SpellForce is your classic real-time strategy and role-playing series that has been around since 2003. The series is set in a fantasy world called Eo ruled over by near-immortal mages and include various other races including humans, orcs, elves, dark elves, dwarves and trolls.
Like most RPG and RTS games SpellForce offers complex skill trees to progress through as you level your heroes and get to choose a combination of many skill tree paths to unlock your skills and abilities to make your hero stronger. These include dark and light magic, archery, arcane archery, brutality and others. Gameplay is over the top of the map and giving you an aerial view of Eo’s vast beautiful landscape.
When I began the campaign, I was thrown straight in the deep end with 4 heroes at my disposal and had to navigate a labyrinth of corridors leading to an explosive conclusion where one hero was lost with the power of magic the cause of the tragedy. After this battle, there was a long intro leading to your character creation where you could choose your heroes name and the attributes you would be using in your battle against the forces of evil. After there were more cinematic sequences followed by a simple tutorial level set in Greyfell Keep, where you saw the lives of the residents pass by including trials and combat training taken place.
This opened a huge amount of lore in the beginning to get us up to speed on the story, so even if you are new to SpellForce or a returning fan you will understand the story and the world that you are discovering. You then progress to your first mission where you are shown the ropes of building bases, outposts, claiming territories and all strategies that come with winning a fight. We are tasked to discover a mysterious new disease called the Bloodburn in the town of Liannon, however, it is already occupied by the elves who are also studying this new mysterious disease. Disagreements are made, a war begins and results in force, being the only way to get into Liannon.
After pushing the elves out Liannon, we are attacked immediately by elf reinforcements who not long after surrender and withdraw from Liannon altogether and tell you that the Bloodburn is not a normal disease and that your commander kept from you that Liannon would be purged leaving no survivors. Learning about this vital information you return to your captain who then tells you their true intentions and we refuse to carry out this order. We are then treated as traitors and imprisoned for sentencing and later sentenced to death for high treason to the crown.
The story is very rich and filled with cinematic detail as well as an intense soundtrack to follow the story as you progress through the world of Eo. The beauty the game holds is unparalleled in offering vast detail in scenery both during cinematic scenes and during levels. You can easily get lost in the story and forget about time completely while you enjoy such a stunning and exciting storyline.
I awarded the score I did because I believe I could spend hours doing only a few levels and still not break the surface of the vast story available. The content available for an RTS fan is huge and could fill months of enjoyment in just playing the story. All that I found bad with the SpellForce is while razing buildings once 80% is destroyed, the hit points glitch out, but it doesn't hinder the experience of the game too much and for that, I scored 9.
Overall Score: 9/10
Developer: Grimlore Games, THQ Nordic
Publisher: THQ Nordic
Release Date: 7th December 2017
Price: £39.99 - Digital
File Size: 15GB
Available on Steam.
Steam copy provided for review purposes.