Stronghold Kingdoms

 PC
User Score
4.7

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 99 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 31 out of 99
  2. Mixed: 18 out of 99
  3. Negative: 50 out of 99

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  1. KroipyBill
    May 26, 2012
    10
    This is a very "patient oriented" MMO strategy game. Being placed in a group of other villages, being a complete noob, they help you with how you need to start out so you don't waste resources on things you may not quite need early game. It is very VERY slow paced, and as a result, it is a game you "manage" not play for hours on end. Despite this, I find it to be a nice change to my usualThis is a very "patient oriented" MMO strategy game. Being placed in a group of other villages, being a complete noob, they help you with how you need to start out so you don't waste resources on things you may not quite need early game. It is very VERY slow paced, and as a result, it is a game you "manage" not play for hours on end. Despite this, I find it to be a nice change to my usual gameplay. Not only that, it gives me something to do at work while I wait for processes to finish or other things. I can play it for maybe ten minutes, minimize it, come back an hour later and manage it a bit more as it manages in real time. When it comes to the content, there is SO much that can be done with the game. People who rate this game as destroy-your-enemy kind of game have never played this game in detail, and shouldn't even have bothered to breathe their presence into a text box affiliated with a review towards this game. I have played nearly 100 hours of this game, and I haven't destroyed one village. I have been trying to build up my state, which is involved with other players, and I've tried to defend my state from other factions that like to prey on lesser villages who may be new to the game. If that's something you like, then I suggest you give it a try. Besides....it's free to play.… Expand
  2. Ltghawk
    Nov 10, 2012
    10
    I love this game, since Alpha4 I have been watching this game progress into a fantastic medieval strategy game. I've watched it come into its own becoming well balanced for the experienced players while leaving lots of room for beginners to start out and learn the game. I would reccomend that beginners team up with an experiened player as well as to read the wiki page for info on how to doI love this game, since Alpha4 I have been watching this game progress into a fantastic medieval strategy game. I've watched it come into its own becoming well balanced for the experienced players while leaving lots of room for beginners to start out and learn the game. I would reccomend that beginners team up with an experiened player as well as to read the wiki page for info on how to do things. But in general this game is awesome and addicting, i find myself going into the game 2 and 3 and sometimes 4 times a day just to chat and watch how things are going. It's growth has been phenomial since it joined the steam universe, now having 6 english speaking worlds and several other worlds for french, german, and russian speakers. now all they need to do is add one fr spanish speakers to make it perfect.… Expand
  3. Warfororks
    Mar 2, 2013
    10
    Stronghold Kingdoms puts a great emphasis on strategy and diplomacy. As a multiplayer game, you meet many types of players. You can join up with a faction, conquer the world with your friends and actually have fun doing it. If you are not a good player, you can start a rebellion against the ruling classes, spy for another lord, farm and play as a merchant character, or change stewardshipsStronghold Kingdoms puts a great emphasis on strategy and diplomacy. As a multiplayer game, you meet many types of players. You can join up with a faction, conquer the world with your friends and actually have fun doing it. If you are not a good player, you can start a rebellion against the ruling classes, spy for another lord, farm and play as a merchant character, or change stewardships with your monks. Stronghold Kingdoms has hit the bullseye on Medieval times. Each year brings more updates and the future is bright. Lastly, the game has multiple worlds and multiple languages. There is also a rumor of a map of Europe to be released in 2013.… Expand
  4. Arberhoti
    Dec 26, 2013
    10
    Only noobs say its hard to defend and everyone attacks. Its true that some kids like to attack all time but u can defend as well Im rly having fun in this game Its not hard to farm just spend well your cards, finish quests, spend your research points with your own strategy and your done You can grow very fast even without crowns just need some experience
  5. WATCHAMACOLITE
    Jul 27, 2013
    10
    First thing: This is a slow game. If you dont like slow games, dont play slow games. I dont go onto the GTA forums and yell at them that its a sandbox game, because its a sandbox game!

    This game is immensely fun. It takes place in real-time, so its more of a management game than a play for hours game. You can pay, like all F2P games, but its not a Pay To Win theme. It involves growing    First thing: This is a slow game. If you dont like slow games, dont play slow games. I dont go onto the GTA forums and yell at them that its a sandbox game, because its a sandbox game!

    This game is immensely fun. It takes place in real-time, so its more of a management game than a play for hours game. You can pay, like all F2P games, but its not a Pay To Win theme. It involves growing food, village popularity, AI battles, and much more.    … Expand
  6. RedLemonyElf
    Sep 8, 2014
    10
    Stronghold Kingdoms is an absolutely brilliant game and I would recommend it to any strategic game players. It's free to play which is fantastic although some payable things are quite OP.

    RedLemonyElf
  7. LordSolor
    Oct 17, 2012
    9
    You can tell it's a great game by the sheer number of guys crying on here about how bad it is after they have gotten their butts kicked! :) This is a nearly pure PvP game and it is by no means pay to win. To compare it to anything that Zynga makes would be foolish. Overall the game is very complex, but balanced. I have never seen anyone pay to win, but I have seen a lot of guys whoYou can tell it's a great game by the sheer number of guys crying on here about how bad it is after they have gotten their butts kicked! :) This is a nearly pure PvP game and it is by no means pay to win. To compare it to anything that Zynga makes would be foolish. Overall the game is very complex, but balanced. I have never seen anyone pay to win, but I have seen a lot of guys who thought they could wind up disappointed! Some of the interfaces are clunky and there's minor issues here and there but overall an awesome game.… Expand
  8. Highlanderonly1
    May 10, 2012
    9
    Stronghold Kingdoms is an over all great free-to-play Strategy MMO. The game is a hybrid of a traditional tower defense games and a modern RTS. While the graphics might be a bit behind the times, the gameplay is engaging and full of the right amount of challenge. This title does a great job of appealing to both the casual and hardcore gamer market by mixing the elements of economics,Stronghold Kingdoms is an over all great free-to-play Strategy MMO. The game is a hybrid of a traditional tower defense games and a modern RTS. While the graphics might be a bit behind the times, the gameplay is engaging and full of the right amount of challenge. This title does a great job of appealing to both the casual and hardcore gamer market by mixing the elements of economics, politics, and war. I would highly suggest giving this game a try. It's free so what do you have to lose?… Expand
  9. jonosarah
    Mar 26, 2013
    9
    I can't explain why, but this seems to be my most played game. The game is all about patience, being smart with resources and technology and focusing on what's important first. After you've built the first couple of buildings you have to be extremely patient. I play a few times a day, doing different things to make sure my castle is the best it can be for the parish I'm in. I hardly knowI can't explain why, but this seems to be my most played game. The game is all about patience, being smart with resources and technology and focusing on what's important first. After you've built the first couple of buildings you have to be extremely patient. I play a few times a day, doing different things to make sure my castle is the best it can be for the parish I'm in. I hardly know anyone but I could do, I got into a faction by asking around. They help you and you can help them. The good things about this game is that it's pretty much a free version of stronghold. While you can't do as much as the games, it is an amazing version of it. While it may seem daunting at first, it takes some time to learn how to be the most efficient, but it pays off.

    The only thing I don't like is that the peasants are very afraid of the AI castles and they can be really hard to stop as they are a lot more advanced for the newer players. I can't comment on the pay to win because I personally haven't used it and neither have my friends (but we seem to be doing okay on it)    … Expand
  10. Raspiz
    Apr 21, 2012
    8
    Not a whole lot of informative reviews on here so here's my take:

    Stronghold Kingdoms is a free to play strategy MMO. The game is played on a map of the United Kingdom with each country divided into provinces, counties, and parishes. The player starts with a single tiny village and harvests resources, grows food, constructs buildings and keeps a satisfied populace in order to grow. Each    Not a whole lot of informative reviews on here so here's my take:

    Stronghold Kingdoms is a free to play strategy MMO. The game is played on a map of the United Kingdom with each country divided into provinces, counties, and parishes. The player starts with a single tiny village and harvests resources, grows food, constructs buildings and keeps a satisfied populace in order to grow. Each village also contains a keep which must be fortified and defended with troops, walls, and other obstacles such as moats or spiked pits. To advance the player must earn "honour" by accomplishing various deeds such as defeating enemy player and AI fortifications, collecting resources on the map, pleasing the peasants, and holding banquets. Honour is essentially the experience point system in the game, and with each new level comes the ability to research new technology to improve defenses, industry, farming, or education.

    Being an MMO, the world map is full of other players. Players send troops in to enemy villages to try and raze them, or strike alliances and work out trade partnerships. Player factions exist to let players join forces under a single banner and smite their enemies. Factions can join larger houses for an even bigger single force. Political ramifications take hold as players who may be located near each other in a parish may be part of opposing factions or houses, which can lead to interesting results. Each parish, county, province, and country has leaders elected from within their governing body. These leaders can build and reinforce each governing body to protect from invaders as well as give bonuses that affect all players within each area. Just like real life politics, leaders can be swept away with every election if they are doing a poor job. I personally approach the game from more of an economic standpoint, and have worked out alliances with other players to assist in defense, and have not put as much research and resources into defense. So there are plenty of options for how a player wants to advance in the game.

    This game follows the "pay to win" model to generate money for the game company, Firefly. I'm usually not a fan of this type of revenue model, but after playing for a few days I didn't mind plunking down a few bucks to get a little boost in the game and to help keep the game going financially. Pricing is reasonably priced if a person plans on spending a lot of time in the game, and are discounted when purchased in larger quantities. The player purchases "Firefly Crowns" with real money which can then be traded for premium tokens or packs of cards. The premium tokens last for a week or month at a time depending on which one is purchased, and give players various extra abilities not available to free players such as moving buildings around, auto trading when logged out, and being able to queue building and research. The cards come in packs of 5 and can be bought from several specialized "sets" such as industry, defense, etc., or can come randomly from the entire set of cards. Each card is one time use and give bonuses such as increased productivity within the village, strengthened walls for the keep, and speeding up research. Some cards are instant rewards such as a large amount of a resource added to the player's stockpile, or time based such as increased wood harvesting for 12 hours. The cards add an extra layer of strategy and must be played wisely to get the most out of them. Although this is a form of play to win, I find the cards fun to use and make things interesting. Free players also receive free cards periodically to try to entice them to buy.

    One complaint many will have is the game is slow. Like many free games, there are restrictions on how fast players can advance which can get frustrating when it takes several hours to build a building or do research. Various technologies can be researched to decrease the time to do certain actions, but this is definitely a game that has to be played over time.

    Overall I've enjoyed this game quite a bit and as there aren't many games out there that offer a 4X (explore, expand, exploit, exterminate) game experience in the company of other players, I found it to be a unique experience seeing battles between players as they fight for control of regions. As the player progresses the ability to purchase additional villages opens up which adds even more to the game as the player expands their territory, meets new players, and faces new challenges on the different village map types which have different resources available to each. Fans of the Stronghold series, or 4X games like Civilization, Age of Empires, or other strategy/manager games will find quite a bit to enjoy here for free, and more if they choose to pay. I would also say the quality is fairly high and deep for a free to play game. There is easily months of enjoyment to be had here.    … Expand
  11. havas01
    Mar 22, 2013
    8
    Great strategy and on line game... big map and deep detail. If you love mmo you must try this game.
  12. Triasadi
    Jul 12, 2013
    8
    Stronghold Kingdoms has a very addictive and fun gameplay. The help and support always respond whenever there is a problem. I don't think that Stronghold Kingdoms is a pay-to-win game at all. This game tests our efficiency, strategy, and timing. One of the best free-to-play games I've ever played. Though there is also some technical problems sometimes. Overall, Stronghold Kingdoms is aStronghold Kingdoms has a very addictive and fun gameplay. The help and support always respond whenever there is a problem. I don't think that Stronghold Kingdoms is a pay-to-win game at all. This game tests our efficiency, strategy, and timing. One of the best free-to-play games I've ever played. Though there is also some technical problems sometimes. Overall, Stronghold Kingdoms is a great game and certainly deserves all the honor.… Expand
  13. LowIQsPrevail
    Jun 4, 2012
    7
    Every single person who claims this to be a p2w game is lacking a few grey matter cells - honestly. The game was exactly what I expected and it wasn't a disappointment because I'm playing with several friends. Many of the observations here are fairly spot-on as far as the mechanics but let me say again - it is NOT pay to win...the only benefits to someone paying is very miniscule and notEvery single person who claims this to be a p2w game is lacking a few grey matter cells - honestly. The game was exactly what I expected and it wasn't a disappointment because I'm playing with several friends. Many of the observations here are fairly spot-on as far as the mechanics but let me say again - it is NOT pay to win...the only benefits to someone paying is very miniscule and not game breaking in the slightest. Not very time consuming - check in from time to time and do a little here and there. It's what you make of it.… Expand
  14. Xextreem
    Feb 15, 2013
    7
    Great game, however since the pay to win deal this game is going to be bad. There are cards that give you 60 archers this cost you 220 points to buy in game. That will cost like 10 euro to buy archers. There are people spending 1000 euro since the new world 7 on that server. Explain matt32 on server 7 or world 7. Is king in House 1 since day 3 he got 3 village on 3 content of the map onlyGreat game, however since the pay to win deal this game is going to be bad. There are cards that give you 60 archers this cost you 220 points to buy in game. That will cost like 10 euro to buy archers. There are people spending 1000 euro since the new world 7 on that server. Explain matt32 on server 7 or world 7. Is king in House 1 since day 3 he got 3 village on 3 content of the map only possible with money level up take allot of time even for people with tactics. That is only possible when you spend so many money in a game. The need to stop people to buy cads or remove those cards in like the first year of the server start old world ok seems balance to spend some 10 euro on it but come on not in a new fresh world. Like i say great game i love it however those idiots that spend so many money just to be king that is just insane. Rune my game play. To bad.… Expand
  15. Dvoraak
    Mar 5, 2012
    6
    On the surface this is the stronghold you're used to, with MMO elements added. If my Steam friend's list is to be believed, this game has many players... but no reviews. I think that may be because it starts so slowly and doesn't speed up much as you go along. I mean, this moves at the pace of those mobile RPGs where you wait for hours before you can make another move. The reviewers areOn the surface this is the stronghold you're used to, with MMO elements added. If my Steam friend's list is to be believed, this game has many players... but no reviews. I think that may be because it starts so slowly and doesn't speed up much as you go along. I mean, this moves at the pace of those mobile RPGs where you wait for hours before you can make another move. The reviewers are still waiting to see how things flesh out after you manage to get a city / castle built. I only started yesterday and, at this pace, it will be a month or two before it gets exciting.… Expand
  16. NronQsr
    Jan 5, 2019
    6
    It's a pretty fun game, putting yourself in the role of the middle ages and fighting as a nation or as a group in front of another group, although I must say that in the global maps there is only english speakers, others are in these concentrated regional maps.

    The only bad thing is that those who pay have a great advantage over you, in addition, the regularity with which they restart    It's a pretty fun game, putting yourself in the role of the middle ages and fighting as a nation or as a group in front of another group, although I must say that in the global maps there is only english speakers, others are in these concentrated regional maps.

    The only bad thing is that those who pay have a great advantage over you, in addition, the regularity with which they restart or launch new regional maps is terrible ... if you arrive now and want to play on a good map, where there is a real good atmosphere, it will be impossible for you, people are very advanced and have not had a new one like in years.    … Expand
  17. refdxf
    Apr 26, 2012
    5
    This game is a good deal of fun when a server just starts. After that it gradually becomes stagnant and something akin to farmville with "diplomacy" if you can call dealing with (at a loss for words to describe) these types of personalities through chat. Me and my friends have had fun, but then again we're all stopping once Diablo 3 comes out and we simply wanted a game for the interim.This game is a good deal of fun when a server just starts. After that it gradually becomes stagnant and something akin to farmville with "diplomacy" if you can call dealing with (at a loss for words to describe) these types of personalities through chat. Me and my friends have had fun, but then again we're all stopping once Diablo 3 comes out and we simply wanted a game for the interim. Information on strategy is sparse and you will find yourself often regretting technology decisions you have made. Battle AI is god awful. I have sent my troops at the right side wall and they wrap around to the front. A small gap in a wall rendered my troop ai impotent. They all just stood there waiting for the troops in front to slowly trickle through the gap, while the enemy archers picked off the troops as they trickled through.… Expand
  18. ImmoralAtheist
    Apr 7, 2012
    5
    Cards don't fit gameplaywise, but they're tolerable if there's a low cap on how much you can buy (which is unfortunately not true). The game relies to much on grinding, like scouting resources, and attacking npc's, and manually do every trade transaction. It's in dire need of an automatic trade system where you can set up trade routes with complex conditions. Research in a specific thingCards don't fit gameplaywise, but they're tolerable if there's a low cap on how much you can buy (which is unfortunately not true). The game relies to much on grinding, like scouting resources, and attacking npc's, and manually do every trade transaction. It's in dire need of an automatic trade system where you can set up trade routes with complex conditions. Research in a specific thing is badly balanced. the first upgrades are okay, the middle are crap, and the last ones gives an exponential bonus increase. A less extreme version is suitable for resources (gives incentives to specialize), but it's not suitable for troop movement speed.… Expand
  19. IamNader
    May 9, 2023
    5
    It is a free and online version of STRONGHOLD, well the idea of the game which build your village is really good - 5/10
  20. LordStrongpant
    Apr 5, 2012
    4
    TL;DR summary: Mediocre MMO exploit-resources-destroy-your-enemies strategy game with a significant social component and an unashamed pay-to-win business model. You need to get into clans and cooperate with other players if you want to climb the rankings, and make no mistake: if you don't spend money in this game you are just meat to the grinder for the paying players.

    The longer    TL;DR summary: Mediocre MMO exploit-resources-destroy-your-enemies strategy game with a significant social component and an unashamed pay-to-win business model. You need to get into clans and cooperate with other players if you want to climb the rankings, and make no mistake: if you don't spend money in this game you are just meat to the grinder for the paying players.

    The longer version:

    I've never played the Stronghold series so I can't compare it to that. But if you played an old browser-based game called "Tribal Wars", this is the same basic gameplay with some improvements and a .NET-based client.

    You are a feudal lord who rules villages and castles with peasants and resource production facilities. You can use the resources to build armies for making attacks against other player's villages and castles, defending against attacks on your villages and castles, or re-invest the resources to get more resource production facilities. Also there's a leveling up system that opens a technology tree to get better armies and production.

    Your villages and castles sit in a global map with many thousands of other players. There are bonuses for cooperating with other players in your immediate geographical vicinity. And as you gain power and level up you can try to gain control over geographical districts, which gives bonuses, but you need to compete with other players and try to gain the support of the lower ranking players in your district to do this.

    On top of this is another social layer of a faction and house system - factions are formed by players and factions join houses to attempt to gain global power. Games play out over months, and there are a number of game worlds that you can play in simultaneously, with new game worlds being opened up from time to time.

    So winning in this game requires producing lots of resources in your villages, leveling up, building armies, going out to plunder and conquer the villages of other players, and not having your villages conquered by others. On the surface your success in this game seems to depend on social and economic strategy - getting on the winning side of faction wars in your neighborhood and balancing the use of resources to attack, defend, and re-invest in capital to increase the rate of resource production.

    However there are additional ways of gaining resources and honor, and the extent to which you can exploit these ways depends on how much time you spend logged on. But when you are logged on, it's actually pretty boring. There's really not much to do but watch your armies to travel around on the global map or watch the timers count down for new buildings or resources to complete in your village.
    So there's a bonus for being online a lot, but being online a lot makes the game a boring (it's worse than grinding in an action RPG, because there's not even any action!)

    And this is where the one of the developers way of making money from this game - sell "premium account tokens". These are a limited time bonus - effectively a subscription - that automates your account so you can leave orders to attack, resource gather, and build while you are logged out. Basically you get a bonus that a non-paying player could only get by being logged in 24 hours a day.

    But there's more. You can buy "card packs" that give you cards you can play for bonuses like one-off resource gains and temporary resource production bonuses. So the more you spend, the stronger you are. In the long term there is no limit to the bonus you can gain this way. So if you just keep paying for more card packs you can gain close to a guarantee of victory.

    Add to all that the game hasn't been implemented very well. The client crashes or glitches from time to time, the UI is not all that well designed, and the server infrastructure sometimes gets bogged down. These issues aren't frequent, and to their credit the developers make frequent updates and usually manage to get rid of major bugs pretty quickly, but still there's a background annoyance factor from all this.

    Another annoyance - the documentation consists of a poor quality wiki. But at least there's an in-game chat system so you can always ask random strangers for advice.

    So to sum that all up once more: the core gameplay is a decent strategy game, but the gameplay model combined with the business model means the game is overwhelmingly pay-to-win. This game is ruled by paying players, and if you don't pay you will eventually be plundered and conquered by paying players who will be much stronger than you by the endgame.    … Expand
  21. Jessrond
    Apr 13, 2018
    4
    This game is pretty clunky and doesn't really have anything compelling to keep me coming back. it looks like it's a bargarian bin game from 1997 and I've had no multiplayer interaction in my first 30 minutes of playing. The entire tutorial was about five minutes. I thought it would get interesting when an attack came but it was just three units that all died from arrows automatically shotThis game is pretty clunky and doesn't really have anything compelling to keep me coming back. it looks like it's a bargarian bin game from 1997 and I've had no multiplayer interaction in my first 30 minutes of playing. The entire tutorial was about five minutes. I thought it would get interesting when an attack came but it was just three units that all died from arrows automatically shot by my castle. The concept seems interesting and it's nice to have real cities and a real-world map in this medieval setting, but I just don't really get the appeal so far. I am not ready to give up on it entirely, but I can't really see myself pressing on with this unless I find a solid group of people that actively play, which is the main element that attracts me to MMOs.… Expand
  22. mogwairn
    Mar 23, 2013
    4
    Someone trying to do something interesting with the MMORTS genre. Very buggy and full of micro-transaction begging, but at least they are trying. Considering it looks like there was a team of people behind the game; very poor effort, single person dev teams can crank out far higher quality games.
  23. Superior
    Jul 18, 2013
    4
    Isn't special compared to other games, besides there are a lot of games in this genre and somehow it lacks content and the interface is less play-friendly and less good-looking.
  24. myhouse020
    Jul 14, 2015
    4
    The game is ok but not for small children, there are lots of pornographic links sent to random players and throughout the mail threads

    I always check once a week to see what my children are doing on the internet I saw a live sex site and asked what they were doing watching that, they said they copied and pasted a link someone sent them on stronghold kingdoms, we try to protect our kids    The game is ok but not for small children, there are lots of pornographic links sent to random players and throughout the mail threads

    I always check once a week to see what my children are doing on the internet I saw a live sex site and asked what they were doing watching that, they said they copied and pasted a link someone sent them on stronghold kingdoms, we try to protect our kids the best we can but with these games and thousands of perverts on them what can you do!!!    … Expand
  25. Back2c
    Nov 10, 2013
    3
    This game has some really interesting stuff in it. Building your own village is really fun. But as was said many a time, it is NOT a sim game. And it is really not done for casual players.

    I've played 4 months on that game. After 2 months, when my village just began to be big enough, a player took it from me. So, I had to just begin again, from the (almost) very beginning. After growing    This game has some really interesting stuff in it. Building your own village is really fun. But as was said many a time, it is NOT a sim game. And it is really not done for casual players.

    I've played 4 months on that game. After 2 months, when my village just began to be big enough, a player took it from me. So, I had to just begin again, from the (almost) very beginning. After growing again, my village was burnt to the ground by another player, fur apparently no other reason than fun. After being asked, he just didn't like the fact that I began to be a bit more too powerful in my county.

    So, I'm quite sure the ony way to enjoy that game is to start playing from the very beginning of each world. It's to destroy other players so they don't destroy you first. Or, maybe, invest a lot of money to catch up with other players. Except if you don't care starting afresh every other month...

    And that's a shame, because the management system is a bit complex and quite interesting !

    That being said, it is really nice for people who like PvP. But then again, new players are disadvantaged your armies are quite slow while your foes can be at your doors in less than 10 minutes (even less if they are close to you). I find it a bit too quick, even more compared to many other MMO.    … Expand
  26. Ergenus
    Mar 10, 2015
    3
    It is a very realistic game to be honest. First of all, richest guy ( in real life, not in the game ) has the greatest potential to be the king. And second, it is true that your village can be destroyed in a few minutes which will cost you maybe weeks of work ( if you pay nothing for the game ). The third, this game depends on online relations and it shouldn't surprise you if someone backIt is a very realistic game to be honest. First of all, richest guy ( in real life, not in the game ) has the greatest potential to be the king. And second, it is true that your village can be destroyed in a few minutes which will cost you maybe weeks of work ( if you pay nothing for the game ). The third, this game depends on online relations and it shouldn't surprise you if someone back stabs you for power or position. So overall, being powerful, rich and having a good title have the same effects as it has in real life. There are a** lickers, backstabbers, ego maniacs, loners etc. every kind of people.

    When you begin the game, it looks like a cool, slow paced game, but as you continue to develop, game requires more time and more and more. Oh, if a big war starts and if you have an important role in your faction, you better spend your whole day at the game. Talking with people , convincing or deceiving others, making decisions, wars, destruction, lost villages, lost weeks, lost real bucks, paying more money to survive, spending more time to not get raped ... .... ........

    I would say the the worst part of this game is huge mega ultra impact of paying bucks to be strong or survive. Literally, there were people who spend 100-200$ per day during war times and big wars can last week/s.

    The other bad part is, it is a MMO RTS ( what the heck? )! You don't have turns, they don't have turns, you have to play non-stop if it is possible for you.

    This game is only fun at the beginning until you realise these things... So high score givers probably haven't played enough yet to realise these facts or they are still busy at feeding their egos.    … Expand
  27. Cloven
    Apr 18, 2015
    3
    Pay2win to the extreme

    Some reviewers are like "sure, you can play this F2P just fine" well, sure, if you don't mind your opponents village's producing resources 500%-700%-1000%-1200% faster, their armies moving 500% faster, their scouts moving 600% faster and grabbing 300% more loot, their castles being built INSTANTLY while yours takes a whole week, their research completing INSTANTLY    Pay2win to the extreme

    Some reviewers are like "sure, you can play this F2P just fine" well, sure, if you don't mind your opponents village's producing resources 500%-700%-1000%-1200% faster, their armies moving 500% faster, their scouts moving 600% faster and grabbing 300% more loot, their castles being built INSTANTLY while yours takes a whole week, their research completing INSTANTLY while yours takes hours, etc... so sure you can play F2P just fine, just don't be surprised when a heavy-carder razes all 10 of your villages down in a few hours.

    As if this uncontrolled card usage wasn't bad enough the game is rife with multi-accounters that cheat to control more parishes, gain ranks faster, have more armies, etc..

    The developers, Firefly Studios, don't care about any of this: after 4-5 years they've done very little to improve the game despite the $$$ they rake in from card-addicts.

    The core game-play is actually pretty decent but the awful GREED of the developers with their pay2win model is why I rated this a 3 instead of a 7.    … Expand
  28. TheGrindeR
    Jul 5, 2012
    2
    Looks like than the Stronghold and the Stronghold: Crusader, this is also have 2D graphics, but it worse than the older episodes. This is a Stronghold MMO, but i think its not a good game. If u want playing a good game, play with the Stronghold: Crusader with your friends, that much better.
  29. Vistance
    Mar 11, 2013
    2
    Tried the game out because I saw it on Steam and I liked the original Stronghold game. I expected a full fledged game, but this feels more like a game that would be on Facebook. The game runs windowed (cannot fullscreen) which says a lot about their design choices. Help links take you to their wikipedia pages. But all that aside, the gameplay is tedious and boring. It's full of "Wait 10Tried the game out because I saw it on Steam and I liked the original Stronghold game. I expected a full fledged game, but this feels more like a game that would be on Facebook. The game runs windowed (cannot fullscreen) which says a lot about their design choices. Help links take you to their wikipedia pages. But all that aside, the gameplay is tedious and boring. It's full of "Wait 10 minutes for your scout to go to this stash then wait 10 minutes for him to return" and "Wait 9 minutes for this building to be built". If you don't pay for the premium part, you aren't even allowed to queue up items, so you can only have one thing going at a time. My first day in I had some random thing attack me despite it telling me I was safe for a few days. Ha! The game doesn't hold your hand the group ransacked my village with no effort. As I tried to repair my castle the game constantly kept throwing exceptions (very long ones too) and then required me to re-join the world. After the 4th exception trying to rebuild the castle walls, I just deleted the game. Don't waste your time, while Stronghold was a cool game and had some fun castle building this is just that with a bunch of social Facebook-esque garbage on top of it with arbitrary time limits. The worst lazy kind of F2P games that are made if you ask me.… Expand
  30. sowy
    May 26, 2013
    2
    This game has some good potential mostly due to natural politics that occur with real people. There is an emphasis on spending money in order to succeed despite this being a free-to-play. My family played this game together and hoped enjoyed our short time on the game. Hidden in the rules are restrictions on people playing from the same shared IP which only apply to free accounts and asThis game has some good potential mostly due to natural politics that occur with real people. There is an emphasis on spending money in order to succeed despite this being a free-to-play. My family played this game together and hoped enjoyed our short time on the game. Hidden in the rules are restrictions on people playing from the same shared IP which only apply to free accounts and as such everybody in our household paid for premium tokens. It was shortly after we invested over 100$ into the game that my son found his account "blocked" and when we tried to email the admins about it they gave a carbon copy reply back which only linked to the rules (which we did not break)

    Upon speaking with some friends who still play, we discovered that they use shoddy coding to detect multiple players logging on from the same computer. This is unfortunate since we share computers as do most households. Don't try it and certainly don't waste money on it. They will take you for everything you will give them and then dispose of you like refuse at the end.    … Expand
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Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
75

Generally favorable reviews - based on 4 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 4
  3. Negative: 0 out of 4
  1. Hooked Gamers
    Feb 5, 2013
    77
    Stronghold Kingdoms does deserve the honour of being the world’s first castle building MMO and it does -despite its presentation- do it well. The game’s depth and scope go beyond that of the regular Stronghold games and is guaranteed to keep your mind firmly lodged into medieval times for a long, long time.
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  2. GameWatcher
    Jul 18, 2012
    85
    There are a whole lot of things I want to try over the next few months playing Stronghold Kingdoms, and it's gotten its teeth into me such that I'm ploughing a little time into it at least three times a day and not feeling cheated for any of the money I've spent. For a free-to-play title at the very least, that has to be mission accomplished.
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  3. Multiplayer.it
    Jun 29, 2012
    68
    Stronghold Kingdoms is a deep medieval management game that offers a huge tech tree and an interesting online formula. Oddly the engine is old and the game starts very slowly, especially for those who are not going to open their wallet. But it deserves a try if you got patience and prefer management over real time strategy.
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