SpellForce - Platinum Edition

First I had a nice nostalgia trip played the standard game the order of dawn as a kid a few times, so the first campaign was nice I had fun, only the slow walking got tedious sometimes.
But at the second campaign (Aryn ?) the first problems started.
You could sometimes just feel the balancing is off, and I got tired that your soldiers hit like they have pool noodles, while even the standard enemy hit like trucks vs your soldiers.
The Aryn fight was not fun because your defender troops suddenly seemed to forget they are range units because they could only throw on the thin line before the boss...
But since I already invested so much time it's impossible for me to give up now, I just want to see the end of the story.
But at the same time I am just pissed especial know that a quest has buggt out and the only save is too far away...
I am at Raven Pass now.
I will probably before I enter the next map turn the difficulty down.
I hope it goes a bit faster forward then.

I LOVE IT! A most excellent video game!

I have played it over and over again since my childhood and I still play it today 23.03.2025.

I first played it on Windows XP and now I am playing it on my Rocky Linux 9.5 Laptop using Steam on Linux.

BUY IT! PLAY IT! It is sublime!!!

Legendary RTS. Difficult, rewarding and absolutely stunning.
Sounds of birds chirping or builders working on another project while your base is beautifully lit by lamps during the night. Graphics can get old but the soul will always be timeless.

Tons of builds, strategies and companions to help you. Play tanky paladin that focuses on saving troops, mass skeletons as necromancer or click randomly skills and have fun.

They don't make games like that anymore. Things I'd do for a full remake of first Spellforce.

This is an OG great game - Just love it!

8.1/10

Ambience sound effects repeat too often & are always very loud but can't be muted.
A few side quests are impossible to complete without looking them up online. (which was the standard at the time this game came out)

Thats the only real negative feedback I have, everything else was nice. Can recommend.

One of the GOATs of my childhood, just as good as i remember - haven't found a modern alternative that comes anywhere near!

At first, I was iffy about the game, mostly for controlling your character. It's just lanky the way it was done.
Like, someone tried to be different, and yea, let's not talk about that. If you can get past that part, it's not a bad game, You have to do the side quests to get everything for your progression while trying to be effective.

The story is not epic but just a typical war story, and the respawner for the resources is not great, so saving is your only choice to avoid the downfalls if you get wiped out.

The AI could have been done better for your troops as to control there movements and firing, as they will trigger most events all on there own and home base structures when out they just stand around, the resources gathering is kind of lanky like I'm doing a map and I see that I have thousands of wood, stone, iron? Who has ever done the game layout and design of how everything is interconnected? That's good enough. Who cares about this type of mindset? Was it slapped together on a whimsical factor to launch it?

Not digging the "town/fort" style of building scales that is used and then with spread out merchants it's kind of clutter, like the size scope is off, as you have to make it more roomy, like with building games, as you have to adjust for block rotation to get to pictular looks.

The point is, like a car, is it intuitive to drive? Yes. Then you do the same for the character, It's a vehicle, so you set it up the same way; it's more adaptable and commonly used in a "B" type camera rolling effect --> If I need to have a piece of paper for the remind me prompt of what keys I need to use for said value system, then you have missed the mark.
Since you're getting into the "stuff," a better use of DIY survival is adding components onto gear, slotted make use of breaking down gear as they already have buffs applied to them, "magic" is also slinky for technology ⚙ This way you can make use of faction game-play with elves and dwarfs making an enchanted bow string and then with chemicals treating it, make it a processing factor. I was thinking that the workers should operate a mounted ballista from a roof platform since you're in a war campaign. Then you have supply and demand, and you have hard-hitting bolts, and you need lots of them. It would make use of the thousands of lumber gathered. It has the immersed feeling to it; by choices made, perhaps turrets could be magic-based and use the Mana liquid like a type of fuel ⛽. Then, have a simple slider to set the intensity and speed. Then make use of magic mana crystals as power energy like a deep cell for your weapon or shield and electrial from lighting strikes or storms and then you can tune them after they get struck by the lightning 🌩 places could hold for some intresting results, this where you can make game-play fun and pop the big crit.

What is the functionality of the land, and how can it better function to tell a story? What if you could pull out a shoulder-fired ballasta that was magic power-based, perhaps with a combined explosion from crystals being detonated? So many ways to tell a picture story, and then have a cam chaser with it for that perfect 👌hitting moment.

Finished The order of dawn campaign. I won't say that I had an amazing experience playing it because I had to restart the whole game once because of some game breaking, unfixable bug.
Anyway I replayed the entire thing once again and gave double the amount of hours which it would have taken.

Then I started playing Breath of Winter and after spending hours and hours on this campaign, God faycking Borodnir died before he could even open the gates and now I'm stuck with an unfixable bug. Sorry I can't take it anymore and not gonna restart the entire campaign like a fool to give another 30+ hours to get there again.

Uninstalled it for now. I might try this campaign again after sometime but for now definitely not. This game because of its unfixable bugs has already got on my nerves. So I better go do something else before I lose all my marbles.


Update - Had to replay the second campaign all over again and then the last campaign. Enjoyed it a lot. Highly recommended but be prepared for game breaking bugs so save a lot while playing it to ensure you don't end up replaying everything just like me.

Played it when it came out. Loved it. A Warcraft-style game, with similar combat, etc. Nice story. Enjoyably wooden voice acting.

Absolutely enjoayable, though a bit weird that the latest bug fixed version is only accessible through the beta options.

The game is extremely jank, but it is grand old fun and the best installment in the series. Pick it up on a sale and go for a spin.

This game tried to combine RTS and RPG to create something innovative but ended up being a mediocre mix of the two genres.

The game's setting and story are actually somewhat interesting. Some sidequests tell compelling stories, but most of them are just fetch quests. Most quests stretch through multiple maps, but usually, by the time the quest can be completed, its rewards are already outdated by the equipment found on maps.

As an RTS, it provides very limited control to the player. Units attack anyone who approaches their aggro range, and the only way to prevent them from running straight into hordes of enemies is to put them in one of three available formations that are basically useless for anything else. Unit's pathfinding is abysmal and forces the player to move their army in short dashes to avoid unfavorable fights.

Enemies respawn infinitely until the player completely destroys the enemy camp (not just the buildings that are supposed to produce units, but the entire camp), and this often leads to a constant stream of enemies attacking the player's base.

As an RPG, it is only focused on combat. Unlike most proper RPGs, there are almost no dialogue choices. And none of the existing choices change anything in the story. The player's character is predetermined, and they don't have any personality development throughout the campaign. There is a variety of viable character builds, but if the player (me) makes a bad build, there is no way to respec skill points.

After the player has finished the first 3-4 maps, there are not many new gameplay features they are going to find, and none of them are actually significant.

Overall, SpellForce is slow, clunky, and the worst of all—bland. It's not a good RTS game, and it's not a good RPG game. To most players who are not blinded by nostalgia, the game will be just a mediocre waste of time.

This is one of those games that you play and you think to yourself "this game is pretty fucking lit, but I can see why this mishmash of genres didn't catch on"

For 10 bucks? yeah it's worth.

The tutorial level is fucking horrendous though. Shit treats you like an 80 year old man who's never seen a computer before in his life

the game is really good

spellforce has mainly three parts. 1, which is this one,
2, which is the golden child where they somehow got everything right.
and 3, which is a hot mess.
and in that, SF1 is showing its age, but its still charming enough to work through it and still better than SF3, surely.
It is a slow burn and it is pretty obscure and clunky and unit AI is bonk. Its general old RTS issues.
and I dont really know what the story is about yet. Its just "go here and talk to someone" for now. But I do want to finish it, but I will take some time to do that. The side quests are useless. and character stuff is ... forgettable.
you can see the potential here that was refined in SF2 and then dropped again in SF3.
I got this game for 3€ and its surely worth that much. Id only recommend it to enthusiasts for RTS oldies or Spellforce lovers.

One of my favourite games. I suck at it and have never once completed any of the campaigns but I have alot of fun.

nice strategic möglichkeiten!

rpg and aoe

Great classic game

Nice game mixing RTS and RPG, but it shows its age (first release 2003, way before its release on Steam in 2009).
Today, I would recommend it only to completionists and from nostalgia. Those people can overlook the annoying game controls (e.g. inventory, quest list, casting system).
To everyone else – find yourself some newer offspring from this category or wait for a remaster.

Yes

Excellent game, genre defining, ahead of its time, with excellent mods bringing it up to 2020s standard

gr8 old game

I mean its alright i guess

8/10

This is a really fun game. Just be aware, you're not going to win until you leave the first part and move on to the next.
You'll want to throw your controller.
Don't.

Love this game.....sooooo many beutiful childhood memories <3

100/100 game. We need remaster/remake of this masterpiece.

best of the best RTS

One of the greatest games of all time imo. I've spent countless hours playing ever since I was 10 years old, Would Highly recommend to people who love strategy fantasy RPGs.

A Must have in every Lib

Good for 2003.

I wanted to like this. Hadn't have high hopes but the amount of backtracking one needs to do here: walking from one point to another as slowly as it gets is a huge red flag.

I do not mind the bugs, I do not mind the fetch quests... but traveling at a snails pace kills the fun.

very good old RTS games