Stronghold warlords xbox series#
Stronghold warlords xbox free#

Stronghold warlords xbox series#

In the Stronghold series players don’t have the entire map to use to build and gather resources, which meant that there would be dense pockets of activity around player spawn areas, but the rest of the map would be pretty empty. The strength of this Warlord system is twofold: use of unused map space and increased strategic and tactical options. Once a lord swears loyalty, they give a passive bonus to the controlling player and a range of active options, such as sending food and other resources, to launching attacks against other lords or players. Players can either take these warlords by force or ally with them using the new Diplomacy Points resource. The highlight mechanic of Warlords is the eponymous Warlord system, which places a number of varied NPC lords around a map with their own retinue and castle. Despite that, it’s safe to say that when it comes to Warlords’ military options, players have plenty of ways to compose and diversify their forces. Oddly, though, sapper units have been omitted from the game altogether. The Siege Camp brings all the crazy and powerful siege equipment from the humble protective mantlet and simple catapult, to the explosive fire ox and novel mortar. The Barracks gives access to a wide range of low-tier and high-tier units each with their own specific roles, while the Military Academy provides players with specialist units to diversify their forces even further. On the topic of units, Stronghold: Warlords has excellent unit diversity from the three main recruitment buildings: Barracks, Military Academy, and Siege Camp.

Nonetheless, it’s certainly commendable that the developers chose to tackle a less familiar historical and geographical area for the series. The visual design of the units and the types of buildings all reflect Far Eastern architecture and aesthetic style quite well, though there’s an overemphasis on Imperial China as the main cultural representative compared to Mongolia, Japan, and Vietnam. The choice of setting and art direction are a breath of fresh air for the series, as the previous games were mostly focused around medieval European architecture and culture, even in those set during the Crusades.

Stronghold warlords xbox free#

The skirmish, free build, and multiplayer modes have the most amount of replay potential as the campaigns are primarily treated as linear extended tutorials with set objectives. There are five campaigns, a skirmish mode with a wide range of customization options and a decent number of maps, a free build mode, and of course PvE, PvP, and co-op multiplayer. Warlords is also chock-full of modes, which gives players plenty of content to sink their teeth into. All of this combines to create quite the fun, engaging, and exciting mix of gameplay facets. Players will have to construct a variety of resource buildings to keep their population of peasants happy and their economy growing, while at the same time masoning mighty castles and recruiting troops and siege engines to do battle with other lords in real-time. Stronghold: Warlords is the most recent installment and while the developers have taken steps to innovate their flagship series, the success of these innovations altogether is painfully mixed.Īt its core, Stronghold: Warlords is virtually the same as every past title, most notably in its solid central gameplay loop. The Stronghold series is strapped by its own arcane design philosophy.