Stronghold 4 Demo Released

[Asophix 141]

Ahoy Sirs and Ladies!

A playable demo for Stronghold 4 has been released on Steam (https://store.steampowered.com/app/2153760/Stronghold_4/, 10.53 GB size).

 

This alpha version gives a glimpse into the story of Penryn of Wethel, situated prior to the events of Stronghold 1. SH4 Alpha allows you to play one economic and one military invasion mission, akin to the classic Stronghold 1 presentation with some inspired mechanics from Stronghold 3.

The demo is scheduled to be up approximately one day long after its release (April 24th 16h GMT+0), after which it becomes unavailable to play.

 

Please note that this public demo does not reflect the ready product and as a result, bugs and unfinished features may occur. Refer to the SH4 megathread for more information about potential features, as well as the Stronghold 4 Steam page for system requirements.

Have fun with the demo!

[Sir Windows 62]

Well that was fun.

Things I liked:

• Visual presentation is very good, even on medium-low the game is nice to look at.
• Castle life is booming and one can watch the peasants doing all kinds of jobs in great detail
• New music tracks and old tracks from SH1 & SH2 blend together well
• New production chain for cheese is a good addition
• Building walls works well and there are a lot of options to design your stone or wooden castle
• Lots of options for wooden fortifications are a nice addition
• Random daily events might be interesting once more are added
• Formations and unit collision work well enough
• Returning to the original medieval England setting was a good idea
• The demo was pretty stable for me

Things I disliked:

• The UI feels cluttered, and it took me a while to get a hang of it
• The wood cost for some building is very high (200 wood for an inn). It feels very SHC2 like in this regard, the market will be pretty essential in this game.
• Longbowmen look a little odd
• While the music is good, the pauses between tracks feel too long, sometimes one forgets there is music
• I wish spearmen would carry their spear in their hands before throwing it like the old games, rather than on their back
• The rat's forces appear in blue rather than orange, hopefully this'll change in the final release

All in all it looks promising, and I was pleased with the demo. Hopefully they'll fine tune and optimize the game before launch. Not a fan of the UI but that's something that's unlikely to change at this point.