I was shocked when it was confirmed that Stronghold 3 Gold Edition was to be released soon. It was more good news that it was free for those who own stronghold! I immediately started playing campaign of the core game again to understand the ties to Gold Edition before its release. This brief review will explain in detail what consists in the new complimentary content.
NOTE: I will not cover the new Multiplayer Mode.
I would like to state a few things before I head into the general things of the review. Do not get tricked by the eye-candy of the screenshots. Yes there are boats but they're just misc objects that you can't control like in Age of Empires 3 nor are they trading objects. They're just there. This campaign is really recommended if you beat Stronghold 3 first. Its really difficult even on Easy. I will move on explaining the content.
Blackstaff Campaign:
"We were stronger than he expected, so silverback fled. This is your chance, my brother told me; his castle was to the north, and he won't be ready for you. We marched north and took on his castle before he had the chance to catch his breath. His forces were strong, but we still had the scent of victory on our blood."
As soon as you start your stronghold 3 game you will notice the new blackstaff campaign banner right above the Historical seiges banner. This is a magnificent brand new original campaign that ties to the previous campaign while those events are happening.
The campaign is very difficult and sometimes even impossible to beat at higher difficulties. I recommend to start at easy. It consists of 5 maps that look like a walk in the park but turn out to be jigsaw's massacre, boobytrapped to the core with pitch ditches and man traps. You have no choice but to start all over after the majority of your men are incinerated and only a few troops left that are just not enough to continue. About 3 maps are sieges with the 'capture the keep' gameplay and the other 2 are the ordinary start-ups where you place your stockpile and granary to start your economy.
I will be honest. This will be frustrating. You WILL have to replay all missions to get them right. The paths look long and are packed with the meanest enemies such as knights and men-at-arms when you just have a few armed peasants, archers, and about 4 knights. But wait! there's also a shorter way with less troops!
*march march march, incinerated* your useful troops are all burnt. Indeed this does sound frustrating but in the end it turns out to be fun.
The Campaign in general is a very superb campaign with new voices and even new beautiful 3D comic intros including new music. You will have fun even if it takes a couple of tries. Heinous bugs you say? I have not seen one. People may argue about the core game with the bugs since its more economical. You may pull a bug list as if it were the credits of a movie such as workers not working at quarries, veg gardeners relinquish job, knights not mounted right on horses and so on but you can forget about all that since there is practically no economical region in this campaign. Its more combat focused. Its all seiges. So get quick and act fast before archers on towers kill your useful man-at-arms and sacrifice armed peasants to burn in pitch ditches so the knights could safely pass unharmed.
Once again i conclude this side of the review to go ahead and try it if you havn't installed the game. Its worth it. It felt very fresh and new yet it still holds true to Stronghold 3.
Sieges:
After successfully attacking and defending all 12 Historical maps, it qualifies me to bring down the hammer and say the old ones were repetitive and persistent. On the other hand, the new seiges that were introduced within Gold DLC feel different and have that element which makes Gold DLC unique...traps to the core.
I conclude this final review with a recommendation of the game and its new content. If you have the game, install it. If you don't then what are ye waiting for? The new sieges make you rethink your plans twice and redefines the word Strategy. This is what Firefly makes. This is what stronghold means. Strategy.
