SpellForce - Platinum Edition

[h1]Sum-Up[/h1] [h3]In-depth analysis further down.[/h3] [table] [tr] [th]🟩 [b]Pros[/b][/th] [th]🟥 [b]Cons[/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [td] • Unique blend of RTS and RPG, that feels mostly well-designed, varied and interesting even after dozens of hours. • Massive variety of skills, equipment and possible builds to create a character that suits your playstyle. • With six different races, all usable at the same time, each with their own units, buildings and peculiarities, the RTS component has enough variety to last. • Each interconnected level feels unique and has its own enemies, bosses, secrets, rules and quest-related interactions. [/td] [td] • The story doesn’t feel particularly interesting, most characters are forgettable, and the English voiceover is terrible. • Extremely slow pacing, especially in the latter campaigns. Getting anywhere takes ages, and you’ll spend hours just waiting for resources to accumulate so that you can progress. • Character builds ar...

I managed to finish it, because it works well as something to keep your hands busy during boring zoom calls. But, man, is it terrible. The worst strategy game and the worst rpg game I ever played in one. Such a slog, everything takes extremely long. As a strategy - it is basically a tower defense, since enemies don't have economy and spawn on cd until you destroy buildings around spawn point. Your units spawn at predetermined locations, so you can't build production closer to where it needed. And since every map is enormous, new units may take like up to 5 mins to arrive to your location. Enemy strength is fully determined by their level. Dragon lvl 1 is a pussy, goblin lvl 30 will solo your whole army. Units are very unresponsive too. There is a cheese strat - the enemies don't start to spawn until you start to build a base, so not engaging with a strategy parth of the game may be a wise decision in many cases. Sadly I've found it out very late. RPG wise is also absolutely forgettab...

I bought these games because of the interesting design combining RPG & RTS.

freezes and slowmos on modern hardware, playable on my steam deck. extremely fun.

I completed the original campaign ages ago when I had a physical copy of it, and now I wanted to play it again and the expansions before playing SpellForce 2 and 3 that have been sitting in my library for awhile. My God, I do not know I managed to get through it the first time around... I remembered it being really long, and boy, that one memory was very accurate! Everything takes WAY too long, it's really tedious. I wish the game had stuck to the RPG aspect more, and less on the crappy RTS portion. Why? Because this is really more of a tower defense game and the enemy doesn't behave in normal "RTS" fashion. It has spawn points that will generate units every X amount of minutes regardless of resources and it will attack you only if you build a base. So technically, you could explore the entire map with just your created Rune Warrior and never have to think about managing and defending a base by just not making one. The story is very generic also, I really hope the sequels improved on t...

An ambitious and wonderfully unique blend of RPG and RTS that dares to do more—and actually pulls it off. Despite some rough edges, its bold design, rich world, and satisfying gameplay make it a memorable experience. It doesn’t shy away from complexity or creativity, and that fearless effort alone makes it something special. A flawed gem that shines because it never stops trying.

good old times