Stronghold remains one of the strategy games I hold dearest to my heart. From the medieval, mandolin soundtrack to the characters, to the large-scale battles, the game was a well-deserved sleeper hit in its times. It’s just a shame that every subsequent game in the series failed to match the intense, joyous fun of the original.
It seems that Firefly Studios are aware of where their strengths lie in the series however. In a show of support rarely seen from devs they are releasing an HD version of the original game and its expansion pack, Stronghold Crusader. The game will upgrade the maximum resolution of the game from 1024 x 768 to a whopping 2560 x 1600.
What’s more, current owners of the original Stronghold won’t be forced to buy a new copy of the game, as the HD upgrade will come in the form of a free patch. Mind you, that seems like a reasonable gift for people still standing strong in the forts of the 11-year-old game.
This will essentially mean that those with big enough screens will be able to see the whole battlefield without needing to scroll around it.
A potential reason for Firefly Studios’ updating of the original – and arguably best – game in the Stronghold series is to give some exposure to Stronghold Kingdoms, the series’ foray into the world of MMOs and – there’s that word again – freemium gaming. Mind you, with the enduring cult popularity of the original and the lukewarm reaction to Kingdoms, it may simply draw people back to the original game with them giving a second thought to its youngest sibling.
