In the 90s and early 2000s, city builders were one of the most popular game genres. At the time, shooters hadn’t fully taken off, and city builders or games that offered unlimited replayability were highly desired.

If you look back at that time period, on PC Doom, Quake, Starcraft, Sid Meier’s Civilization 1 & 2, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, Diablo 2, and RollerCoaster Tycoon were some of the top games.

These games offered players countless hours of gameplay. In a way, we are more spoiled now with the sheer amount of games available to us across various genres and platforms.

With the return in popularity of city builders, FireFly Studios is bringing back one of the games that captivated a generation. At PAX West, we got to briefly check out Stronghold: Definitive Edition.

Due to limited time constraints, we only got to run through the tutorial, but that gave us a taste of what Stronghold: Definitive Edition looks and feels like in its glorious new HD form.

The tutorial gave the basic rundown on how to establish a civilization, gather resources, and expand your colony. After we completed the demo, we were given the chance to move on to the next chapter or continue to playthrough.

Playing without a game plan was a poor choice. Soon after, our small village was raided, our people slaughtered, and our leader executed while fighting.

Setting up a camp was fairly easy but managing the resources felt like a bit of a challenge. The challenge might have come up because I forgot one of the game’s basic mechanics or I hadn’t found a new food source for my villagers to farm.

Overall, It was a pleasure to see Firefly’s Stronghold return at PAX West. Real-time strategy builders should be able to easily enjoy Stronghold: Definitive Edition when it releases on November 7th for PC (via Steam).