this game for the foreseeable future is paying for the privilege of alpha testing it for the developers.… Expand

I think a constructive review is needed here. I don't normally review any games I buy, but I feel compelled to comment this time.

There are two main elements I'm disappointed with - The Graphics, and the missing skirmish mode.

Graphics - I loved the previous Stronghold games, I'm a huge fan. The Stronghold series really impressed me...so simple yet wonderfully designed. The graphics on the previous versions were never cutting edge, but they always looked JUST RIGHT, no frills but very nicely and professionally done. All that was needed, after so many years, was an updated version; something that kept the best elements, added to them, and impressed the hell out of us graphically. I mean, this is not a sprawling game in terms of graphics production, so it should have been a simple job.

Sadly, the graphics are, well, I'm trying to express this without being pointlessly horrible...they're grimy, look unfinished, everything looks dismal, and the quality of the textures is (I'm sorry) really poor. It's hard to imagine that this was done by the same art team as the previous games. The textures generally appear to have some kind of overdone bump or normal map (looks like a bump) which just looks noisy, especially on the castle stone. Everything seems so grey and dark. There is literally NO eye-candy, nothing at all to help immerse the player in the world. It kind of feels like it was made in the dark ages, it might be technically more up to date but the immediate impression (which has to come from the visuals) is that this game took a graphical step back from Stronghold 2. I wanted to create beautiful structures (and knock down beautiful structures). Perhaps the art team felt this 'messy' look added medieval realism, but I'm sorry they didn't quite get it right. Especially when viewed at a distance, it should all smooth out, and the overall appearance should never be so noisy. It's weird, it looks like a hobby project. Even castles still standing today look less messy than the Stronghold 3 structures, and...it's a game...yes it's great to be accurate but (A) they missed 'accurate' because of the poor quality, and (B) There was room for some artistic licence. Where the hell is the atmosphere? Is there any? When playing a game we want to be immersed, we want to feel uplifted or scared or excited or...something...anything!

Overall the game looks like a wet weekend at the most depressing derelict castle imaginable. You know, you pay to get in then plod around a muddy site in the rain looking at some bits of old walls while the kids moan and you get soaked through from the drizzle! You wish you'd gone to a better castle. The only people appreciating the one you're at are members of 'time team' and only own wellies. That kind of place!

The POV doesn't help either, and I couldn't find a way to tilt the camera (although I didn't play that long so maybe I missed something).

I'm so disappointed, and I really don't understand what happened. There was nothing to stop this being wonderful, budget certainly couldn't be to blame because it's not a case of needing more graphics, they should just have been done better. We could easily have been creating super impressive castles, beautifully crafted stone giants gleaming in the sun by day and glowing by torch light at night. Graphics have come a long way, but even without any amazing shaders this could have looked wonderful. Very easily. I'd mention that a choice of styles would have been nice too, I mean castles don't all look exactly the same (especially from one country to another), but if you can't get one set right then adding more to the mix is maybe a bad idea.

A careful postmortem is needed, and my little rant certainly isn't that...It's hard to nail exactly why this is so bad without going deeper. It just looks, and also FEELS, horrible...from the noisy mess of the graphics to the horrible non-snapping building placement and terrible camera control.

Maybe I shouldn't instantly blame the art dept, maybe this all looked wonderful in Max or Maya (actually, no, it didn't), and maybe the code dept did a fantastic job of destroying it. Or maybe they outsourced the bulk to some cheap offshore place and ran out of time and money to fix the mess...who knows...

Add to this the fact that, in single player, I can't just build and battle it out against NPCs, and I was just (again) so disappointed. And again, I wouldn't normally review games, generally I don't care enough and wouldn't want to knock anyone...but I'd waited for this one, and what I saw (after the endless messing with Steam etc to install it) was just horrible, and for me that put a very final and sad end to what I had previously considered to be the best series of this type of game. So I thought, these guys need to know ... just in case they DO get to make another one, and then maybe next time they'll get it right?… Expand

What a disgrace. They still have the nerve to sell this piece of filth for the price of a normal game. No one should spend any kind of currency on this miserable excuse of a sequel. Just buy Stronghold 1.

You guys have never played a stornghold game and you think that 2007 was the best year for gameing it was not it was the start of crap.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................

I refused to write a review in order to give firefly a chance to fix the game, after so many patches and the release of today's patch (last patch in 2011) I decided to review the game, cause I lost hope in this game, the developers cant fix much really, instead they keep adding useless stuff like new maps & modes for multiplayer (multiplayer itself is still not working well), siege maps (boring to hell)... After you finish the military and economic campaigns there are no much to do, so you will go for free build, where you will build one time and set and invasion (then you wont play it again for sure) so after that you will jump into multiplayer, you will struggle and waste time in order to start the game, and if you succeed you will lag and maybe crash, thats it the game itself has a great potential but it seems a lot of things are broken and will be hard to fix. Stronghold series is unique and I love it, but SH3 is just so buggy with missing features that were avalable in previous game (skirmish for example)... This will be thier last game for sure, untill some developers will come and make us a nice castle RTS/ Sim..… Expand

this game is just a big bug...... no words!!
never played a unfished game like this **** -.-
......................................................................................................

This game is just terrible. absolutely terrible. the gameplay is boring on tedious; Stronghold 3 really failed in micromanaging. and i can't believe they haven't fixed the horrible combat yet... battles still consist of 2 clusters of guys swinging at each other. I don't necessarily want my 50 dollars back because im cheap, i want my 50 dollars back because firefly doesn't deserve money for this terrible excuse for a game.… Expand

Well I gotta say thank you to Steam, Metacritic and you reviewers. For making it possible to many of those who've never played the game before to see what buyers are saying and not allowing companies to hide their Bull***t. See I'm an avid gamer and built my custom performance computer solely for it! I must say Firefly that I've honestly never played your games but from what I'm seeing from reading these owners reviews of this lousy game (so I'm hearing). It doesnt look like you'll be getting my money anytime soon for this game, nor will I waste the time installing it let alone play it. Its obviously a bad game when people from third world countries who cant even speak hardly a word of English are saying that this game is terrible, and then you have those who have pirated the game dont even give it so much as one point for even just getting the game for free for God's sake! (You know the game is really crap at that point and I've never even played the game yet!) Its obvious that you knowingly released a bad game and knowing (or should I say hoping) that you were going to make money of a lousy effort game. I gotta agree with the rest of these folks, you really should be ashamed of yourselves, give the money back to these people and dont release games until they are done and done RIGHT!! You guys know what today's gaming standards are! Live up to it or don't bother making the game and expect people to pay $50 or more for a lousy game when they can get a $20 game that is by ten fold better!! (Once again thanks to Steam, Metacritic and the reviewers for saving my bacon or wallet this time should I say. And lastly, I'm sorry Firefly, but when it comes to people who are leaving 10 for a Metascore....... O_o .......(C'mon! Really guys?)........ITS CLEARLY YOU when 70-80% of people are leaving no higher than a 2 if you're lucky. The only 2 conclusions that I could come to for people leaving a 10 in a situation like this is ........ #1 You either work for the company, or #2 You are seriously easy to please and obviously never played a video game a day in your life and/or are seriously simple minded. Sorry guys, I'm afraid you're probably gonna sink on this one fellas no matter how much you try to avoid it. Too many people already now know this game isn't worth the time to even install it! I hope it was worth it, cause you sure aren't getting my cash for this one. Not with scores like this. Terribly Sorry. :-(… Expand

I'm going to receive a lot of hate for this but i liked the game. sure it had its fare share of bugs and it was a bit slow i enjoyed it and the game is being patched every week and its getting better all the time.now the reason i didn't give it higher marks is it is not excusable to send out a buggy and unfinished game to the consumers sure its getting better every patch but firefly should have checked the game for bugs i wouldn't of minded this game being delayed to finish it. Collapse… Expand

Bugs bugs crashes horses that climb towers , walls that don't protect, unprofessional, possible that FF new partner at fault " 7sixty " previous products were great , this was a mistake

After several patches realy a pretty good game- selecting of units much much much better, no more crashes, I am realy enjoying the economic campaign, havent tried military yet. Initialy I waited for patches after my first emo rage. They have made the world of difference- all that remains is to make walls stronger and actualy buildable(is that a word)?

This game is broken.

I desperately wanted to love this game, but after half a dozen attempts that all ended with swearing a blue streak at the game, I know that, barring a complete overhaul, this game should be considered Dead on Arrival and avoided like the plague.

Many other reviewers have listed the numerous problems, including an insane difficulty, an utter lack of explanation, a lack of queues for attack, combat that borders on torture for the player, and castle-building that is incomprehensible (both in the building's relationships and in a seemingly random refusal to allow for building).

I love castle games, but I wouldn't play this game if it was FREE, and they'd have to pay me a fair bit to put up with it. It has potential, but unless they pull out a complete overhaul similar to the Enhanced Edition of The Witcher, this game should be avoided by all.… Expand

No working multiplayer, single player, map, wall, AI, saved games... No single map. Nothing works properly with 50dollars price tag.

ashes of a legend

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. En resumen, un juego muy simple para el siglo en el que vivimos... según mi criterio los chicos te strongnord no trabajaron en lo que tenian que trabajar, mas opciones, mejor gestion de los castillos, cosas nuevas, inovaciones. muy mal, Si me dieran la oportunidad no lo compraria… Expand

FireFly = RIPOFF ARTISTS !! FF must run by criminally incompetent marketing hacks. They are ACTIVELY SELLING a product that THEY KNOW IS NOT FINISHED. Buy it only if you like blue screen of death.

Where is the Skirmish mode? I never play the Campaign mode!!! Without Skirmish this game is a trash!!! And to worse the begin at the Campaign you don't has a realm, you just have slow persons to control! This game give me sleep!

this game failed. the graphics and sound are crap. the original eradicates this game. i hate this game. after 5 minutes i knew it was all over for me.

All the bugs have been fixed, the one problem I have is that they made the wall building more like age of empires (the best part of stronghold was making a customizable castle) the maps are kind of tiny, but in most cases that does not matter because you dont need a huge map to do the mission. They tried somthing new with the drawn art work cinematics, respsect them for that. Stronghold has always been a non noob friendly economic castle builder, most the people downrating this game are a console generation that want fast action in everything they play, stronghold will not be a direct hit instant love for most players, but for a small amount of us you will be reminded of the old stronghold (all the bugs got fixed, if they just had better walls this would be at least an 8) But sadly, it is no measure to stronghold 1, but you COULD say that if you just want to play stronghold 1, then play stronghold 1 right? wrong, it took on an age of empires resemblance which is not what its supposed to be, kingdoms took on a starcraft like stance (which is not what it is) stronghold has always been unique and should not try to blend itself with other genre's… Expand

Why? Just why? I feel like i have paid for stronghold 2 all over again with parts cut out!! The graphics are shocking for current gen games and it crashes so much. BAD southpeak games BAD!

I was lucky enough to return my copy and used the money to pre-order Arkam City instead a much better choice. Even if they do fix the problems won't matter. "you can polish a turd but its still a POS" is just the perfect saying to go along with Stronghold 3. I might buy the game again when its 75-80% off on a steam sale but other than that I am probably done with Firefly. For those people giving this game a 10 your insane since that's a score reserved for the best games which SH3 is so far from its crazy. Every RTS needs a skirmish for replay-ability and those that don't have one apparently don't realize its important to a RTS. I remember having so much fun playing 8 player skirmish games in Stronghold Crusader, me against a bunch of Wolves, good times, not anymore though. I was really looking forward to this game especially after that abysmal SH2 ugh, but somehow they made something equally as terrible with SH3. I feel bad for the people that are stuck with this garbage after paying $50.… Expand

My english is bad , but this game is far more bad than my english
Dis game must have 0 score, people is giving score 9 and 10 is just marketing people, dont trust them
Even in my Country this game suck a lot , fail game, people in my country buy pirate version and they still want refund it to the pirate store (what a mess, not even worth a penny they say)
Why this game bad? dis like asking "why sea water is salty?"
1. BUGSSS with triple S (means a lotssss) even spartan cant throw spear through walls but spearmen here can, cant build walls , units can freeze and block , even worse, it can make another units freeze when its close to the freeze unit, i called it refrigerator effects, cant build stair to the walls , cant build mount to the walls (wooden shield dat mounted to the walls, make ur archer Invunerable from enemy spear and archer), when night time , enemy can shoot ur acher from darkness , but ur archer dead from below do nothing , until bales of fire thrown to light the way, many buttons dont works
2. Graphics and Music - suck a lotsssss i hate seeing female villager out from house when built , its so UGLY , gimme beatifull lady better than wretched hag
3. NON-Sense - pikemen / halberdier can survive spike traps and only injured a very very bit, like the traps was designed by playground child or firefly teams and pikemen was ironman
Wolves is very very strong and ur soldier no match for them, ur soldier is wimpy retired veteran from stone age war, who in the stone age war was fled , not fighting just pretend dead and recruited by stronghold 3, wolves should has a new name, Godzilla should suit, and even better they can multiply
4. SADIST , default difficulty is impossible, get out here noob & new player , play a barbie instead stronghold 3 , its too sadist.
There is a level with a new technology (wooden shield in the wall, make ur archer invulnerable) but next level it is not available, and enemy get stronger, like fighting an army with a stick and harsh languange Enemy Army spawn from the sky, i attack enemy army with small army but can handle entire castle and new enemy army spawn in front of my army and my army just go picnic to the graveyard, you gonna rushed to produce weapons, ur peasant regenerate very slowly and ur army dead faster, and firefly very sadist , when you are attacked by enemy and busy fighting them , disaster come , such as apple blight , wolves come , cows dead heart attack, giving a lots minus in happiness, its just like God doesnt side with the good people, maybe ur enemies was the good people and ure the evil , so God doesnt side you in stronghold 3, and I dont side with stronghold 3, take that 0 , this was bloody hell, hummiliation embarassing crappy worse than hello world programming
5. EXCITEMENT the only part of this game is make me laugh of joy is when see my peasant with weapon(militia) and my spearmen fighting a group of spearman and enemy militia in the bushes, in the hill , enemy troops just flying out of the bushes and go down hill when dead , like in the roman army in the asterix comics, and dat not gonna worth 1 points, too bad… Expand

Bottomline:Stronghold 3 is a colossal disappointment for the die hard fans who have been waiting for this game for almost 7 years.Instead of improving and building on what made the original so successful they take many steps backward.First of all let me be very specific Firefly did release their game imcomplete(tat was obvious)with a price tag of 1 would imagine of high profile titles like call of duty or Bethesda "Elder scrolls" series(i regret each single penny that i lost).The game is broken full of Bugs,unplayable,extremely tiny map and CAN U BELIEVE IT THE SKIRMISH MODE IS GONE..SIGH! I seriously thinkwhat Firefly was thinking while omitting those features in the game...GRAPHICS are the worst part...extremely dated graphics(of one you'd imagine back in 2002)...An imcomplete and incompetant product for 50$(seriousy guys i threw my money off)........STROGHOLD 3 IS A COMPLETE FIASCO… Expand

Castle building? Again and again? You've gone too far this time! You don't need to to cause more pain again and again and again until we're all dead. No one's gonna buy it, so go make another game at least a handful of people will find interesting.

Immense disappointment. As a long-time fan of the series I am nothing but let down by this unfinished, unpolished, incomplete travesty. Seriously, how hard is it to code Stronghold 1 in 3D with graphics from this decade? Too hard apparently. It's rough, crude and lacks any sophistication or substance. There isn't even a skirmish mode to justify playing it after the pathetically threadbare campaign. Do not give your money to these losers. Not even worth picking up from a bargain bin. WOLVES CLIMBING LADDERS.… Expand

They could do better. As the concept of play is not bad, but failed to create a beautiful game. It is boring, lacks consistency and incomplete, because even in the building free once built the main structures, the game stops. We find ourselves saying: "ok I built everything, now I turn off". A real shame, because the concept is really nice. Fail!

There is really no need for another negative review, except to help offset the few false positive reviews in which the negative reviewers are called trolls. The game is awful, after patches. It is unstable, buggy, units defy any form of logic, walls mysteriously have invisible gaps, terrain textures vanish, and even the map editor itself is unstable and buggy. This game is a truly a big, steaming pile.… Expand

In my humble opinion, Firefly should sell the Stronghold license to a developer that knows what to do with it, and shut down. This game is a disaster.

First of all there is no way that anyone could give this game 10/10 this would be a complete lie!! It obvios to me that those posts have been put in to bump up the review score. I am rating this game as 4 out of 10 as I think a 0 is too harsh.

As the previous reviews already covered all the bugs I wont bother mentioning them again. Missing Content:

I have noticed and moats are not included in the game!!! Even funnier is that there is a drawbridge but it opens over nothing?!? Correct me if I am wrong but most European castles have moats. As already mentioned before Skirmish mode is missing and no its not the same as multiplayer!!!! I think the reason is because the AI is not good enough to siege a castle or build a castle (I cant think of a better reason why it would not be in the game).

I recall there was a mode in stronghold 1 where you have peace to build the castle exactly the way you wanted it and then could click a button to an attack launched at you. This is also gone.

Limitations:

I remember reading somewhere that you will be able to build castles the way you want. But in Stronghold 3 the mechanics of castle building force you to build in a certain way. In Stronghold 1 if you wanted a tower with a wall 4 stonewalls thick you could do that. Or if you wanted stairs that run along the wall not away from it you could do that too. But in stronghold 3 this freedom is gone. I think this really breaks the game for me!! Not to mention that troops can shoot through walls.

You can only build one stockpile and cant expend it so you constantly have to sell stuff to keep it from overfilling. The granary on the other hand does not seem to have a limit?

Bad balance and issues.

As mentioned before almost all characters in the game move externally slowly but for some reason unamoured peasants move so slow that its just painful to watch. Spear man with chain armour move almost as slow as the king in full armour. Spear man come with spears they can throw but if you tell them to attack a soldier out of a group of troops they will throw all their spears at the one guy(Total overkill)!!!! Then the enemy retaliates and shoots several of your man. Peasants production is far too slow. Once you have 4 or more shops producing spears you cant actually recruit soldiers quick enough to use up the supply. Multiplayer

You cant set a password on a hosted game so if you want to play with a friend you have to keep kicking people until your friend manages to connect. Only 4 maps

No AI so you cant play with a friend against them (And yes some people do like to do this instead of vs players!!!)

Music

I am not sure that going with songs that have lyrics was a good choice as they soon start to loop and get annoying. Music without words is a better choice.

Graphics

Apart from being quite dark the graphics are ok but I am not convicted that going to 3D with this game was worth the loss of features and gameplay.

Conclusion

I think that because stronghold 1 set the benchmark so high it is just really hard to beat but at the same time it was working so there was no reason to change it. All it needed was improved graphics and better resolutions rather than a complete overhaul. I liked how smoothly Stronghold 1 ran and this does not seem apparent in Stronghold 3. If anyone wants to discuss farther or simply does not agree please drop me an email at savman69@gmail.com… Expand

Ive decided to place my first review ever to encourage people to never buy this game, being a stronghold fan of the original. Im sadden to say this game is a 0 plan and simple thank you for wasting my money Stronghold 3 FTL.

Basically, any review above a 5 is a major "trolololololol" this game is almost as as unplayable as ugly. now i understand its not meant to be a game based around its graphics, but this is 2011, not having AT LEAST decent graphics is a hard thing to explain. In addition, the economy's is wretched, i thought it was a castle building game, well i was wrong.

Lets get this straight - I am a Stronghold fan - and would (normally) defend it until the diseased cows come home - however, with SH3 Firefly have released a product that scrapes the bottom of a buggy and featureless barrel. The new graphics engine wouldn't look out of place in 2004 - the numerous bugs render the game virtually unplayable. The stony silence from the development team merely mocks us fans. I purchased this game from Steam - those guys are notorious for not giving refunds on any titles for any reason.... They refunded me for this travesty. If you have fond memories of the original then avoid this like the plague. The one good thing going for this game is that is makes Stronghold 2 look great! Firefly may well of killed off the series with this installment of the franchise.… Expand

the game could be fun if it was playable...new to the series and will not be back....currently trying for a refund over the unbelievable bugginess...cant even load games without crashes. complete waste of 50 bucks....warning...do not buy this game.....many others with same issues

I had intended to wait until I saw reviews but went ahead and preordered Stronghold 3 anyway. What I got was nothing like what was promised. They promised coop, but removed it at the last minute. That right there is a deal breaker for me. They went on and on about the graphical improvements and AI, when it looks and plays nearly as bad as the very first Stronghold. I understand they are a small development company, I understand that games tend to be released with a few bugs. But this game plays like an alpha version of a game, not even ready to be released to beta testers. They have promised patches to fix the bugs, but it is more than just bugs. They rescinded everything good about the game at the very last second, which reeks to me of fraud.… Expand

Stay away! Don't waste your money. This game is crap. I've already uninstalled it. There are so many bugs in this game, I'm sure there was NO beta-testing at all. That's the only possible explanation for this mess. I was a huge fan of the Stronghold series, played all parts except legends, but Stronghold 3 is HORRIBLE!!! Don't even know where to start.

Microscopic maps. Mouse pointing from hell (attacking enemies only possible if you are lucky). NO AI (own troops just watch as wolves rape peasants in front of them. 10 own vs 4 enemies - 10 selected spearmen all attack the one soldier of the enemy troops you happen to click on with your attack command and then the other 3 enemies slaughter them while they are reloading). Wolves climb ladders, levitate over your walls and kill all peasants inside your castle, without them defending themselves. NO feedback if you are under attack, you need to coincidental look at that spot where the fight is to notice it. Even if your Lord is under attack, no message, same if wolves or bears eat your peasants or soldiers. Peasants dance and celebrate while being eaten, soldiers just watch it like innocent bystanders, without helping them. One wolf can kill 3 soldiers, even if they defend themselves. Arrows and spears fly through stone walls. Placing a group of archers on your walls is worse than herding cats. Archers on walls have no range advantage against attackers on the ground. Single soldiers can tear down stone walls, without the help of siege weapons. What value have walls in a castle building game!!!? There is NO WAY this game was beta-tested! How they could release it in this state for full price is beyond me and should be illegal. Played it about 1-2 hours on the first day, had several crashes, uninstalled it and now negotiate with steam about a refund, what they are still deny. Game is not finished and advertised features like co-op mode are not included. I'm so mad at them for releasing such an unfinished, buggy, overpriced game that I would love to torture the person responsible for this mess. Don't buy this game, except you are a masochist.… Expand

November 3rd PATCH may have just saved this title. At least Firefly Studios cares about the people and the issues they had. Give them a chance they can fix this. They have fixed many issues in the November 3rd PATCH launch in steam and see for yourself.

It is amazing that a respectable game company can release a game of such low quality. The graphics might have been acceptable in the 1990s but come on, this is a game released in 2011... the game is filled with graphical bugs, poor quality game-play... This game is one of the worst games i have seen in a long time and i have seen my share of bad games...

First this game alots of bugs, problems 2 play, this is terrible, was a fan of this game....real pitty.
The game is very slow, b4 u build something, it take hours. It looks like this game have be made with trainees. The only PLUS in this game, is how they present the game at the beginning, good sounds and music. For the price this is 2 expensive. Money back please.

I'm a old stronghold fan, but this day one purchase has been very disappointing... I've encountered many bugs, some of which forced me to reload a game. The unit controls and are very poor at best. The campaign mode lacks imagination, the difficulty is based on what you are allowed to build instead of letting the player use his/her preferred units/buildings. lack of game modes and maps, specifically skirmish mode, gives the game little replay value.

Until some patches come out, please, do not buy this game. It's not worth your time or money.… Expand

could have spent more time being developed. come on firefly. u did some fine graphics work but the bugs and glitches are really bad. the patches are nice but i honestly think u shot yourself in foot with the release in such bad shape. next time wait made do a close beta to find more bugs possible re-think your Q&A team and find some better tester would help you out more. i hope to see a stronghold 4 but take your time and show us what u can really do, give us a stronghold with a great release. gives a stronghold it can give us score of 90. i know you can do better then this.… Expand

This wouldn't have been a brilliant game if it had come out five years ago, let alone now. Looks dated and dodgy, plays very poorly with slow, unresponsive units and a primitive interface. Even though it's a niche game and offers the reasonably rare selling point of letting you build and run a castle it does it so badly that even if I was jonesing for a castle building game I'd still give it a miss. Really disappointed.… Expand

Tired theme, limited game play, unimaginative and outdated graphics and storyline, limited free play and no skirmish mode. All in all very poor value for money. Difficult to see what developers have been doing this past four years. Should consider withdrawing the product and going back to the drawing board. Total flop.

Outdated 3d graphics, numerous bugs and no skirmish mode. The first Stronghold is now 10 years old and it's still far more enjoyable than any other game of the franchise (with Crusader being the exception).

Worst of all the Stronghold games out there. Ive played since Stronghold 1 and did all the campaigns and spend a lot of time on its games. But after the first impressions and first militairy campaign mission I quit already. The camera is always on top, everything feels so..small. I did not really look at the graphics at this point, but I think they are a bit worse than SH: 2 graphics. Many small annoying things from SH: 2 have gone, but I think Firefly studios made a bit to much gone; Skirmish mode. The once so marvelous mode were you could pick your own enemies and place to start, on a certain difficult mode just for you. Its a shame that that mode has gone, leaving you to Free build without any enemies, militairy campaign with no freedom; its always following the objectives. And also Economic campaign. I only think Firefly left the units, the buildings, the silly but funny fighting scenes were units collapse into each other, and the name into the Stronghold franchise. This is not Stronghold 3, it feels more like Farmholdville 3. A waste of time and money if you are well known to the Stronghold series.
Also, I think it might be time to change unit voices. It might be not such a bad game for the non-hardcore Stronghold/strategy fans(after all the bug fixes). But for the real fans out there: Stay Away from this game.… Expand

I wish all of the other reviews were incorrect. I love the stronghold series and I ALWAYS give a game a good opportunity to impress me before I make a decision. This game just couldn't wait though. As one who loved stronghold 2, I felt empty playing SH3. Gone is my beloved skirmish mode. Even sandbox mode was lacking the ability to build an awesome castle. Maps are microscopic in comparison to SH2 maps. I haven't tried the war campaign but so far the economic campaign has failed to excite. Sure the first two missions were fine but number 3 is a case study in why strategy titles like this need a speed up mode. I'm sorry, I am in fact one of those people who likes to sit back and watch my people go about their business. I love Settlers; Heritage of Kings for that very reason. But it is ridiculous expecting players not to lose patience waiting for wood cutters to level a forest, just to continue. Every facet of this game that I have experienced so far has left me wanting. Imagine, if you can that feeling of getting the Sims 3 after playing Sims 2 with all of the expansion packs and gigs of downloaded custom content. Then add bugs and remove a number of options and things to do from Sims 2 original, multiply it by ten... and the feeling left by SH 3 is still worse. Especially because in the back of my mind is that it is not as if much of what I want will come out in an expansion pack. Large maps, skirmish mode, building variety. I doubt any of this will be added.
I truly wish that I could tell people to try it and see for themselves but accept this warning from someone whom is sorely disappointed with the amount of money spent and the result I got. I am very sorry for all of those anticipating something great, but this game is just not worth it. I really wish I had something better to say but this metacritic account was made just to add to the many reviews all saying the same thing: Don't waste your money. It is an empty game that will leave you feeling empty. The tragedy is two fold. It is a poor game, and we are still left wanting stronghold 3… Collapse

Stronghold 3 is good... I dont know why all these kids have marked it down. Theres been patches and there is no bugs or crashes. 1920x1080 RESOLUTION IS AVAILIBLE. Don't beleive those liars. Multiplayer is fun and there is plenty of people playing. The leaderboards after earch level is a fun addition. This is Stronghold 2 but with much better graphics, better story and better multiplayer.

Pretty good game. No bugs. Graphics are nice. Multiplayer is enjoyable. Music is very good. Physics engine is awesome. I think most people havent even played the game fully before reviewing.

Many (perhaps all) of the enjoyable elements associated with the Stronghold series have been butchered. Even the basic requirements of decent RTS do not function correctly. For example, the simple method of selecting units and giving orders is broken.

Stronghold 3 can be described as full of bugs, stupid developer decisions, and it AI (if it can be called like that at all) robs you blind. There are problems everywhere, archers who can't shoot from towers, when attacking you will need lot of patience to find a place around enemy where cursor changed to attack icon, sometimes you have to click on enemy and most of times you have to hunt pixel around enemy where it will let you to attack. As for robbing AI, if you have 8 spearmen and you attack 1 enemy spearman, he will kill 5 of yours before falls. Also wolves, at campaign start you can't build walls, wolfs enter settlement they will kill all peasants, farmers, woodcutters, as they cant defend for themselves. You will need to run around with lord hunting wolves around town to keep as much people alive as you can, also one wolf can kill 3-4 spearmen. Game can be unstable, so you will need to save a lot, as there is no auto-save. List of problems goes on and on. And all of this is just about campaign, as there is no skirmish, no kingmaker mode. There is no AI, game just spawns units that are same as yours but AI archers do more damage than players, same goes for men at arms, spearmen, etc. Total garbage.… Expand

Like others, I've created a metacritic account for the first time to warn others. This game is utter dogsh!t. I waited so long for it through lengthy delays, and still didn't get a copy at EB games after the game was delayed again on 27 October. Sadly I rushed in and downloaded it from Steam. I wish I had of waited to get it from EB, so I could have heeded these warnings, or at least returned it. Yawn. Zzzzzzz.… Expand

This game's graphics are uninspiring. The interface is clunky. The economics are difficult to balance (how many apple farms do I need for 10 workers?). This game was a waste of cash. Overall it feels like a 5-8 year old game. I got into this to build kick-arse castles - so why am I running an economic sim I have to micromanage while, oh yeah, the CASTLE BITS aren't available for construction. This game is a disgrace, the worst "finished product" I've purchased in recent memory.

DON'T BUY IT, IF SOMEONE GIVES YOU A COPY DON'T PLAY IT… Expand

The Good
The sword progress bar is a nice idea.
The Bad
No skirmish mode. Sub par graphics and poor animations. A multitude of bugs that make doing simple things like placing stairs painful. Small maps that feel cramped, this isn't helped by the huge space each building takes up. Awful UI that gives almost no info on what's going on, even the little mini map shows nothing but some coloured blocks that indicate exactly nothing. Dumb stuff such as virtually indestructible wolves that climb ladders while still animated like their running on the ground, and why is this a central element in the economic campaign anyway? The overwhelming feeling is of a lack of care, a lack of attention to detail and a total lack of testing. Seriously, who approved the crude b&w sketches for the cut scenes? Awful.
The Ugly
The game was advertised on Steam as having CO-OP play, post release this was pulled from the Steam page. This is really a bad alpha build game that is frankly unlawfully advertised and promoted.… Expand

After being a huge fan of the original Stronghold and Stronghold Crusader, I am sad to say that this release is absurdly bad. I am not sure that I have seen a major commercial PC release this bad in my 20+ years of gaming.

Personally, I think this is a great game. the music and gameplay is awesome. It is very enjoyable the way this game work. I love the cartoon cutscene over the one in the first stronghold. Also Multiplayer is very enjoyable. To those who actually know how to play computer games will love this game. To those 12 years old who know nothing but cod and wasd keys dont bother buy this game. If you cant simply handle the wolf, and manage to let them though and kill all your peasant, you are just bad at game. Stop complain that the game is bad because you cant beat the animals on economic mission 2. Go back to your call of duty games Mike.… Expand

the game is just plain bad. they make you pay 50 bucks for a game that feels like it was made 10 years ago. I used to like stronghold now i just want to forget it

This is a big disappointment. BIG disappointment. I seriously wish I could get a refund to be honest. No skirmish mode against the AI? No editor? The game is glitchy, the units often wont do as told and get stuck. Building is way more limited than before, peasants block placement. In a busy town, when is there not a peasant underfoot?
AI is sad, often men just stand next to eachother and ignore everything.

This game is nothing like past versions, and not in a good way...
DONT buy this, I seriously wish I hadnt.… Expand

$50 for this garbage? Black and White 2 was a mediocre game, yet it is far, far better than this game in every respect even though it is 7 years old. Even though city/wall building is not core to B&W2, those aspects of that game are so much better than this game that it is shocking. Why is this game bad? 1. Bad graphics [REALLY outdated] 2. Terrible interface and controls. 3. The patrol and attack-move buttons do not work, and no attack-move is a horrible handicap in combat. 4. Peasants block building placement, including elderly and children. This means that once you have a somewhat populated area, it becomes virtually impossible to place buildings, because peasant traffic will constantly block open areas. 5. The sound and art is terrible, it seriously feels like an indie game that you could play on newgrounds. 6. BUGS, I ran in to numerous problems, including crash to desktops and hangs.… Expand

Stronghold 3 is one of the coolest most innovative games of its time! That is, if its time was 10 years ago. This game seems to be an exercise in frustration. For example, I was playing the second mission on the military campaign. I was taking my Lord around, and looking for the lost troops as the mission objectives said I should do. In the meantime, I was supposed to be saving up 100 cheese, wood, and apples. However, when I was away looking around the map, I noticed that I suddenly had only 1 peasant left. I thought, "What's going on here? Have I set my taxes too high?" I checked, and everything seemed fine in the "mood" department. I had a big green 35. I turned out that all of my peasants had been killed by wolves that were camping directly in front of my keep. The wolves continued to instantly kill everyone that stepped out. This was fine with me, wolves killing peasants seemed like a natural problem to occur in the time period. The real problem was that I had no idea that it was happening. There was no sound effects to indicate my poor peasants were dying, no voice over from my servant telling me my peasants were dying. This kind of problem should not exist in a modern day RTS. On a side note, the only thing this game has going for it is that the storyline the developers have crafted seemed somewhat intriguing. However, the gameplay is so terrible that I cannot punish myself past the third mission to continue the story.… Expand

I have been a fan of the stronghold series for a while now, and have played all of them. Stronghold 3 is the 2nd best one next to Stronghold 1. The gfx are great, look at the screenshots they have on facebook stronghold 3 page. The music is nice and campaign is pretty good once you reach latter levels. Cant say much negetive about it, the core gameplay is here and i havent had any bugs or crashes. multiplayer works well as well. good game, great if you like a next gen RTS.… Expand

STAY AWAY !!! Thx to the piracy I saved myself money This game is totally unplayable I wanted to have fun not to be irritated. first of all where the heck is difficulty level ??? second: in the advertisement i heard about realism. so please go to the shop buy bread and find out the very next day /read mission/ that there is no bread available to buy or produce ??? can i forget how to build a farm or bakery just like that ??? new construction should be added not removed and if You guys try to make the game difficult that way - so its bad way !!! third i should be able to buy everything in market building and first of all the items that i cant produce in the first place. 4. i gave that game 4 mission time to convince me that its a good game. and stuck on fourth mission its to difficult for normal player and to annoying. camera control is bad. and the space bar view is useless. Bugs everywhere. Time control would be nice. I,am into strategic games and i hoped to have good game instead i have seen lots of potential wasted. Shame on You Firefly Studios and again thanks to the pirates. It's not like i would say its good to use pirated version but now days i think there is new mission for them to show the crap to the people !!! and they did as to stronghold 3. I would like to buy quality good designed games. I like playing games and i support the companies which are producing games i like. Once again I dont want to be misunderstood piracy is not good for the companies and players too but its good source of knowing what to buy and what to forget Uninstalled deleted forged. Waste of hdd space and money if You intend to buy.… Expand

Stronghold is a GOOD game! they have been releasing updates and already the game is fixed. People shouldnt review the game the day its released, no.1 because they cant experience it all in that time, no.2 because the game hasnt been patched yet! 2 large patches have been released and the game works perfectly and I love it

After playing stronghold 2 before buying stronghold 3, I genuially like stronghold 3. I enjoyed stronghold 2 and stronghold 3 has teh core gameplay but better graphics, sound and multiplayer. The only thing stopping me from giving this a 10 is that there needs to be more maps for multiplayers.

The game is currently unplayable and obviously incomplete. There is almost no documentation for any of the mechanics,mechanics that exist generally do not work as they should. Game is a disaster and a last moment cash grab. Stick a fork in this franchise it is done...

stronghold 3 is very good. I havent had any problems and I think the game is very very fun. the grapics look very good, the gameplay is fun and immersive and the sound / music is great. all these negative reviews are probably call of duty kids.

As the first time I've played a game in this series, I was very much looking forward to trying a game that was heavily hyped.

I can see why people love the premise and style of the game however it severely lacks polish and, if I were to guess, I'd suggest it shipped a couple of months before it was ready.

The tutorial, something very important to a new player, was superficial at best. It gives no indication on how to play except on how to place a couple of the basic buildings. Very poor.

The game has several inconvenient bugs, has a very claustrophobic map size which I expect will inhibit grand building later in the game, only ships with a few multiplayer maps and is missing some fairly obvious gameplay modes.

If you have any doubt it was rushed, ask anyone who pre-ordered and found out that the game did not even have English-language (both spoken and menus) complete and needed to wait 24 hours for this to be patched in.

Perhaps much of this will be resolved by patches after release however this does not excuse shipping a half-complete product. I don't expect to pay to beta test a product.

It's left a bad taste in my mouth and I'm somewhat frustrated that I cannot return the game via Steam.… Expand

The game is unfinished and having to pay 50$ for it is a joke.
The problems are so many that are impossibile to list in a single review: missing features (skirmish, AI, ...), unbalanced gameplay (walls that offer no protection, broken food consumption, ...) and many bugs that every QA should notice them and stop the release (wolves that climb ladders!, bad graphics and so on).
If you really want it and you ignore all the negative reviews wait at least for 4-5 patches and a price drop to 20$...… Expand

oh man i feel like a cheated girlâ

Needs a few patches, & Firefly had the first one out before the game was out 2 days in US. Overall Id say they've done a good job in listening to their fans feedback during the games production. Most of us were asking for a revival of the original Stronhold/Crusader formula, & this was indeed done but perhaps even to a fault. The game is damn-near a 3 dimentional current gen version of sh1, personally I am loving it! I've always wanted to play the 1st game again but for the 1st time again well... this is that. The difficulty is hard with no alt settings & I think this is a problem for some, for me though it seems like playing the first all over again. Hearing even some of the original music in game put a smile on my face. The start to this series was one I approched with little expectations & after Stronghold 2 etc I wasnt gonna hold my breath, thankfully I was pleasantly surprized. As with every other release now the game launched with some people experiencing bugs & then of course, out come the knives & pitchforks. Everyone rushes to the forums & meta to vent their rage for being "duped" into buying an incomplete game, cry foul, boycott, warn everyone else not to buy, then do it all over again next time.… Expand

Enjoying it so far. Just finished the second mission in the economy campaign and it was challenging and really enjoyable. By the end of it I was enjoying the layout of my town and got the hang of how to build it up. Have had no big issues with performance, a couple of crashes while loading but really no problem. Graphics are simple but effective. When your stronghold gets going it does look like there is a lot going on, which I like. The graphics look better the larger your cities get. it all could go pear shaped I guess... but so far so good.… Expand

ran the program took one look at the 1996 graphics and said what a absolute waste of 50 dollars......
please dont waste the time or effort to even install this game what an absolute mess

I loved Stronghold 1 and Crusader - not so big on 2 and Legends, but this... this is by far the worst RTS I have ever played in my life. NOTHING works as it should, nothing is thought through. It's like they've taken all the worst parts from previous Stronghold games and none of the good, and then added a million bugs.

Graphics are broken and ugly. 1920x1080 isn't an option, but if I pick 1600x900 it stretches the image for some reason, so I have to play in a 16:10 resolution on my 16:9 monitor with black borders, just to be able to see an unstretched image. Game speed is ridiculously slow. Walls don't protect units behind them, animals can climb ladders, no audio cues when your men are being attacked. No explanation of what anything does and no tooltips for most buttons. Economic system is atrocious and resource management is hell with no HUD indication of resources. Fighting is atrocious and no fun at all. Etc.

This game is horrible in every way, completely unfinished and certain areas, like the cutscenes, clearly showcase how little this game has cost to make, in terms of both money and labour. Releasing a game in this state at full price (or at any price, really) is no different from picking someone's pocket, and Firefly are nothing more than petty thieves.… Expand

This game is garbage. The developers knew what they were doing when they released this trash. Shame on them. False COOP gameplay advertising on Steam during preorder was criminal. I'm disgusted at Firefly and what they did to this franchise. Whenever I see high marks from user reviews for this game, it's clear they work for the company...gross.