👍 Why I'm giving Stronghold 3 a thumbs up
There are two main reasons.
First, nostalgia. I played this game back in 2010 on my old PC after being incredibly hyped from playing Stronghold 2. Despite everything, those memories still mean something to me.
Second, I bought this copy for only $1.50, which is basically free. At that price, I can easily recommend giving it a try.
Now, would I have paid the $50 for this game at launch like i did back then, knowing what I know today? Absolutely not.
Would I pay its current fixed price of around $14? Surprisingly... yes, I probably would.
The Pros:
This game is absolutely gorgeous.
I don't care what anyone says for a game that's around 16 years old, it still looks fantastic. It looked beautiful when I first played it in 2010, and it still looks beautiful in 2026.
The atmosphere is where Stronghold 3 truly shines. The lighting, terrain, buildings, and overall presentation create a medieval world that feels immersive and believable. Yes, the individual character animations can look awkward, but when you're looking over your castle from above, the game is simply breathtaking.
The buildings look fantastic, the units have a great design, and the slightly gritty visual style perfectly captures the medieval atmosphere. It's one of my favorite looking games in the entire series.
The Cons
Now for the bad part... and unfortunately, there is a lot of it.
I genuinely feel sorry for the people like me who paid $50 for this game at launch. The amount of hype surrounding Stronghold 3 was unreal, and what we received was nowhere near what was promised.
I know Firefly Studios had development problems, but that doesn't change the experience for the players.
when we talk about the gameplay The biggest issue is that this barely feels like a Stronghold game .
The military campaign is incredibly disappointing. Almost every mission boils down to "defend this" or "attack that," and "Hurry up or you lose "everything feels rushed. There isn't a single mission in the entire military campaign that truly captures what makes Stronghold special. Even the DLC only had one mission that came close and that was the final mission. It wasn't amazing, but at least it felt somewhat like a proper Stronghold experience.
I could spend hours talking about all the technical issues and questionable design decisions, but the biggest problem is the gameplay itself.
A Stronghold campaign should let me build a thriving economy, design a massive castle, raise an army, and eventually lay siege to an enemy fortress that's doing exactly the same thing to me .
Instead, mission after mission throws artificial pressure at you.
"Survive until morning."
"Finish this before the timer runs out."
"Do this within a certain amount of time or lose."
Why?
I'm not playing Stronghold because I want to speedrun every mission. I'm playing because I want to enjoy building my castle, expanding my economy, experimenting with defenses, and taking my time before launching a massive assault.
That's what Stronghold is all about.
Timers should be the exception, not the entire campaign.
Final Thoughts
Recently, I played the Stronghold 4 demo, and honestly, it feels much closer to what Stronghold 3 should have been from the beginning.
It clearly takes a lot of inspiration from Stronghold 2, although I'm still not completely sold on its more cartoonish art style. I personally prefer the darker, grittier atmosphere of Stronghold 3.
My biggest hope for Stronghold 4 is simple:
Please don't make every mission a race against the clock.
Give us missions where we can build huge castles, create massive economies, and wage epic sieges at our own pace. That's what made the older Stronghold games so memorable, and that's what many of us have been waiting for.
Despite all its flaws, I still enjoy Stronghold 3 today. Not because it's a great Stronghold game it isn't but because beneath all of its problems is a beautiful game with an atmosphere that I still haven't seen any other entry in the series fully recapture.
