Stronghold 3 (iOS port)

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stronghold-3-the-campaigns/id767537984?mt=8
4.99usd, iPad only, 613mb download, no gamecenter.

iap rundown :
. 2.99usd, 30 mission military(combat) focused campaign

Where'd this one come from? Seriously, it just suddenly appeared. Don't believe me? Go read touch arcades forums. Everyone was like "What?!" and "Really?!". I feel the same way.

Not in a bad waythough. No sir, I love pc/console ports to the ios because it always proves it can be done right. I hate remakes, (EA, dungeon keeper... you need to die for that). Thankfully this is a complete port of the original pc title. Now, that said lets talk about Stronghold. Stronghold was a rts series that took it to a whole new level. When everyone else was running around in command & conquer's, warcrafts and starcrafts, all low on the economy side heavy combat games Stronghold had a massive economies, peasants, relations to maintain, needs to provide for, and that was without the combat perspective which was much more involving than just about everything else out there. The game was 3d, none of the others were. All round it was the big daddy that the rest took awhile to catch up to.

Now the ipad version is a direct port, same graphics, same voice work (yea square enix, we are more than happy to download extra large games for the voice work! give me the voice overs that dragon quest 8 originally had damn it!), all on a touch screen interface. Tapping controls a majority of the game with the exception of using two fingers to move around, rotate the camera 360degrees, zoom in and zoom out. Honestly, I've seen more than afew games lately using the two finger technique and to be honest its not the best system for moving the camera around. Its entirely two sensitive. Two fingers moving, if they dont move 100% exactly the same direction at all times the game interprets it as rotating or zooming instead. The controls need work, but its manageable.

Sounds are spot on, villagers, the tutorial guy, everythings there and its excellent!

The actual gameplay. The game comes with the economic focused campaign. Yes things will attack your keep but the combat isnt the focus. Its more about the economy, keeping folks happy,building your kingdom. Think of the economic campaign as easy mode. Take your time, build and enjoy the trip. Build homes to house your peasants, a stockpile to hold resources, lumber mills because wood is needed for most everything, farms for food, its a solid experience. You can literally place buildings anywhere that there isnt a building already present, no big grid system here. Buildings can by rotated to a direction you like and buildings do have preferences as to location. Examle, the peasant homes can house more people the closer you build it to the keep because peasants like to feel secure.

I completed the tutorial, took about 15 minutes. Construction appears instant. Everything works so far, no complaints. This is alot more complex a game than most on the store so I'll have to follow up later as I delve deeper but for 5 bucks, this is a steal.