SpellForce 3 Reforced

Hidden Gem - combines elements of RTS with making your own fantasy fighting character! Story is mega good though, I am really enjoying it. Brings me back memories of when RTS games had really good story campaigns like Age of Empires 3 and Age of Mythology. They need to make more games like this again!

Love the blend of RPG, Story and RTS

Good RTS game, though I'd say it's not for beginners, story is great, mechanics are great, factions/races are cool and diverse, DLCs are also pretty awesome, all in all it's a great game, I would recommend it if you like RTS games or top down RPGs like Diablo, if you like both you'll love it, if you like one and have experience with the other you'll probably also love it, give it a try and refund if you don't you'll get plenty of action in the first 2 hours

This is what Warcraft 4 should be.

good rpg
bad rts

It really needs tactical pause for the single player game.

Story and Dialogue are amazing! Some of the best i have ever had in a game.

90/100

Only played and finished the 'Bloodburn' Campaign so far but I just wanted to say that this game is really amazing.

-Graphics hold up until today & performance was flawless.
-Music was mostly in the background but still had some very nice soundtracks. Especially Mulandir.
-Massively improved overall questing experience from SF1 & SF2 (which didn't even tell you when & where to do things)
-Most companions I really enjoyed talking to even when I didn't like them at first.
-Multiple skill trees and multiple item types allow for many different builds for your protagonist and the companions.
-Overall an very well-written story which (at least to me) was 90% of the time unpredictable to the end.
-Story takes it's time but at the same time allows you the option to beeline through the content (optional side quests / no need to clear every map).
-Exploring is fun and there are a lot of hidden dialogs and hidden unique items.

-RTS got multiple balance changes (elves no longer perma freeze enemies to death, no more endless tower spaming ec.)
-Overall RTS became faster and it's more stressful than its predecessors since you actively fight for zones.

-However I have to mention that if you don't like RTS games and prefer the RPG aspects of this game, the overall experience will suffer, since the RTS part in this game is rather hectic most of the time.
For example, towards the later stages of the game you will have like 10 - 20 seconds to build/improve your base before the enemy AI will be sending its next troops again.

Overall, I had an absolute blast and will 100% buy the 2 DLC's once they are on sale again. Can definitely recommend!

So I was hesitant in getting this game due to the mixed reviews, though I'd played previous games in this series and really enjoyed the blending of RPG and RTS mechanics.

After playing this game for >15 hours I have to say I am blown away by how good it is. Key points:

- beautiful graphics and scenery
- interesting and engaging story
- a lot of good character development and interaction
- fun and engaging RTS battles
- immersive world building and lore
- long and enjoyable learning curve for mechanics and factions
- initially very easy and gets gradually more challenging/complex

It really feels like they stuck to the strengths of previous titles in the series but really improved and expanded on the mechanics. The environments look really amazing, good lighting and dynamic effects. It's clear that a great deal of effort and care went into making this game.

I am only really interested in the Singleplayer at the moment, at a glance I think one reason for the mixed reviews may be to do w multiplayer, which seemed pretty dead to me. I think if you enjoyed the previous games in this series for their campaign experience, you should definitely play this one. It's a work of art that deserves a far more positive exposure and reception IMO.

SpellForce 3 (especially the Reforced editions) is seriously underrated! It’s like Warcraft 3 but with deeper RPG mechanics, a more tactical approach to RTS, and a really well crafted world. The way it blends hero driven storytelling with large-scale battles makes it stand out from other RTS/RPG hybrids.
The attention to detail is crazy too, everything from the faction design to the unit interactions feels really polished.
This one of the best RTS/RPG hybrids I’ve played, offering a deep, rewarding experience that doesn’t exist in many modern games. If you love games like Warcraft 3 or enjoy RPGs with meaningful choices, this is a must-play. 10/10 Come on with Spellforce 4.

Way harder than I anticipated. I guess I gotta gitgud.

Wow, the RTS on this game is so bad, worst spam fest I've ever seen in a piece of junk game. Avoid at all costs.

good game

Have no idea about the gameplay, bought it to play online with a friend and it required a THQ Nordic account to play multiplayer. No big deal, created the account and tried to log in. Login Failed. Timeout. Login Failed. Reset Password. Login Failed. Timeout. Login Failed. Installed on a different computer in a different location. Login Failed. Timeout. Installed on a 3 computer in a 3rd location on an entirely different internet provider with all open ports and firewalls down. Login Failed. Timeout.

If you're going to require a login to play the multiplayer portion of your game, then at least have your servers working so that people can play. If you made a stupid requirement then it's on you to maintain that requirement.

created an account to play multiplayer, couldnt log in to play multiplayer and my brother had the same exact issue.

poop

Played through the game when it came out and had a lot of fun.
Played through the expansion as well, no issues.

Tried to pick it back up with the Reforced edition and get into the Journey mode, but it hard locks my computer after a variable amount of time, making the game completely unplayable.

I would have definitely recommended it before, but the Reforced edition has been out for years and the hard locking issue is simply unacceptable and the fact that it has apparently not been addressed is baffling.

I was looking for a mix between age of mythology/starcraft 2 and a story based game system where you move around the world like diablo. I found it with Spellforce. I would recommend to anyone looking for more then just a Build, Attack, Restore, Win or monotonous gameplay where you can expect whats coming.

unique

Miss the days I played this one my old computer.

At a first glance, this game seemed like a perfect fit for me - a Warcraft 3 with stronger RPG elements? With quite pretty, modern graphics? Sign me in!
Unfortunately this game is simply bad. While the rpg missions seemed like more expanded Warcraft 3 no build missions which is fun, the whole experience is totally ruined when you get to actually building a base. The RTS mechanics in this game are trully terrible.
I honestly see no point in playing this game. If I wanted to play a pure rpg then there are plenty of better options than this, and as a real time strategy this game is simply not fun.

6
One of the few flaws of this game is that Prof. Twiddle or Flink McWinter doesn't show up. Dave's butter knife was here at least and is good on a tank/meat shield character. Other then that the economy and worker system was a nice call that allowed you to focus on combat, the scale of combat gets pretty crazy even if the computer cheats with resources, AOE spells are your godsend so never make a character without one, didn't expect the almighty katana or nagamaki to show up in the game but is still welcome, and finally screw you catapults.

For mods that don't break immersion I suggest the following: Treasures of EO , Unique Bandits , Level cap 70, Undead fcation, and SpellForce 3 - Universal Reforced Content Patch

It's not a bad game, it just didn't age well and I could never make it click with me. Combat is extremely boring, but one thing that really frustrates me is way too many loading screens.

I bought this game with around 80% off. It's worth it. I'm glad with this traditional feeling of ARPG and RTS

This is an amazing game! I enjoyed every part of it, but especially music and voice acting. My or my! The main song of the game (if you know, you know) will crawl under your skin and stay there. It's been over a year since I finished Spellforce and I still remember it. Voice actors work is incredible, top level.
I'm a sucker for a good story and guys! this game has a lot to offer. World and story are rich, deep and captivating. Characters are unique, interesting and have their own perspective on the events unfolding. And voice acting, did I mention voice acting?
I would say this is more RPG with elements of RTS (though RTS is quite significant). Speaking of RTS, this part is quite challenging, if you're playing solo. I recommend playing with a friend, you'll get amazing experience together.
In coop mode players don't have equal possibilities, the one controlling Tahar will do all the speaking and plot choices, the rest can only sell/buy stuff. In RTS mode everyone can build everything.
Overall 10/10. Now I want more games in similar genre mix but there are none and I don't understand why.

Classic RTS, loving it!

Design & Presentation
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 5
Gameplay
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 5
Story or Uniqueness
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 5
Quality & Performance
🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛ 4
Content & Price
🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛ 4
Sound
🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛ 4

Score
🟩 x27

Score Board:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
⬛ 00-09 Garbage
⬛ 10-15 Only if you really into it
⬛ 16-19 It’s okay, worth a look
⬛ 20-23 Good Game
🟩 24-27 Above Averange Game
⬛ 28-29 Aweseome Game
⬛ 30 Masterpiece
--------------------------------------------------------------------
- It looks great
- More of an RPG than an RTS. Both offer quite some depht
- Awesome story, cool world building, give off some WC3 vibes (More RPG, less RTS)
- Ingame no bugs at all. During loadtime opening the steam overlay locked me out of the game
- Worth the price. Must buy if it's on a discount (got it for 8€)
- Germany voice acting is almost always top notch, but sometimes it's just bad

I went from Dying Light, Lara Croft and Snaper Elite to play SpellForce III and this game is just great.
I thought it won't run well on my PC, but it is constantly over 60 FPS {GTX-1070 / Intel i5 10400F, 16 GB RAM} with everything set to max. {1920x1080}
Game has great graphics and beautiful interesting world.
Love to explore the maps and find different items to shape my characters the best possible way.
Just don't know if i have created my lead character: 2/3 Soldier and 1/3 White Magic very wisely?!
Well, progressing well so far. Playing on normal difficulty.
Building, creating soldiers, take care of the food and needed materials etc. is making this game even more interesting.

Good game overall

It's a good one imo. The story is engaging and so are the characters. The endings are a bit lack luster, but for 100 hours of gameplay for all the campaigns I think is worth it.

I'm a big RPG fan and I can't believe I never heard of this game until recently. I think anyone who likes RPGs and has some level of interest in RTSs should definitely give it a try. The RTS side is a bit intimidating at first but fairly easy to learn. I was most surprised by just how well written and voice acted many of the characters were, and I actually found myself pretty invested in them and the overall lore. I absolutely think there are some flaws with the game and things that could have been done better, both from the RPG and RTS side, but all in all I found it to be a good experience.

I have only recently picked up this game and no regrets, but the feelings are a bit mixed so I decided to write a review. This is from a viewpoint of someone who at this point is almost finished with the main campaign on the hardest difficulty.

So the RPG side of the game (player and recruited heroes development) is really good. Every recruitable hero has their own unique skill tree which is combined with selected standard trees the player character has access to. This is an amazing way to make every recruit unique and not duplicable by the player, who in turn also is unique in a way that he has access to more standard skill trees and also additionally a special leadership skill tree. It's amazing.
The game has an interesting system, where the player has to combine skills and stats that boost those skills along with the characters themselves. On one hand , there are plenty of stat and skill points to create viable builds early, on the other hand, there are never enough to get everything one could wish for, so every stat and skill point is a decision to make. The game allows for a respec (limited in amount, but accessible enough), which is great, because depending on the character level (and thus the available stat and skill points), some builds great at the start may outlive their efficiency, and can be replaced by another build, which can happen several times during the playthrough (or at least once, as at some point, new skills get unlocked, which throws away even the most thought-out build).
The build possibilities are plenty, and whats even more fun, there is no limitation to how to build your character, especially once enough stat and skill points and some interesting equipment pieces are available. For example, I play a character who started with white magic, black magic and archery. A pure healer at start, later on switched to a black magic caster (once the new skills got unlocked), only to now functiuon as a melee (yes, melee) warrior.

But here comes the first downside of the game. Even on the hardest difficulty, when playing with heroes only (no RTS), the enemies are not at all balanced around all the builds shenanigans the player can come up with. The heroes can get really strong, and tbh I don't even think one has to go way out of the box to achieve that. This part of the game is only somewhat challenging at the start, with limited skills and equipment, but becomes a cakewalk pretty quickly. Some selected bosses can still feel tough for a while longer, but eventually even the supposedly hardest boss fights will become disappointing (no need to reposition or to react to spells, no pressure to interrupt every cast, just straight up tank and spank, and I`m not even sure about the tank part, I certainly don`t have any character with any extra resistances from defensive skills beyond what the equipment provides).

And then there is the RTS part of the game. I honestly fell in love with the game when during one of the early RTS mission, the game started throwing hordes of orcs against my base very soon after the start. At first I felt like there is nothing I can do, but I found a way. It felt great. Few missions later, the enemy has suddenly access to siege weapons, and my strategy breaks down - time to come up with something new.
But there is a catch. Eventually, and it doesn`t really take that long, the heroes become so strong that it is very possible to just pick up your starting army (or whatever units join the player after a quick side quest etc.) and just go for the enemy throne, despite it being in an extra fortified and heavily defended zone. And soon after, one doesn`t even need to have any additional units, the heroes can just do it themselves.
It's sad. The whole RTS aspect of the game just completely breaks down.

The game would greatly benefit from some kind of scaling system that keeps improving the basic RTS units to not fall so much behind the heroes. Instead, in an attempt to comensate, the game gives the AI more and more special overpowered units, so that your own units, as long as no heroes are nearby, are completely useless.

Overall, 7/10.

I will certainly finish my playthrough and probably do another one, plus have a look at the other campaigns. The RPG aspect is what keeps me in, not necessarily the challenge (which there isn`t much of), but more the complexity of the system, which allows for very creative builds.

It's been a pretty fun RTS/RPG mash up, though not without its flaws. Definitely worth giving it a shot if you can get it and both expansions for cheap on sale like I did.

RPG Side. Decent from what I could tell.
RTS Side. The worst I've ever played.

Having played through the campaign in its fullest, I can say for certain that this is a wonderful RTS and RPG mix of a game. The combat is fun on both sides - moving around small squad of elite troops, or managing a full army.
The story is good, I liked the character diversity and all of the main companions felt like complex people with a unique perspective on the world, which makes sense for the story.
There are some flaws - the AI can be a bit dumb at times with its pathing, melee heroes are difficult to keep alive in big fights, and the game does require that you enjoy and are proficient at both real time spellcasting like in an MMO, and RTS, if you happen to be not experienced in either, you will get frustrated with one aspect or the other, like you see in many other reviews.
For me personally, no bossfight throughout the game took longer than a minute or 2 on the second hardest difficulty. The RTS missions can sometimes be a big grindy, but if you are aggressive with your expansion early and have a good composition, you should be fine.

TLDR: If you are a fan of both RTS games, especially something like Warcraft 3, and Action RPG games/MMO's, and dont mind a diverse cast of characters that dont fit into the usual fantasy stereotypes there a good chance you'll enjoy the game.

A nice mix of party based rpg and a real time strategy.

The way the games download is interesting. I bought the "Versus" edition, and this was part of it. Steams sees this as a separate game, but my progress is all tracked within the "Versus" edition. Anyways, I just wanted to leave a note here in case anyone else was a bit confused. I'll be posting an actual review under the "Versus" edition.

It's a more than worthy continuation of the Spellforce saga. Twist of strategy and role-playing game which hooked me up in Spellforce 1 and 2, made me come back to this game. Fantastic soundtrack, engaging plot and professionally written characters made me love this game even more than the previous parts.

I had so much fun while playing this beautiful game. when i was playing this game i forgot what time is it.

The RTS part is just nonesense spam fest. The AI cheats the hell out for every resource and just sends a full army spam every 30 seconds. It does not matter if you defeat them or they retreat the next will come at full force anyways.

The fighting is not very tactical either. It is just how fast can you click to get all the spells and abilities out. Don't overthink it just spam that s**t. Speed beats everything and the cooldowns are basically nonexistent. You get a rotation like in a MMO and just click the buttons.
Oh and the units are either melee or ranged. There is nothing more to them. More expensive units have more hp and dps. That is basically it.

I beat a few missions anyways but it just get tedious and stupidly repetetive.

The voice acting is pretty good. The story seems alright as well so far, but the core gameplay is just garbage. It feels like a custom Warcraft3 map became it's own game but with worse balancing than the average random map maker could muster.

I began playing this game because I wanted RTS and RPG elements and this game delivered that. However, as I played I noticed more and more how beautiful the game is, how all the dialogue was voiced and that the story intrigued me. This is a quality game with a lot of love put into it and it shows pretty much everywhere with the only downside being that it took me awhile to get used to controlling both a party with 20+ abilities at your disposal while also controlling an army.

P.S. you have some missions where its just RPG and some where its mostly RTS, which adds a lot of variety.

I really want to like this game, have great memerioes from playing the old once. But i simple can't get me to play it anymore.

The good parts
* The Visuals : The game is stunning, so much love seems to have been put into every map.
* The music : The background is okey, nothing overly memerable but does add to the magical feeling of the backgrounds.

The bad part
* The writing : This is a worst part of the game, the writing for the Champaign is no cringe and modern feeling. The world, and NPC does the feel real in any way. Just finished a mission with a plot where the son of a triple leader had betrayed his people and kidnap his brother with the help of enslaved snake folk. But when you finally meet him, he is this winning perfectic teenager.
* The Voice Actors : I don't think it is the necessarily the voice actors fault, it might just be bad directing. But the voice actors all sound so american and generic, non of them really feels like they sound as the character they are permitting. There are a few good once, but it only takes a few bad once to really take you out of game.
* The Skill Tree : The skill tree are so short and uninteresting. You get three skills tree plus a leadership one, so four in total. But you can rush down them with in the first few missions. You so quickly stop caring that your character as leveled up.

Loathing: a feeling of intense dislike or disgust; hatred.

This word describes my exact sentiments about this game which I feel does not deserve the deceptive 76% positive reviews. I was enchanted by Conquest of EO which is quite a masterpiece and I thought it was time to explore the world of EO through this game which I hadn't yet found time to play in my library.

Avoid this like the plague. This is a bad console port combining RPG and RTS. The RPG part is fine, the graphics are beautiful, I even met Yria the mage, one of my favourite apprentices in Conquest of EO.

But the RTS part, oh boy, where do I start.
It's a complete mess. Uncontrollable troops with poor AI and pathfinding, limited resources (for the player), seemingly unlimited swarms of rampaging enemy troops, no pause button or game speed control. Awkward controls. It feels like those boring tower defense games with unending enemy waves or those epilepsy inducing console or mobile games for little kids with colourful stuff going on everywhere on the screen.

Having played some awesome RTS games such as Sacrifice, Warcraft, Starcraft, Command and Conquer, Grey Goo, Warlords Battlecry, I just can't muster the will to muddle through the mind numbing, time consuming, repetitive process of interface taming.

Life is too short to waste leisure time.

Steam Charts: Average number of players last 30 days: <20

This game is a treat for SP gamers who play for the campaign like myself. It is mix between RPG and old school RTS. Mix could be better, and there could be more things to when exploring as RTS, but it is satisfactory combo. Graphics and units scale are great as well, level design better than most RTS. Game editor included.

7/10

This is not a perfect blend between RTS and RPG.

This review came from my experience in campaign mode.

At first, it seems like they made this game as an RPG first, and RTS second, as a fan of the two genre ( who prefered RPG more ) it caught my interest. There's good chunk of RPG elements in it like skill trees for each heroes, you can equip various weapons and armors for your heroes, character customization, side quests, multiple dialogues, choices and other ordinary stuff you'd find in other rpgs. There's even a fully voiced dialogue which is a huge bonus point for me. But then i got frustrated when I found out that this game actually leaned heavily towards the latter ( the RTS ).

For almost every level so far, it dwindled into two parts, first is the "RPG" which is good, I enjoyed exploring the map and finishing quests with only a handful of people in my party, it's slow and nicely paced in my opinion, even though I feel like there's just too many walking even with the portals due to how big some maps are.

I just wish it stay that way though, because for the half is the RTS segment, it will go like "you're a corporal so you need to take control of Y army to take care of X". which are a complete contrast to it's RPG sibling, it's hyper aggressive. You need to think fast, there is no pause button, you need to micro-manage your building, your resources, your units, your heroes, their abilites at the same time while getting attacked on every minute. Every battle is a horde "stats" mashing. The sector system looks fine in Skirmishes/pvp but it's stupid in campaign. And it's just not fun for me. It's like i'm playing a completely different game, if it's a "perfectly blend" as the description said then I'd be enjoying it a lot more but unfortunately it's not. Safe to say, Spellforce 3 is a Real Time Strategy game with heavy RPG elements, not the way around, and definitely not "perfect blend".

If you enjoyed fast-paced RTS a lot like Warcraft, Age of Empires or CnC then you're going to like this. But if you enjoyed RPG more and expecting it to be an RPG weighted game then you probably should avoid it.

if this was just a top down RPG it'd be good. but its got command and conquer elements to it, and thats what i have a problem with. if you've played the game before the storm, or anything like it. the troop management is like that. so essentially they mixed a adult RPG with a baby game. you manage where your workers go but you dont control them...which begs the question why im controlling the troops? and if im controlling the troops why i also have troops with abilities that go in their troop menu, and then my hero abilities are up on top of my screen, but it selects your heros as the first unit in the selection so you cant even use the abilities without clicking on the unit. and because you really only get to pick one hero as you and then they give you the other people, which have preset classes, ones a archer healer, and the other is a necromancer, youre essentially forced to be a knight or something, otherwise youre gonna be haveing duplicate powers and not really know whos they are. and theres so many abilities you should have one hero but theres 4 at like all times with one bar thats just lightly color coded so you can know whos abilities are what,
but that doesnt matter when youre in a fight. its like i wana keep giving it a chance and wanting it TO BE good....but theres just so much on the meh side. it feels like im playing a RPG or C&C game somtimes...but half the time i feel like im playing a game managing a bakery. and then they say theve made it easier by making a point and click system where you hit ALT which pops up a weapon wheel, then click what ability, and then it auto targets the spot you selected teh ability from so you dont even hit the spot you clicked wasting the ability and also making that control completely pointless. which because their controls dont work properly it also makes the game harder than it should.
its like they made sure the things worked but didnt make sure that it would do what its supposed to.
on the same thing, its as if they played the game to make sure the levels worked but not if they were fun.
also you're going to be forced into an hour tutorial every time you want to start a new game.
its like the game was an april fools prank of a good game. like it wants to be, but its just not, and it could have been, but instead of using real game elements like C&C, AOE, Warcraft3, etc....like you know when those games are turned into tap and wait games and they just ruin everything fun about the game? but you still try to play cause you downloaded it? thats how this feels.

this game is really RTS should be

great time consuming strategy game. Love this game

Don't recommend it for increase price from Gothic series.

really good game, looking forward to play SpellForce 4 some day ;)