Stronghold Kingdoms, an MMO from Firefly

With Stronghold Kingdoms, the new free-to-play real-time strategy linked to the Stronghold saga, Firefly takes a new direction and is the increasingly popular online game. Registration is instantaneous, immediate check-ups and social interconnection already start on the homepage.


Once you have access to the game servers you just have to decide where to place the village and which buildings to build first. Indeed, the management, with taxes and resources to be distributed, remains the focus of the formula, and it works. Building the most effective village is a real challenge thanks to the complexity and the possibilities of expansion that are decidedly superior to those of many freemium management RTS. But already at this stage emerges the first major flaw of Stronghold Kingdoms. After the trial period, which lasts only two days, it is in fact necessary to spend a premium to launch a tail of construction and not remain anchored to exhausting and very little playtime. The sound coin also allows you to increase resources and increase production, creating a formula that goes very close to the much-hated "pay to win".

In fact, the possibilities of development take into consideration politics, with monks to infiltrate to influence a vote or fights with players of the same degree to decide who will ascend in the hierarchy. A rich dish, therefore, at least from the management point of view, with the option, once reached a certain level, to launch into real global wars capable of giving the winner global fame. But as far as the clash is relevant, the focus remains the evolution of our community, with research and skills that make each faction unique and unique. In short, the general aim is to grow one's domain by transforming villages into flourishing cities to give life to an important family. But to do so it is not enough to accumulate resources blindly and it is necessary to deal with the global balance, which are obviously bound to the aforementioned political component, and especially with the morale of the population, thorn in the side of every ruler. All good then, at least on paper, but in the field the prospects change with the battles that are really too limited even for a free to play title. We fight in a rectangle, at the center of which we find the fort, with the military forces that fight automatically. The fundamental elements are the defensive structures, to be developed in a specific management section also linked to research and development, and the placement of the units that must protect all sides of the structure. The fighters can be the simple villagers, obviously rather weak, as well as archers, guerreros and spearmen. There are also ditches, knights and siege weapons, necessary to bring attacks to the most complex and best defended castles.

The complex management component makes the online turn of the series very interesting, but Firefly could have done more since we propose a 10-year-old engine. The limited fighting and the biblical timing of the title, to which the non-paying users are subjected, recall to mind the first browser games and thus evoke a more work-related gameplay than a hardcore RTS.

Moreover, in exchange for the social component, a great part of the excellent atmosphere of the first chapter is sacrificed, which could have easily coexisted with the online formula. And it would not have been difficult to even introduce new contour features with a medieval flavor. Defender of the Crown, in the style of Defender of the Crown, jump to the mind, which among other things would be definitely suitable for a strategic playable on the web. The outline is ultimately fluctuating although fortunately it is not without goodies as the ability to watch, in deferred, the battles that affect our province. Unfortunately, the whole title is based on an outdated and cumbersome interface and in this case the lack of a redesign is really unforgivable. Finally, the Italian language is missing while crashes that are definitely inexplicable due to the modesty of the technical sector.