Posted July 14, 2009
Spellforce is not a bad game, but there are a few pacing and gameplay issues that make it less desirable than some of the other games on this site. Like Septerra Core, I can recommend it most strongly as a good time-waster, but not so much as a good game.
SOUNDS (2/5): It all sounds very standard, really. Blaring trumpet fantasy-tracks, the same fire noises and sword-clashing noises that everyone else uses... but that's not why I gave it a 2. I gave it a 2 because the voice acting is so bad it's almost funny, at least in the Order of Dawn campaign. It's slightly better in the other campaigns, but still less than stellar.
VISUALS (4/5): This game is pretty. Maybe too pretty, given how much it lagged on my computer, but there's no questioning that this game looks nice. The animations could stand to be a little better, particularly when characters are having a conversation, but overall I can offer no strong complaints against the game's graphics.
STORY (4/5): The plot's fairly well-written, and in particular I was impressed with the Order of Dawn campaign's ending. However, the story is marred by bad delivery. The voice acting, as previously mentioned, is mostly garbage, and the gameplay can make it hard for you to really enjoy the story, or even remember exactly what the story is.
GAMEPLAY (3/5): It's a solid concept, it really is. The idea of building stuff up, amassing armies, and then unleashing them to destroy your enemies is a tried, tested, and true way to play a game. Spellforce, however, suffers from three major problems.
1. Clunky interface. If you're directing a large army, it can be difficult to select a particular unit on the battlefield seen from above unless you zoom in close, and then you can't see what the rest of your units are doing. The AI can be kind of clunky, too; if you ctrl+right mouse button to make your units travel to a particular part of the map and kill anything in their path, you may find that they're walking back and forth along a line for no clear reason after they've finished a fight.
2. Unclear system. If you want to build a good character, you need to do at least a little bit of planning in advance, but the manual is completely unhelpful when it comes to describing what the different skills are good for and what the different spells are. As a result, character creation is largely a process of trial and error. On top of that, you can never see the numerical stats of any units besides your heroes. You might know a unit's level, and be able to tell if that it has half it's health, a quarter of its mana, and certain spell effects on, but you can't actually see attack and defense numbers for your troops. This can make strategic planning difficult.
3. PACING! This game is far, far too slow. It takes an arbitrarily long time for units to cross the vast battlefields, and there's no way to speed this process up, or slow it down if you feel so inclined. An Active Pause feature and/or a speed dial is something that EVERY self-respecting RTS must have, and the fact that Spellforce lacks both of these things is reason enough to dock some points.
PRICE FOR VALUE/OVERALL (3/5): There's many, many hours of play in this game, or I'd consider giving it a 2. However, given its length and its relatively low price, I can say that this game is okay. Not bad or good, but okay.
SOUNDS (2/5): It all sounds very standard, really. Blaring trumpet fantasy-tracks, the same fire noises and sword-clashing noises that everyone else uses... but that's not why I gave it a 2. I gave it a 2 because the voice acting is so bad it's almost funny, at least in the Order of Dawn campaign. It's slightly better in the other campaigns, but still less than stellar.
VISUALS (4/5): This game is pretty. Maybe too pretty, given how much it lagged on my computer, but there's no questioning that this game looks nice. The animations could stand to be a little better, particularly when characters are having a conversation, but overall I can offer no strong complaints against the game's graphics.
STORY (4/5): The plot's fairly well-written, and in particular I was impressed with the Order of Dawn campaign's ending. However, the story is marred by bad delivery. The voice acting, as previously mentioned, is mostly garbage, and the gameplay can make it hard for you to really enjoy the story, or even remember exactly what the story is.
GAMEPLAY (3/5): It's a solid concept, it really is. The idea of building stuff up, amassing armies, and then unleashing them to destroy your enemies is a tried, tested, and true way to play a game. Spellforce, however, suffers from three major problems.
1. Clunky interface. If you're directing a large army, it can be difficult to select a particular unit on the battlefield seen from above unless you zoom in close, and then you can't see what the rest of your units are doing. The AI can be kind of clunky, too; if you ctrl+right mouse button to make your units travel to a particular part of the map and kill anything in their path, you may find that they're walking back and forth along a line for no clear reason after they've finished a fight.
2. Unclear system. If you want to build a good character, you need to do at least a little bit of planning in advance, but the manual is completely unhelpful when it comes to describing what the different skills are good for and what the different spells are. As a result, character creation is largely a process of trial and error. On top of that, you can never see the numerical stats of any units besides your heroes. You might know a unit's level, and be able to tell if that it has half it's health, a quarter of its mana, and certain spell effects on, but you can't actually see attack and defense numbers for your troops. This can make strategic planning difficult.
3. PACING! This game is far, far too slow. It takes an arbitrarily long time for units to cross the vast battlefields, and there's no way to speed this process up, or slow it down if you feel so inclined. An Active Pause feature and/or a speed dial is something that EVERY self-respecting RTS must have, and the fact that Spellforce lacks both of these things is reason enough to dock some points.
PRICE FOR VALUE/OVERALL (3/5): There's many, many hours of play in this game, or I'd consider giving it a 2. However, given its length and its relatively low price, I can say that this game is okay. Not bad or good, but okay.