Graphics
Graphics
The visuals of SC, despite clearly not being in stunning 3D actually are rather good I think. Detail is everywhere; from swaying trees too towns’ folk doing normal mundane tasks, even troops look the part as well as fight extremely ruthlessly and believably. Even when you zoom out to the higher view the visuals look adequate.
However, a common fault that bugs me about RTS games that are like AOE is that cities and towns in campaigns are not designed well. Civilians that wear “Team colours”, Buildings having “team colours” like orange and florescent yellow (hardly realistic), and generally towns not just appearing natural and life-like is what bugs me.
This time the developers have got it….. RIGHT!!! Civilians actually wear civilian clothing regardless of what lord they serve, castles look like actual living areas for people rather than a bunch of buildings placed all over the show, civilians go about their daily business rather than stand around, they even run away in fear if trouble is afoot! The developers took a great deal of care to make castles seem as true to medieval life as possible. Well done Firefly Studios!
The visuals are not perfect though, and some background textures and building animations can look rather awful. For instance Bad effect buildings that incite fear amongst your citizens (it makes them work faster if you rule with an iron fist) do look rather poor, especially when the same animation sequence cycles about every 5 seconds. Other glitches involve troops being so close to each other that body parts of other soldiers disappear as they overlap textures (you can even see that in one of the screenshots) and scenery oddities when you place buildings over some terrain types.
Yes I confide, it is a disappointment that it’s not in glorious 3D, I admit being shallow after all. Nevertheless the 2D artwork does generally work in your best interests by making a faster, more detailed looking game.
Mods / Patches / Upgrades
As already stated in my review, extra levels aren’t readily available. There may be fan sites around, but there isn’t any listed on the main site (which is odd nowadays, especially when you boast having a level editor). Patches and a few extra features (such as new enemy lords to play in skirmish mode) can be found on the main site or here.
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