Wall-shrinking was a bit odd, yes, but I still quite liked Stronghold. Alright, so there were times when a maceman would be plinking away at a wall and would wind up shrinking it while an archer was standing on top, thus trapping the archer in his own little cell until either the maceman got to him or the siege was lifted and the wall was reconstructed underneath.
But you know what? I still liked the sieges. True, modern-day technology is capable of far more awesomeness and physics-based destruction and yadda yadda... But for what they had at the time, plus all the citybuilding and economic aspects, it wasn't that bad.
What bit me was how impossible it was to attach a round tower to a wall and have it not look wonky. I used the inferior square towers in a number of places simply because they looked better...
And what's this you say? Massive river of pitch, leading straight into the forest the bad guys are coming from? Why of course! So what if I used hundreds upon hundreds of pitch jars to make a veritable ocean in front of my doorstep, it sodding well worked now didn't it?
Yeh... Well, ignore all that, I'm just ranting. Anyways, I played the demo to Stronghold 2 (and Stronghold Legends), and I can't really say I was impressed. There was just something... wonky about it. I've never really taken issue with province-based maps, but there was just something weird about the 3D troops and defenses. Okay, so the guys in Stronghold 1 clipped into each other all the time too when walking through a door, but they didn't stay like that, and for some reason it seemed to work better back then.
I really wanted to be impressed by Stronghold 2, but I wasn't. Even though it had been piled high with all sorts of new gizmos and tidbits, it was lacking something. Here's hoping #3 gets it right.