SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars

""Addictive" does NOT equal a great game, buddy."

WHAT IS SPELLFORCE 2 AND WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT?

Spellforce 2 is one of those fantasy-themed games we're so familiar with these days... swords, magic, elves, sexy females in bikini armor, and so on. It also contains the usual storyline about a battle between good or evil, with branching paths you can choose to determine which alignment your character roughly is. Unfortunately, those choices do not affect alot of things in the gameplay department.

OKAY, OKAY... SO WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT?

Obviously, it's the mix of RPG/RTS elements which everybody (including the makers) are going so ga-ga about. The first Spellforce was flaunted as the world's first RTS/RPG hybrid. But, anybody who has followed the PC gaming world these past few years would've known that Spellforce 2 wasn't truly the first game to revolutionize (let alone master) that idea, and that companies like Blizzard (with Warcraft 3) had already got their feet wet in that department. But for the sake of reviewing this game "for what it really is", I will refrain from making comparisons to other games similar to Spellforce 2 (even though it is VERY tempting).

SOUNDS (5/10):

Spellforce 2, being a game that came from Europe... I can't bring myself to blast the odd-sounding voice actors, who sound like they're reading directly from a piece of paper. Voices aside, other sounds, such as combat ones, are rather simplistic. You get the "clink-clank" and the "bop!" and "chop!"... but none of them are truly impressive or immersive. It's also somewhat of an annoyance. Especially when in a large-scale battle, for instance, where you hear that same fleshy sound repeat itself hundreds of times... But what do I know? You'll probably get used to it like you would with the sound of a car engine, anyway. Still, the sounds are merely there, simply so there can *be* sounds. They don't *sound* like they were there to immerse yourself in a different (fantasy) world. The soundtrack itself is nice. But sometimes, I feel awkward when it comes and goes, intense-sounding, as I jump from a group of weak spiders to the next...

GRAPHICS (7/10):

Graphics wise, I can say without a doubt that Spellforce 2 has the best set of artists. Characters all have varied clothing, menus are well-crafted, the characters have a somewhat comical shape to them and animations are well motion-captured. However, there are some problem are the shadows. I don't know what's wrong with it, but they all appear pixelized-like, and not smoothed out. Also, the spell effects are unentertaining; fireballs, electric attacks... if you've seen them before, you've already seen them here. The gameplay also sorts of kills the graphics, too. Since you're spending most of the time playing with the camera zoomed out, you'll be mostly appreciating the terrain. Even there, you'll still see unadorned, flat plains here and there... and you'll only see them once or twice before you get fed up and realize that, hey, maybe it's not as impressive than the stuff they showed you in the screenshots...

On a side note, Spellforce 2, like its predecessor, is quite power-demanding game, so it's best to buy yourself a solid rig, unless you enjoy real choppy large-scale combats and long loading times.

GAMEPLAY (3/10):

I firmly believe that Spellforce 2 can only be reviewed by splitting it in two. So let's start with the RTS element.

Spellforce 2 provides the usual: resources, gatherers, and the usual macromanagement (buildings, troops, etc.) After experiencing it many times, it made me question the very of existence of such a resource system. Based on what I saw, the usual scenario involves you setting up your Headquarters (your main building), waiting 5 to 10 minutes for your resources to pile up, churn out the maximum number of units, proceed to the enemy base and batter him into submission. As if that wasn't enough, the choice of units is also proof of the lack of strategic thinking required in Spellforce 2. The units do not have any other strategic or tactical uses besides dealing damage, dealing damage from a distance, or heal. Yes, ALL of the 3 races' units. That includes the Hero units, which do more or less the same things, but with fatter numerical values. Needless to say, the battles are won purely by statistical and numerical values. Forget about Sun Tzu or Rommel; just charge ahead, destroy the enemy with your vastly superior chunk of units and then, to infuriate your opponent, say you won with "superior flanking tactics and terrain advantage" (they don't change anything).

On the RPG side, Spellforce 2 relies much on quests, character development (statistics) and inventory management to satisfy the needs of the RPG gamer. While this sounds like fun in the mind of your average roleplayer, the game is, actually, plagued by tedious quests that vary from your usual "Fed-Ex" quest to the "go there and kill X and then come back to me". Normally this would be acceptable, but, as described above, combat is tedious and unnecessarily long. Don't be surprised if you have to spend more time than you would like bashing an army of little spiders to death in the wilderness to recover "Y" item. Talking of items, character equipment (and skills) don't play any bigger strategic role, other than fattening your characters' numerical values... which is quite a waste, considering the item art in this game is so carefully crafted. On the good side, Spellforce 2 features a teleportation system on its gigantic maps as transitions. It's the least that it can do to relieve the massive, brain-killing tedium from the systematic gameplay... which a robot could easily fall in love with. Also worth noting is that the monsters in the wilderness and some of the NPC's are static, meaning they don't move (unless it's an enemy player programmed to attack you in minutely intervals), and they are always facing south. Kinda brings a whole new meaning to the definition of "lifeless", huh?

Combine poor strategic elements and slow combat with weak role-playing elements that tries to take advantage of them, and you'll end up doing a feeble attempt at creating an adequate, innovative representation of an "RTS/RPG hybrid".

FINAL OPINION:

I know what Spellforce 2 was trying to achieve. It wanted to be an immersive game for roleplayers and adventure-loving fans, all the while providing solid and exciting gameplay features from the RTS genre. Unfortunately, the producers failed to bring both due to the lack of innovative thinking on their part, opting instead to capitalize on the strange addiction gamers have for doing tedious routines in order to go from one step to another. While this kind of "addiction" is what made MMORPG's successful, it does *not* automatically make a game good.

If you're that kind of person that has no problems playing this kind of "artificial game" of repetitive gameplay with no substance or psychological rewards, then you'll love Spellforce 2. If you're looking for an incredibly epic role-playing adventure like Final Fantasy or the next Chess to make good ol' General Rommel proud... Stay away. Real far, far away from this one. Don't be fooled by the scores shown on the reviews, and at least try the demo first. Please. For your sake.

FINAL SCORE: 4/10

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 06/27/06