The biggest point I'd like to make is that Stronghold 3's gameplay is very basic, with very basic resource and army-building, but it's going to take a while to learn and even longer to master. With each mission consisting of fairly unique challenges, along with plenty of options for map-building and a focus on community, Stronghold 3 will offer you a lot of castle-building strategy gaming in the long run. Stronghold 3 will take a long time to figure out, but once you get it, you'll be building your strength and managing your castle like a king. The learning curve is also pretty rough, but anyone growing up in a time when strategy games were confusing and came with very little help or tutorials and who took the time to figure them out, will relish in the fact, as they get frustrated attempting to navigate through the endless menus and vague icons. For many strategy gamers, they will either love this aspect or hate it. Learn patience, and think twenty steps ahead, otherwise you'll fail. Without meticulous and proper management, one mistake could set you back or destroy your entire campaign. Stronghold 3 is designed to be a throwback to those old sims of the 90s - all of which were VERY, VERY hard. This being said, Warcraft gamers take flight – there won't be any patterns or human weaknesses shining through here. Each campaign offers plenty of hours of gameplay – each extremely challenging. You essentially pick from two campaigns, one which will glorify war and battle, while the other will glorify economics and resource-building.

Stronghold 3, for those who have not played the series, is a medieval RTS castle sim. For all of us who spent hours at our PCs building up resources, making our castles and armies bigger and bigger, and wrecking opposition for glory, honor and power in the original Stronghold, we should be jumping with joy with the long held release of Stronghold 3. It's been a long time since Stronghold 2 – and now, after six years, we finally see Stronghold 3 make its way to the light of day.

Stronghold 3 review after patches