Perhaps the first truly accessible strategy game about the Middle Ages, Castles is a classic from Interplay that offers many hours of addictive gameplay.
As a prominent English noble living in the 12th century, your mission is straightforward: build a castle and defend it from the Celts. What makes Castles a lot of fun is the variety of castles parts (walls, gates, towers, etc.) that effectively allows a limitless number of designs you can implement. There are some inconsistencies in the times it takes to build different parts, but they do not detract from the fun.
True to the intense political turmoil of that era, you will also have to make decisions (by answering multiple-choice questions) that will affect your favor with the Church, nobles, and peasants. Throughout the game, your constant task is to maintain a strong military and a large workforce while watching the level of your treasury.
Although Castles is easy to learn and lacks complicated options, it is by no means an easy game. The game is quite long, and if you don't build up your army early in the game, you will find yourself at a severe disadvantage in later stages when each new invasion by the Celts brings more and more soldiers. Worse, battles are not as much fun to watch as when you are building a castle.
Every battle take place on your castle grounds, where you can watch your tiny animated archers rain arrows from the towers and walls and foot soldiers engage in close combat. Watching is pretty much all you can do, though some tactical options a la battles in Kingmaker would have been a welcome addition.
Still, with all its inconsistencies and some weaknesses, Castles is an immensely enjoyable game that should please anyone who wants a fun, not overly complex game set in the Middle Ages. Castles requires more strategic muscle than Defender of the Crown, yet is not as sophisticated as Machiavelli The Prince. Two thumbs up, way up!
Review By HOTUD
Once you've defeated the Celts, time to go North with the expansion, The Northern Campaign.
Comments and reviews
Does this game have all the original movie clips that came with it back in the day?
I have a Model T air conditioner on my 98 Buick... The windows work just fine (probably because they weren't made by Microsoft)
I'm not sure who felt it was a good idea to edit the sound file, but it's pretty much ruined the game. It's completely unplayable with that garbage blaring over the games original sound.
What a great game! I played this tons when I was younger and loved everything about it.
good game
I do kinda love you. Thanks!
@calm25 Try DOSBox, it's a DOS enviroment so you can play old games.
Without it, you're Mustang won't run cuz you're using Model T air conditioners.
Why can't Ford Model T parts work in a Ford Mustang?
Union rules, kids. Helps keep prices high on replacement parts so they can dump the profits into the Swiss Bank Accounts their Mafia bosses set up for'em.
what is sarcasm
OK guys, I repacked the game so you won't have to install it before playing, it should run fine otherwise leave a comment here.
Why aren't car parts from a Ford Model T able to work in a Ford Mustang?
Calm25 = dumbass
worked fine for me
you need to use a program dos box or some dos emulator ! 64 bit structure do not allow 16 bit ! only 32 bit and even thats a built in emulator for windows xp 64bit or vista 64 bit
my advice do what i did ! use 2 drives one for 64 bit and the other for 32 bit ! when you MUST need to use 64bit just switch it out in the bios drive boot up ! make shure you have cable select on your hard drives !
why isn't my 64-bit windows compatible with a game from 1991???
bill gates is stupid as long as i can't play Castles on my new laptop. I want half his money and his first born.
This is ridiculous...
No comment nor review for this game at the moment.