Stronghold Legends
Stronghold Legends
Sorti le 13 octobre 2006 sur PC, Stronghold Legends est un jeu de stratégie en temps réel et de simulation développé par Firefly Studios et édité par 2K Games. Le titre utilise le moteur DragonFly et se distingue des autres épisodes de la série par son univers fantastique. Le joueur y incarne tour à tour le roi Arthur et les forces de Camelot, Siegfried et Dietrich dans la campagne de glace allemande, ainsi que Vlad Dracul dans sa Transylvanie, pour un total de vingt-quatre missions.
Stronghold Legends propose trois factions jouables, chacune donnant accès à des créatures mythiques comme le géant de glace, le loup-garou ou le dragon. La construction et la destruction de châteaux s'appuient sur des sorts puissants et des héros légendaires, dont Merlin l'Enchanteur. L'édition Steam, remasterisée, ajoute le multijoueur Steam, le support du Workshop, des succès, des cartes exclusives, un livre d'art numérique et des cartes à échanger, ainsi que toutes les campagnes DLC. Le jeu permet également de jouer en escarmouche contre l'IA ou en ligne jusqu'à quatre joueurs, avec plusieurs modes comme Deathmatch, King of the Hill, Guerre économique et Capture du drapeau.
La campagne principale est de douze heures, tandis qu'une complétion totale demande 101 heures. Le jeu affiche un score Metacritic de 57. La presse a toutefois salué certaines évolutions, Times Online relevant plus d'unités, de pièges et d'équipements de siège, et PC Zone UK jugeant très positivement le passage à un accent offensif. Côté joueurs, certains commentaires sur Steam sont positifs, comme « Comme dans mes souvenirs » ou « super jeu » ; un autre joueur évoque des bugs qui l'empêchent, selon lui, d'atteindre la note maximale. Le jeu est proposé au prix de 3,12 euros.
Médias
Avis des critiques et joueurs
Critiques de la Presse (Metacritic)
« This time around there are more units to build as well as new traps and siege equipment to help out on the battlefield. »
« Despite my own selfish reservations, the switch to an attack focus is a very good thing. [Christmas 2006, p.78] »
« Sadly, regular combat again proves Stronghold's downfall. Units require extreme babysitting. [Dec 2006, p.100] »
« Solid and full of promise, but it never quite delivers the goods. [Christmas 2006, p.96] »
« A thoroughly enjoyable game with a deliciously retro feel, despite the somewhat improved (but still lack lustre) graphics and the adorably camp accents. »
« The campaigns are vast and varied, with interesting stories to hold you attention, while the three Legends Trails offer up even more varied missions with a much stronger emphasis on castle building and besieging. »
« I was disappointed to see the developers add the fantasy elements, which threw me a bit once I started playing. The game is still entertaining and with the map editor and online play I still feel this is a decent game. »
« It may take a pretty thick suit of armor to fully embrace Legends but if you can stomach many, many defeats you'll be rewarded with the particle-laden powers of witches, wizards, magical nights and fire-breathing dragons. »
Avis des Joueurs (Metacritic)
« Jedna od boljih igara da nema bagove i da je novija bila bi 10 sigurno, stv je bilo zanimljivo igrati je :D »
« It is not as good as the classic STRONGHOLD series but it is better than new games in this franchise - 8/10 »
« Not bad RTS strategy with fantasy personages, and more gameplay features... »
« I have probably played Stronghold Legends for 100's of hours. I find the large battles with a mixture of fantasy units are a lot of fun and castle sieges are also enjoyable. »
« An unusual change of direction for the Stronghold series. Well first off the the "easy" and "hard" are very enjoyable to play as with the new units. I criticize the bugs and the sudden increase cost to build certain resources in the game. The bugs you should expect are occasional save files that fail to load and crash although it could be just my lousy computer. Resources now cost twice or more than in the 2nd Stronghold which can sometimes be a challenge to set up a economy in certain game modes. The medium campaign feels harder due to the amount of Frost Giants and how powerful they actually are. Lastly I slam the balance of game play with new units as said before the medium campaign requires many armoured or heavy ranged units to deal with Frost Giants that tear down walls in a snap. A certain unit on the so called "evil" side can be sometimes be hard to deal with as they can "convert" weak units into joining their side and require armoured units to deal with them efficiently. Overall this game is mediocre at best in my opinion. »
« Its okay, I still think that its graphics are way too fancy; simplicity is sometimes key - Crusader and the original had simplistic graphics that ran well on my Windows 7 netbook. I do like some of the gameplay, but I hate the complex fancy graphics. Get it only if you got a high-power computer. »
« Stronghold Legends is an interesting direction for Stronghold. The emphasis has always been divided between constructing a working kingdom and forming a powerful army. However, Legends shifts this focus onto combat. Action does, however, remain the same as it's predecessor, with a slight twist or two. They scrapped Stronghold 2's Spearmen and Armed Peasant units and replaced them with a unit called Men-At Arms, who function much like Stronghold 2's Outlaws. They also added Fantasy units, such as Dragons, Mages, and the Knights of the Round Table. Each of these warriors have special abilities. These make sieges much more interesting than in previous versions, as combining the abilities available to you offers some unique strategies that you can't replicate with plain old wood and steel. Economically, however, the game suffers. It did away with the Crime and Punishment system (my favorite part of castle management in SH2), as well as various other factors such as Plague and whatnot. Jousts and Minstrels and what not are also relegated to Random Events. This makes Castle Management much more simple, as supplying your populace with enough food and a Church or Inn means that you don't need to worry about your home when you're marching off to war (which, again, is the main focus of this entry in the series). However, as the delicate balance of army-building and kingdom management is what makes previous Stronghold games shine, it feels more like a spinoff (albeit a very fun one). In conclusion, this is a great game for anyone who likes medieval/fantasy themed battles, but if you REALLY prefer economic management in a Stronghold game, this may not be the best of options. »
« Best Stronghold out of the series. This is the closest game i could find to BFME2 so its the Best RTS on the market right now. The other stronghold games were too much Sim and not enough focused on the combat. This is the one that focus's on the Combat and it does it well. You can still find matches online although its better to just play with your friends anyway. There is a ton of player created maps as usual for stronghold. »
