from
acquiring scrolls that allow peons to be trained, followed by structures and more
advanced units. The scrolls are found throughout the maps, but they generally
tend to be set out in a way that eases the player from one race to another, without
spending too much time on one in particular. Like the units, the buildings look
fantastic. Most have a worker unit takes a post near the structure and continually
does the needed tasks; with great detail and plenty of animations, it isn't long
before a barren spot becomes a populated village with workers of all sorts running
around, splitting wood at sawmills and packaging meat up for storage. With a wide
array of resources - wood, stone, iron, food, moonstone, lenya - to be collected,
but each race only requiring a few out of the set, it's not uncommon for a particular
resource to be drained dry before too long. Fortunately, there are buildings -
as opposed to simple upgrade options - that can extend the usefulness of gathered
resources - while they are definitely a must, they, cool looking or not, seem
excessive. The scrolls are found throughout
the maps, but they generally tend to be set out in a way that eases the player
from one race to another, without spending too much time on one in particular.
Like the units, the buildings look fantastic. Most have a worker unit takes a
post near the structure and continually does the needed tasks; with great detail
and plenty of animations, it isn't long before a barren spot becomes a populated
village with workers of all sorts running around, splitting wood at sawmills and
packaging meat up for storage. With a wide array of resources - wood, stone, iron,
food, moonstone, lenya - to be collected, but each race only requiring a few out
of the set, it's not uncommon for a particular resource to be drained dry before
too long. Fortunately, there are buildings - as opposed to simple upgrade options
- that can extend the usefulness of gathered resources - while they are definitely
a must, they, cool looking or not, seem excessive. Traveling
in either third-person, with the camera directly to the character's back; an over-the-top
view; or an assortment of angled, more traditional real-time strategy views, the
game is played out like a role-playing game set within a strategy game, with the
different angles being used to emphasis which aspect the player feels more comfortable
with. When using the behind-the-back view, the controls switch from being mouse-oriented
to being based on the keyboard (standard W, A, S, D settings), this replicating
the feel of an online and/or action RPG, with the other views there for the strategy
portion. SpellForce uses a combat system that features positive spells
being near the player's portrait when either a friendly unit or nothing is selected,
while attack spells appear whenever an enemy is chosen; the controls go to a more
traditional scheme for the behind-the-back view, with the player having to use
a bottom spell menu, which I found cumbersome and far too troublesome to be useful.
Hero units also have spells, which are handled in the same way. Without the ability
to queue spells and similar spell icons that lack descriptions on the main screen,
combat could become pretty hairy. But, it is nice to have spells focused on the
type of unit selected; another plus is that the spell icons also indicate distance
from target. While the strategy views
are the best, it's a shame that the strategy portion is the weakest part of the
game. If the game consisted solely of that, I would be recalling my experience
far less fondly. While it's true that the units are fun to use and look cool,
they aren't put to good use, because the game is incredibly linear in level design
and tactics. The majority of the map consists of nothing but respawn points, and
buildings nearby that have to be destroyed to render that spawn area useless.
Enemy encampments send scouts out that will run back to report the player's position,
which is fine, but, if killed, which is the suggested course of action, more scouts
will be sent out to see what happened to the last patrol. Soon, the situation
snowballs into waves and waves of incredibly strong enemies smashing into the
player's defenses and soldiers. A proactive approach would seem to be the best
course of action, but it often takes a while to get enough resources gathered
and structures built to have an army of strong enough units to take out the encampments;
and, even if the raids succeed, the game then becomes nothing more than going
from point to point, knocking buildings down. If the player is a patient person,
they could wait until they amassed enough resources to call a Titan, a one-time
unit that is massive and very dangerous, which can help end battles fairly quickly.
However,
while there are nods to many past titles in the genre within this portion, the
devious tactics found in titles like WarCraft III aren't found here; instead,
the best the computer does is choose another route to attack from. Since the enemy
doesn't need resources and the available formations are pretty much useless, there
are no semi-advance strategies, like cutting off supply lines or flanking enemy
armies, to take advantage of. In fact, combat can be a pain since the developers
went with an awkward mouse and keyboard approach to selecting units: instead of
simply double-clicking on a unit to select all of the same type in the area, the
player has to press CTRL and click on the unit; also, unit behavior isn't handled
by icons, like most titles, but different keystrokes, so a key+clicking will result
in the player's units moving offensively, defensively, etc. The strategy portion
was very basic to begin with, the poor controls and lack of an enjoyable challenge
only made it worse.
What makes the strategy portions tolerable, and the
game actually fun, is the portion that would be described as the role-playing
segment. This is where the story unfolds, side quests are tackled, prized items
are played with, and glory is had. I chose to play the game with the strategy
views, which also had the pleasant affect of feeling like a team-based role-playing
game whenever I had some heroes with me and we were hunting down a powerful enemy.
However, the heroes have no personality, possibly due to how many that can be
summoned, which really hinders how much of a traditional party-based experience
the gamer will have - there are no fond memories of Boo or characters that are
somber and mysterious. Unlike most RPGs, the player, and the other heroes, can
carry whatever they want and however much of it they feel like picking up. Unfortunately,
most of it is junk. A few prized drops make exploring treasure chests worthwhile
ventures, but often it's the same sword that was dropped by the skeleton, minotaur,
and mini grim reaper. Still, the allure of finding some impossibly powerful weapon
is always there, and it accompanies the unending desire to level up quite nicely.
Aside
from the traditional RPG elements working well, the story also keeps the game
interesting. Even though the game is long - very long - I always enjoyed going
off on a new adventure or exploring a new land to track someone down, acquire
an item, protect stranded soldiers, or do whatever the situation called. The quests
were broken up into major and side, with a journal indicating what was done, what's
left, and little descriptions of what each means - although, rarely, an objective
would stay lit, meaning I didn't accomplish them, whenever really I did, which
also meant I didn't get to collect my reward for completing the quest. The tasks
range from creating a poison to send a giant to sleep, collecting a family banner,
tracking down a traitor, to killing random, enormous insects. Often the side quests
proved humorous and well worth the time to check out, some include mini campaigns
that could take a few hours to complete. The ability to go back and finish side
quests is also a perk; by way of bind stones and portals, players can select where
they will respawn at (death also brings about massive enemy waves that can take
out entire towns by the time the player comes back to life) or warp to, or portals
that connect vast stretches of land, respectively - oddly enough, if the player
forgets to bind themselves on that map and respawns elsewhere, when they reach
the land where they died, everything they made will have vanished and the resources
will be depleted. The journal is good enough so that the player can easily find
out where they left off on the main quest, which provides a lot of comfort to
those who love to complete every game 100%.
Items aren't the only things
found in chests and on dead enemies, but spells are also found as well. Like EverQuest,
the player isn't given spells when they level up; instead, they have to acquire
them. The unhindered weight limit works out well with this system: spells are
generally very expensive, but this is offset by being able to sell dozens of items
to any merchant. Players also aren't limited to what they level up. As a mage,
I found myself having to use weak staffs to protect myself, so after a few points
dedicated to Light Arms Combat, I was able to defend myself properly. With several
different schools of magic (light, dark, mind, etc.), heavy and light arms combat,
plus more abilities to study in, there is plenty of fun to be had mixing and matching
skills.
As lovely as the spells, structures, environment, and characters
look, with amazing shadows that accurately reflect the rising and setting of the
sun, they come at a price. With a GeForce 4, there was pop up and the bells and
whistles had to be lowered. That's understandable, since it's an older card; but
whenever an ATi 9800 Pro suffers some stuttering, that's when an eyebrow got raised.
Aside from performance issues, there were also control problems: clicks wouldn't
be recognized, units would get stuck in structures, and picking up items proved
to be pretty tricky because the cursor wouldn't indicate that anything was there.
Thankfully, the audio was spared technical problems. With good music and sound
effects, battles and everyday village life came across well. Although, non-playable
character populated villages were a little too quiet. The voice work was amazing
in scope, and decent in quality; every character has a voice, and some may lack
emotion or sound a little funny, but the ambition and success rate is undeniably
impressive. One glaring flaw that occurs during cutscenes is that the subtitles
are riddled with typos and grammatical errors. Despite the problems, I was still
impressed with the production value that went into SpellForce; it's a huge
game that sports solid visuals, good music, and a ton of vocal work.
Overall:
7/10
SpellForce - The Order of Dawn is no small feat: with high production
values, an epic quest, and an evenly mixed formula of role-playing and strategy,
along with 6 races to play as, there is hours upon hours of play here. Unfortunately,
the strategy portions are incredibly dry with a repetitive system of destroying
spawn point after spawn point. Saved by interesting, although not entirely varied,
units, and a role-playing portion that feels like a mixture of an online and party-based
role-playing title, with the player taking one cross-trainable hero throughout
the entire game and having the ability to summon heroes to form a party, there
is no doubt that SpellForce is both charming and addictive. Strategy fans
should be weary of checking it out, but for those who want to dabble in a few
genres at once, Phenomic's offering should provide a unique and enjoyable experience.
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