Stronghold is ultimately suitable for anyone who is into the city-building genre, but potentially wants more action.
Stronghold was the first game made by Firefly studios, and in it, you get to build your very own castle with its own walls, economy, and military. While the game is fun, and gets the castle building formula down pat, it isn't really great enough to be widely recommendable.
Stronghold's modes are split into 4 categories: battle scenarios, economic scenarios, free build scenarios, and multiplayer. While that may sound like quite a bit, it should be noted that the economic and free build scenarios fall flat. The free build scenarios are clearly focused on those who love building and nothing else, while the economic scenarios force you to trudge through the boring harvesting of ridiculous ammounts of resources (Gather 500 Bread! Crike!). So the best gameplay comes from the multiplayer and battle scenarios.
The battle scenarios themselves are split into 3 sub-categories: Invasion, Siege, and Single player campaign. The campaign itself is about 17 missions long, so it should keep you interested for a while. But its story is very simplistic and the scenarios quickly get repetitive. Well, at least the characters are entertaining to listen to. The invasion mode has scenarios which are very similar to those found in the campaign, but aren't linked together. The siege mode however bypasses all of the castle building, and instead has you attack or defend a pre-built castle. The siege mode can be great fun- but its not as satisfying as it could be due to a bad AI that sends troops at your walls piecemeal until it finally makes a breach in your walls, at which point it simply makes a beeline for your keep with everything its got. The actual castle building in the game is quite fun once you get into it, and it has a lot for you to set up. The economy of the game is impresively wide, with a wide variety of foods and hard materials to harvest. You also have to build the hovels needed for new peasants who gather at the keep and keep an eye on their happiness by making sure they stay fed, aren't put upon by high taxes, and several other factors. The game also has you train a military which can consist of archers, crossbowmen, spearmen, swordsmen, among others. The combat itself is actually a bit simplistic however, as units can blob together and there are no formation settings.
Graphically, Stronghold has a surprisingly attractive vibe to it despite its relatively primitive 2d graphics. Arrows and rocks look impressive in flight, and the 2d sprites are all well animated. Sound wise, there is some music that helps set the theme and gets more tense when enemies are attacking your castle. The voice acting is also surprisingly enthusiastic and effective.
Ultimately, the only real issue that keeps Stronghold down is its replay value. There seem to be a lot of scenarios available here to keep you busy, but they are all to familiar to each other. This value problem is really wide-srpead amongst city-builders in general really, so this problem is not terribly surprising. But if you are into city-builders, or are looking with a city-building game that has more action than most, then Stronghold can easily suit you.
Pros: Effective formula for building a castle. Wide economy will keep you busy maintaining your castle. Surprisingly good voice acting all around.
Cons: Scenarios are too similar to one another, limiting the game's replay value. Poor AI.
Recommendable for: Anyone interested in the city-building genre.