Spellforce 2

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Does anyone here play this game?

I picked it up recently after it caught my eye in a local Best Buy--and I later did some Internet research to find it was getting some extremely positive reviews. It seems that the game series is pretty popular in Europe, but has barely been noticed here in the USA (which is where I'm from). While I don't expect that it will end up anywhere close to my top 10 favorite PCs games, I'm actually pleasantly surprised overall with the game. It is a nice blend of RPG and RTS—done a heck of a lot better than Dragonshard did with this concept.

RPG
The RPG portion is really the meat and potatoes of the game, and this aspect plays a lot like Dungeon Siege. The main PC (referred to as the avatar) is the central figure of the story, and over the course of the game you can add up to 5 additional followers, whose equipment you can fully customize, and whose skills you have some limited ability to customize. In addition to followers, you also have henchmen who you cannot customize in any way. They are at a similar relative power level as your followers—generally a few levels behind your avatar. Henchmen come and go based on the plot, so they are not permanent.

RTS
RTS troops really end up functioning like an army under the avatar’s command. This reminds me a lot of a D&D party where the party leader has the leadership feat, and is therefore able to command a larger force of followers. Sometimes you’ll find that in a given mission you won’t command any RTS forces. Other times you might have a small battalion of troops backing you up. Other times you’ll be engaged in full blown base building, using workers to gather resources, and amassing an extremely large force in preparation for battles that are quite epic in scale. One mission I’ve played even allowed me to battle in conjunction with 2 other armies commanded by separate computer controlled generals.

The level of your RTS forces will increase as the game goes, but they are generally several levels behind your RPG forces, and as you would expect, are quite frail in comparison to your main party.

Campaign
So, I didn’t set out with the intention to write a review—I’m probably barely 1/3 of the way done with SP campaign—but due to the amount of words I’m writing, feel that some basic organization is appropriate. With that out of the way… back on topic.

The campaign does a good job of introducing letting you get comfortable with controlling your main party before introducing RTS elements, and the RTS mechanics are worked in slowly enough that a casual gamer should not have too much difficulty getting comfortable. The storyline is largely linear, but there are a ton of side quests, and even one major ongoing side quest where you can become lord of a territory and nurse it to prosperity. By the time you are well into the game, there is a nice level of variety in the kinds of things you might do from mission to mission. One city-based map, which you will return to several times over the course of the game, is primarily about doing non-combat related quests (gaining the backing of local guilds, and even doing some minor puzzles type activities). There is even a sub-quest that centers around mastering a game called Drakkar, which I’m actually finding rather enjoyable.

The campaign is also quite long. I’ve read that it’s a 60 – 70 hour experience!—haven’t seen a game that long since Baldur’s Gate. I’m not sure whether this is a good or a bad thing, but at the point I’m at in the game currently, I’m not sure if I’ll be able plug away to make it to the end. I tend to play rather slowly and methodically, spending a lot of time considering how to best equip my party (loot is in no short supply), and taking the opportunity roleplay my way through the game. I’m also finding that most of the missions I play at this point take me a couple of tries before I figure out a decent strategy to make it through. By the time I finish a mission I’m finding that I need to take a break from the game before I’m ready to consider diving into the next mission. They are just that exhausting. So if I’m only 1/3 of the way through, and the game continues to scale in intensity and difficulty, I may end up losing interest at some point.

Miscellaneous
The graphics are excellent—they push my GeForce 6800 more than any other game I own, but the game is still quite fluid even at the highest graphics settings. The story is well done and includes a rich history of the game world, Eo. Many of the dialogues, however, are marginal, at best—this might be because the game was not originally written in English (at least I don’t think it was), so the translation into English just doesn’t match the quality of the rest of the game. Somewhat disappointing, but not a game killer.

I can’t say that I’ve seen any posts about this game here, so I’m curious if anyone else is playing it, and what they think.

[ August 20, 2006, 22:26: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

 

So, either no one saw this post, or I now have my answer as to why I've not seen anyone discussing this game on these boards....

 

Still playing Spellforce 1 and its expansions.

 

I missed this post the first time and second time Marceror, my apologies, I've been playing Spellforce and its expansions for several months now. the campaigns and the sandbox games as well. I've enjoyed it as it does combine RPG and RTS elements well without detracting from either element or the game losing anything.

I haven't bought Spellforce 2 ... yet I will be getting it, as for dialogue you're right in that the original language is German, and the English translations are minimal at best.

 

Which is better? SF or SF2?