I first saw Stronghold Crusader being played over my granddad’s shoulder. We’re going back a long time here, all the way back to 2002 when the original game was first released, 23 years ago, which would’ve made me seven years old.
Which seems like the perfect age to be admiring video games over a relative’s shoulder rather than actually attempting to play them myself: there was quite a lot of that during my upbringing, whether it was my granddad with games like Stronghold, my friend’s older brother with GTA 2, or my best mate with Sim City 3000.
This is how I was introduced to games back in the days before YouTube. It was either watching someone else play, or getting a demo disc on the front of a magazine from Blockbuster. Every time I saw something new it was like finding gold.
I still remember playing the demo of Lego Racers over and over again when we rented it from the shop, or finally getting my hands on Rome: Total War, which came with an incredibly thick manual. I vividly remember the smell upon first opening it.
As a result, the Stronghold games have always held a special place in my heart. I have a lot of nostalgia for the days of chunky CRT monitors and screeching dial-up internet. The original Stronghold Crusader performed very well on whatever computer I had as my first setup. But I can’t remember a thing about it, other than it having a floppy disc drive and an off-yellow aesthetic. Geez. I’m getting old.
Modernizing The Crusades
Image credit: Zade -The History of Stronghold and Making of Crusader: Definitive Edition (Documentary)
Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition is a love letter to these long-forgotten days, a brilliant remaster of a decades-old title, brought back to life with new units, campaigns, and lords to battle with. Firefly Studios, the original team behindStronghold now operating under the umbrella of Devolver Digital, has done a great job revitalizing one of its beloved older titles. The remaster runs as well on my 4K multi-monitor set-up as it did back then, on my lovely white slab of a PC.
Stronghold Crusader was already a large game, a real classic RTS, but now it’s even bigger. There are four more lords, a bunch of single-player missions, and revamped multiplayer capabilities. I’m not even sure how much content there is: at least 150 missions, each with a unique set-up, challenge, or lord match-up.
I did experience some syncing problems while playing co-op with my friend. There was also some input lag in multiplayer, but it was nothing too glaring. Stronghold is a bit of a slower-paced RTS anyway.
Its art style is equally timeless. Stronghold Crusader is a 2.5D isometric game with highly-detailed sprites that has received revamped animations for this definitive edition. Somehow, it looks as good as it did back then. I’ve always thought that games in this style, with detailed pixel sprites, would stand the test of time better than those that opted for rudimentary realism. Turns out I was right on the money.
This return to Stronghold Crusader is just the start for Firefly, too. The updated roadmap shows off two upcoming content drops for later this year, with a new map editor that looks like it will bring even more depth to the 20-year-old game, finally allowing you to customize lords and even their castle layouts. The whole thing just feels pretty great, and I’d love to see other old games get the same treatment - Rise Of Nations, please, please, please.
