A castle sim rebuilt for the desert
Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition is a real-time strategy game about running a desert city and defending it. You build a castle economy: housing for peasants, farms and workshops to produce food and goods, and stone walls, towers and gates to keep enemies out. Soldiers are trained from your barracks and sent to raid or hold ground. The setting is the crusades, with campaigns covering the First, Second and Third Crusades and conflicts within the crusader states, including the struggle between Richard the Lionheart and Sultan Saladin. Battles from history such as Nicaea, Heraclea and the sieges of Jerusalem and Antioch are rebuilt with new visual detail, and the soundtrack is fully remastered.
Playing together online
The game supports online co-op and online PvP. A new co-op trail lets you and a friend take on the AI side by side, and you can also team up with a friend in skirmish mode. If your group would rather fight each other, skirmish supports up to 8 players online. Against the computer there are 20 unique enemy lords to besiege, including 4 all-new AI adversaries with their own castles and tactics. Larger map sizes and new multiplayer maps give bigger battles room to breathe, and Workshop support lets you load custom scenarios made by other players.
What to know before starting
There is plenty to work through solo as well: 2 new historical campaigns, 4 'Sands of Time' skirmish trails, and the co-op trail. The edition adds 8 new playable units, Bedouin warriors with their own attributes, strengths and abilities, alongside the returning roster. Skirmish mode includes player-requested options such as custom settings and quality of life improvements, so you can set matches up the way your group likes them. The visuals are upgraded from the original pre-rendered isometric artwork, and the original game's actors returned for new voice recordings, so it plays like the classic with more content rather than a different game. Expect a steady build-up phase where economy matters as much as army size, then long siege fights once the AI lords come for your walls.