Castle Strike Preview

If you polled one hundred random gamers and asked them: What is one of the biggest drawbacks in Real Time Strategy games, what do you think they will say?  The most common answer will most likely be the tediousness of resource management.  While most people do not mind collecting resources, they just don’t want to be consumed with this aspect of the game.  Most people want to get an army and go crush an enemy in a splendid battle.  If this is what you want in an RTS game, then a new game that is going to be released late this year might peak your interest.  The game is called Castle Strike.

Castle Strike takes place in medieval times, during the One Hundred Year War.  Instead of focusing on heavy resource management, this game focuses on the many aspects of war.  Players will have to position troops and siege weapons in the appropriate places in order to decimate enemy’s castles.  This makes the game much more action packed, and players will not spend numerous hours trying to win just one scenario.

As you would suspect Castle Building is one of this game’s greatest strengths.  Players will be able to create the castle of their dreams, the only catch is that they have to make sure that they have enough resources to build and fortify it.  Players will be able to fortify their castles with such weapons as ballista’s, onagers, and cannons.  Also players will be able to put myriads of archers all throughout the walls and recreate something similar seen in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.  The only thing players have to make sure that they don’t go crazy with all of the defensive armaments, because no matter how many powerful weapons they might have, if they do not have any infantry it could all be in vein.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, you will have to build many different weapons and items to destroy and capture your enemies’ castles.  You will have the best weapons available during that time period to use such as catapults, trebuchets, cannons, and other very powerful weapons.  Some of my favorite items to use are the battering ram and the scaling ladder to take over the fortress.  I ask myself, why totally decimate a good castle when I can just take out everyone within it, and claim it as my own.

Players do not have to worry about too much resource micromanagement, yet they will still have to make sure they have enough to get their goals accomplished. To help save valuable time and energy, players will be able to allocate the workforce on what to build and what resources need to be collected.  So instead of working on all of this manually, you will be able to have more fun building your castle.

The graphics are really looking sharp, and it can only get better since there is still a couple months more of development optimization. All of the castles that you will see throughout the course of the game look awesome. The landscapes players see in this game are modeled to perfection, from the tress, animals, and buildings; literally everything looks gorgeous. Also players get full control over the camera, it will take a while to get adjusted on to it. The reason for this is that players get a full 360 degrees of movement with it, along with the ability to zoom in and out. Even though this might take some time, it is extremely worth it.

One last thing I want to talk about is some of the different gameplay modes you will be able to play with. The most obvious is the campaign, where you will be learning three different storylines that are very involving.  Deathmatch is another obvious mode.  In this mode you will be able to duel to the death in a free for all, and whoever is left standing wins. In Conquer the Keep, players must move their units into an opposing enemy’s keep, only after they have damaged it up to a certain point.  The last one is called Capture the Virgin.  In this mode, each player has a damsel who they must keep safe from the opposite team.  Once a damsel is captured, she will faint, and that player will lose the game.  I like that the developers are trying to put in some more unique modes of play instead of the generic standard ones.

Even though Castle Strike is still not finalized yet, it is shaping up to be a game you should not miss out on.