Graphics

The graphics in Stronghold are nice, but nothing really spectacular. Everything is mostly brown and greys (Hey, just like in the real world actually.) and the character animation is a little jumpy. The breifing animations are short and charcters cease to animate while still talking, which is a touch annoying. There are however some nice touches. The graphics team showed excellent attention to detail. Water ripples, the wind blows through the trees, and penants on your castle walls. Not much eye candy, but loverly details abound.

Sound and Music

Sound and music are very well done. As always, I'm happy when the developer spends some time on the audio component of a game. Combat sounds good, swords and shields ring, arrows swish and thunk when they hit their targets, troops grunt when hit, and scream as they crumple to the ground. Your people talk to you when you click on them, but it sounds to me like one guy did all the voices, male and female. A little variety would have been nice.

Music, as you would expect is medival in sound, and pretty damned sweet. There's music in most parts of the game, and it picks up when you're getting attacked.

Controls

Pretty much standard RTS controls, use your mouse to move around the screen, or click on your minimap to scoot around quickly. You can also zoom in and out, and change your camera angle, as well as "flattening" the map so you can see behind trees, walls and such by clicking on a blank spot on the map and moving your mouse around the little menu that pops up. (Rather like the spell interface for Sacrifice, just simpler.) Click on a unit, then click on where you wish him to go and he does the natural action you'd expect. (Ex. Move there if it's an empty area, mount the wall, attack the enemy.)

Combat

Combat in Stonghold is similar to that in most other RTS. Build up your economy, build up your army, hold off wave after wave of the enemy. Same deal in multiplayer. Nothing new here, other than the fact that it's in a medieval setting, which is a nice change. (No, TA: Kingdoms didn't count.)

Your skills in building your fortifications and positioning your troops will have a major impact on your battle readiness. That, and knowing what to counter with. Different fortifications give you different abilities. Just like in the real medievak world, the taller your towers, or if your archers are on cliffs, the longer their range. Laddermen can scale walls, and pikemen can fill in moats and topple laddermen from your battlements. Archers are great (and cheap!) against unarmored oponents, but suck against knights. Crossbowmen have shorter range, but their bolts punch though armor. Certain types of walls are more resiliant to attackers and sappers than others.

As mentioned in the gameplay section of this review, there's a bit of a learning curve to this game. There's a larger than average number of offensive, defensive and building units, and you have to know how to use and counter them all. :) The nice thing is, it adds more complexity to the game, so it tends to last longer and be more satisfying when you do get the hang of it. This is definately THE medieval combat game to play. (Hmmm. Not that it's exactly a packed market or anything.)