I was going to refund it after a bit of playing but slowly started to enjoy the game even with it's problems, BUT...

For starters, I've played the original stronghold and wanted to try out the "HD" update. I say that loosely because of the several unpolished graphics and problems with the smaller details of the game while also still retaining some of the problems of the original. Take something as simple as clicking on a villager, only the basic serf, woodcutter, and female graphics got a update where the rest are grainy and were taken from the original. Several of the cut-scenes portraits are way too zoomed in, resulting in the characters staring at you as if you were in a fish-bowl and their animations cut off way too quickly to have an impact during the campaign. And besides the new campaign, the game doesn't feature a offline skirmish mode, even though the previous game in the series, Crusader, did. Several times I though I plugged a hole in a wall only for them to walk through it, with trial and error due to how the terrain works.

The graphics of the game seem to have been AI-up-scaled with how some are grainy even compared to the original, though I do enjoy the new 3D models they used for the villagers to give them a bit more life and the new "drawn" protraits. Plus the game has a new campaign though it seems it is in parts through the DLC. Sadly, it seems the developers wanted to create level-pack for the game instead of improving the core of the game and the extra expansion.

I want to like this game, but besides the several small issues that slowly build up, I just can't seems to find it even on a -25% discount sadly.

I was going to refund it after a bit of playing but slowly started to enjoy the game even with it's problems, BUT... For starters, I've played the original stronghold and wanted to try out the "HD" update. I say that loosely because of the several unpolished graphics and problems with the smaller details of the game while also still retaining some of the problems of the original. Take something as simple as clicking on a villager, only the basic serf, woodcutter, and female graphics got a update where the rest are grainy and were taken from the original. Several of the cut-scenes portraits are way too zoomed in, resulting in the characters staring at you as if you were in a fish-bowl and their animations cut off way too quickly to have an impact during the campaign. And besides the new campaign, the game doesn't feature a offline skirmish mode, even though the previous game in the series, Crusader, did. Several times I though I plugged a hole in a wall only for them to walk through it, with trial and error due to how the terrain works. The graphics of the game seem to have been AI-up-scaled with how some are grainy even compared to the original, though I do enjoy the new 3D models they used for the villagers to give them a bit more life and the new "drawn" protraits. Plus the game has a new campaign though it seems it is in parts through the DLC. Sadly, it seems the developers wanted to create level-pack for the game instead of improving the core of the game and the extra expansion. I want to like this game, but besides the several small issues that slowly build up, I just can't seems to find it even on a -25% discount sadly.