SpellForce 3

The only bad reviews are from players who haven't even touched the game more then a hour. Its slow at first but opens up into this massive game. I am 70 hours in and still haven't beaten the game. If you like RTS games like age of empires and DND games like baldur's gate 3 this is a total buy. Massive open world with a insane amount of secrets in the world. I have around 70 hours in and still havent beaten it. 10 / 10 if you are into these types of games and love a vibrant story.

Very good mix of RTS and team RPG game. In comparison to SpellForce 2 the RTS part is much better. RPG part is very good. Skill trees and character development is not very complex, but still lets you play a bit with a build that fits you. I feel that developers reached a very good balance between RPG and RTS that allows to fully enjoy both parts.

I like the game play but I absolutely love sound and graphics design of this game. Music is soft and melancholic. World is beautifully drawn. It takes some time to explore new location because I have admire the views all the time.

Absolute banger.

This game is seriously the biggest hidden gem for RPG & RTS lovers combined!!! Its got a story that surprises and keeps you interested so so well written. The game is just beautiful its crazy. Its a a must play for fantasy lovers!! 10/10

I am flabbergasted by how good this game is.
The story, writing, voice acting are very high quality, but most importantly the gameplay is supper fun and well designed.
I can't believe this game is not more popular and I think many any future RTS games should take inspiration this title.
The campaign is amazing. It can be played in coop. There are other small gamemodes which are also very fun and can be played in coop.
The PVP gamemode looks also very interesting. I haven't played any of it by the of writing this review, but I have been watching some matches on youtube and it looked very interesting.
I highly recommend this game to anyone who is looking for a new and innovative spin on the RTS genre. I also recommend it to anyone who enjoys CRPGs to give it a chance as a potential entry to RTS.

I legitimately do not understand why this game is not better known. I bought it on a whim, and now just a couple hours in I am astounded at the quality of the writing, character creation and depth, and narration. What I was expecting was a throw-away experience, but I can say the RPG side of this is absolutely brilliant. If you liked playing the single player bits of StarCraft, WarCraft etc then this is FABULOUS. It's like taking Baldur's Gate and adding an Age of Empires RTS element. The default difficulty level is very forgiving, although if you want a challenge you can up it *substantially*.
So freaking fun.
8 hr update: character development is good, combat with heroes gets more fun as their util increases, and I'm enjoying leveling up the characters. RPG element is a good balance of flexibility vs. it's not taking me ages to decide each point distribution (don't *have* to min-max at normal difficulty).
43 hr update: really jiving with these characters, and the storyline has taken expected twists. In fact the writing overall is a level higher than I realized at first. The level of engagement is reminiscent of how I felt playing Baldur's Gate I and II. Game difficulty is spot-on for normal and I'm enjoying the RTS bits more as I've figured out the basics.
---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☑ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☑ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☑ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☑ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☑ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☑ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☑ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☑ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☑ 9
☐ 10

I really liked this game I give it an 8.5/10.
It has alot of RPG elements for its main campaign, which was cool, and then it would jump into RTS in Some missions.

Pros
-RPG elements, and it is generally done well.

-Good, and interesting Characters.

--There were a few times when characters caught me off guard with statements or actions that made me think yeah, This is a cool guy I am glad I have them on my team.

-RTS is so so. It is very streamlined but is an interesting way to break up the gameplay.

Cons
-Some missions just do stuff to tick you off or annoy you. Like spawning in a pack of very strong bears to raid your capitol every 3 minutes while you deal with a rampaging army of fanatics. Kinda got old even if I could mostly ignore it.

-Some enemies become a bit too tanky and it turns combat into a grind. Some Iron ones for example having 7k Hp is just uncalled for.

-Some abilities are Straight up broken. The abominations for example that can stun half a screen for a solid 15-30 seconds can go die in hole like the filthy hoes that they are. They also have WAY to much hp.

-Sometimes combat is a bit wonky, like you will start it and you heroes will just MELT, then you walk away restart combat with the same foes and you will be entirely unkillable.

-The map "The Eye" I could have had like 3 extra expansions, but poor pathing, poor map design visually on paths, and fog of war made it where I could not find them. I would just reveal the entire map and then let fog of war cover it, just so people do not feel cheated. I mean I did the entire fight without Lenaya resource... I TRIED exploring the dark areas and my units refused to go any where.

-The mission The Eye 2 where you have to lead an army. This is poorly balanced and badly handled. So you are supposed to clear enough area to manage the main quest and just teleport in. I, not wanting to waste time were a massive army is trying to kill me, decided to slaughter my enemies instead of doing the quest. This was much harder, and very poorly balanced. But by goly there were no Utran forces left. A simple Quest tag with the two routes to completion would have changed how I played the mission.
-There is also a glitch here where you will instant lose if a random province is lost...
--The Eye 3, Still sucks, you should have given me the ability to recruit both factions.

-I think the fact that I never get an AI RTS companion kind of sucks. Sure they would take up space/expansions, but man some missions would have benefited from it. The one mission that I did have that, they sat in their base doing nothing, which was entirely lame.

-Items. There are enough items in game to build any character build you want for sure, but some builds were definitely left behind. Single handed Artifact weapons? I found one. Two handed Artifact weapons? I had like 10-15. Medium armor? I had like 4 sets. Light? There is nothing for light armor/mage. Heavy armor I found two sets. Rings? Amulets? Trinkets? Pshh There is like one the entire game.
-----Item Subset. Stat requirements shoulda been lessened a little bit. You are already stretching to get two attributes to decent. Its just kind of lame how high the stat requirements are on somethings.

-Skill sets This being a Hero RPG sorta deal Skill sets are IMPORTANT. But you only get two bars and you have to switch between them if you want to use either one. There is so much dead space on the screen they could have just put 4-6 skill panes on the bottom for example and kept the one up top sure you scrunch the Unit overview but I mean it beats not ever using 70% of your hero skills available. UI is good otherwise.

The Mid stuff between Good/Bad

-The RTS element, almost gets brought down to unit swarm and the Attack move system is buggy. Its not so much strategy as it is horde wars. Very fast paced as far as RTS games go. BUT a positive is there there is not Unit Skill bloat. so 8.5/10 for this game mode.

-The story. It sits well through 90% of it, but the end kinda gets a bit rough. Some Spoilers ahead.


******
One of the "Trinket holders" is just a guy in a "mask" pretending to be some dead people from earlier in the story. Kind of weak.
Part Deux of weak story. The end fight should have never happened. I am sorry but Frik off with that "The Monster Summoned Itself and ruined your chance of getting the amulet back" Poor lazy lame story writing. This Deus Ex machina to ensure one last fight is just awful and should have been removed. Even If it screws with your desired lore.

Random Tips If you are playing Campaign
-From the very start of the game You should just use a guide for artifacts, there is a very good one on steam. Some artifacts are entirely missable and you can not get them after completing certain maps. Looking at you Labratory :|

-You will only get enough cash to upgrade ONE race. and while it is not 100% needed for normal difficulty, it really helps, Like reducing unit costs by 3/4 levels of helps. So choose one race, and upgrade them, in other words specialize.

----Companions and Skills
-Ianna is Top choice campanion. She has DPS, Damage soak skills, And The almighty RAZE which just deletes buildings and makes RTS missions a cakewalk. If you do not want her on your team CHOOSE the skill set with RAZE in it. It is legit easy mode and it can even be spammed.

-Yria Is top Choice Companion. There is a bow that summons random tanky animals on hit. She specializes in bows. She gets to do a ton of damage create meatshields, and she comes with Light spells for healing.

-Get some AOE spells Chain lightning for example is absolutely killer and worth it.
-Dark magic is kind of weak IMO. None of its summons are worth it at all even upgraded and its AOE damage spells suck. I am pretty sure the Totem spell does not do anything at all. It has its uses but Buyer Beware on this skillset.
-Bringing Light magic yourself is also Entirely worthwhile. Nothing wrong with two healers.

TLDR Game is fun, and aside from some minor balancing Really well made. I had Zero game ending bugs/Glitches my playthrough.

As a dedicated fan of Spellforce 1 and 2, as well as a long-time RPG/RTS player, I found my time with Spellforce 3 enjoyable. The graphics, optimization, story, and world design are solid, but none of these elements stand out as extraordinary. It's a well-crafted game, but not a truly great one.
What I enjoyed most was the story. The RPG and RTS aspects, however, didn’t particularly impress me. For most players, Spellforce 3 offers a solid 40-60 hours of single-player campaign content. While you can find other games with better strategy mechanics, deeper RPG elements, more compelling stories, or richer world-building, Spellforce 3 offers a decent mix of all these aspects.