Over the past decade, many games have attempted to marry the genres of role-playing and real-time strategy. One of the better attempts at this holy union was Spellforce - The Order of Dawn. While the game did well enough in Europe to spawn two expansion packs, it didn't catch on as well in the US and its expansions never made it across the Atlantic. Phenomic Game Development and Aspyr hope to change all of that with the forthcoming release of Spellforce 2 - Shadow Wars. Recently, I had the opportunity to play a demo of the game and get a sneak peak at what's in store.
First impressions can make or break a game. My first impression of Spellforce 2 is "Wow, this is freaking gorgeous!" The graphics of the original Spellforce game were darn good for their time, but don't quite live up to today's standards. Fortunately, Phenomic thought so, too. They've completely revamped the graphics engine and it shows.
The screen shots you see here simply cannot do the game justice. Fog effects, lighting and shading are used to brilliant effect, especially where the landscape meets the sky. Distant mountains shrouded in mist lend the game a truly vast and epic feel. I'd say it's the most photo-realistic environments I have seen. The character models and textures don't always quite live up to the same quality, especially close up, but they're passable.
I'm not fond of the style employed in the design of the female characters. Female warriors shouldn't be scantily clad. It just doesn't make sense that a woman would favor steel plated pasties rather than full plate armor. It's a minor gripe and it's one that I have about a lot of games. Other than that, the characters are well designed and detailed.
Of course, all of this really puts the thumbscrews to my PC. Granted I'm not running absolute bleeding edge technology, but my 3 GHz processor and ATI Radeon 9800 XT have never been humbled so completely as this. Keep in mind this is a pre-release demo of the game, but I think it's safe to expect the final product to be somewhat demanding if you want to experience its full visual impact.
By now, you're probably rolling your eyes and thinking, "Okay, so the game has amazing graphics. But is it fun?" If I were a lazy writer, I'd just gush about the graphics and say this is going to be the greatest game ever. Luckily, I'm not that sort of writer. Let's talk about the game.
I should mention this game has a ton of story and background lore. The Shaikan are descendants of the Dragon Warriors. Blessed with the blood of a dragon, they're one with magic. They exist independent of good and evil. Both the people of the light and the people of the dark hold reverence for the Shaikan. The story's hero will be of these legendary people.
All told, there are nine distinct races divided up into three factions. Presumably the player will command any and all of the races at some point in the game. Each race has its own heroes, units, structures and technologies. Each also has its own history and lore and its own important role to play in the epic story.
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The demo I played offered a tutorial and three scenarios in different settings. The tutorial introduced the basics such as character control, camera control and character development. The game's controls do take a bit of getting used to, but it's pretty much mouse driven. The camera can be in either a 3rd person isometric mode or an over-the-shoulder "pursuit" mode.
My one early gripe is one that I had about the first game as well. You'll only experience the breath-taking graphics I described earlier if you zoom in and employ this pursuit camera mode, but this mode made the game difficult to play. In this mode, the WASD keys control the hero, but controlling any other units meant whipping the camera around and trying to use the mouse from an awkward angle. I hope they'll find a way to improve this before the game's release or in a patch soon after as it would be a shame for the impressive graphics to be reduced to a novelty. Okay, okay! I promise that's the last I'll say about the graphics!
When zoomed out, Spellforce 2 behaves like practically every other RTS game (and many RPGs) out there. Drag a box around some units and click to tell them where to go and what to do. Select a single unit and a handy menu appears giving you access to the unit's abilities. However, Spellforce 2 offers a novel alternative to this mechanic.
As in most other RTS games, you can define groups of units and quickly select them later with a single keystroke. Your heroes and these hot-keyed groups are each represented by small portraits at the top of the screen. When you select a unit (friend or foe), a short menu of actions appears below each of these portraits, giving you quick access to that unit's or group's abilities and memorized spells. This "Click & Fight System" is pretty handy as it allows you to select a target and quickly issue commands to each of your units instead of having to painstakingly select and command your units individually. Of course if there are lots of enemies to fight there can still be a lot of clicking, but it's nice to have options.
Character development consists of a pair of skill trees (Magic and Combat) in which skill points can be spent to your liking. You also have control over the development of the other heroes in your party and, of course, over everyone's armor and equipment.
The first of the demo's scenarios started out as an RPG adventure and took place in a besieged Dwarven mining town. Presumably in the release version of the game, you'll create your own custom hero, but in this demo the main hero was a female Shaikan (or Dragon Warrior) named Tahiera. She led a small band of heroes into the mine, seeking to free the town and gain the trust of the Dwarves. There were quests and monsters and traps and puzzles, everything you'd expect in an RPG.
Eventually, though, Tahiera took control of a small camp of humans and the game's RTS element kicked in. While still controlling the party of heroes, I was also charged with constructing a base, gathering resources and building an army. There are several buildings to be built, units to be recruited and new technologies to be researched.
The transition from RPG mode to RTS mode was somewhat jarring, but I'll allow for that as the demo sort of dropped me into the deep end. The retail game hopefully will provide a smoother learning curve.
One of the most important features of Spellforce 2 for me is its promise of co-operative multiplayer support. The demo, unfortunately, did not include this and there's not a whole lot of information on the official Spellforce 2 website yet. Even site unseen, though, I give major props to Aspyr and Phenomic for including co-op when so many other game developers just ignore it.
The deep storyline, strong RPG aspects and most of all the promise of co-operative multiplayer have me anxious to get my hands on the final product, even if I might have to upgrade my computer to fully enjoy it. Stay tuned for a full review of Spellforce 2 after it is released this April.
I'm a thirty-something computer programmer. I live in Delaware, but I grew up in Arkansas in a tiny town of 2500. We didn't have video arcades. Heck, it was nearly an hour's drive to anything as sophisticated as a Wal*Mart. Needless to say, my exposure to video games as a child was somewhat limited.
In the mid 80's, I cut my teeth on a used Atari 2600 bought at a flea market and a handful of games like Space Invaders and Pac Man. I was hooked in a blink. In the decades since, I've become a big fan of many genres of games. From first-person shooters to role-playing to strategy and everything in between. The only games that categorically don't interest me are sports games.
The easiest way for a game to win me over is to have a gripping story. I'll forgive a lot in a game that grabs me and keeps me interested. The inverse is true, too. If a game does not have a killer story, its gameplay had better be pretty darn compelling to make up for it. That doesn't happen very often
