SpellForce 3

This game brings me back to the Warcraft days!!

Learning this game is easy and the voice acting and the story are actually amazing!

buy this game and have a blast!!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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’m thrilled to say after finishing the main campaign of Spellforce 3 this is the most similar to Warcraft 3 for the RPG side. Multiple unique heroes, diverse skill trees(one even has necromancy and demonology!), can equip varied amount of gear, and unleash devastating aoe spells. Complete with passives, active aura’s and summons! On the RTS side, you can build a base, make your soldiers, upgrade your units buildings, collect specific resources structures, and increasing the population cap. And the setting is basically medieval fantasy. Complete with races such as humans, orcs, elves, dwarves, dark elves, trolls, etc. Though with a different premise.
You play as the child of an infamous rebel mage leader. Who has been granted amnesty by the queen of the human faction and allowed to train in order to become a Wolf Guard, think of them as a special force in the army. Though, you’re not special at all considering its been years after your father’s failed mage rebellion and having to endure scornful comments about your past doesn’t help through the years, but hey you made it! Now we're off on a mission to stop a magical plague called the Bloodburn affecting the lands of Eo(the continent). No idea how it works, who it targets, or what are the conditions to activate, but its important enough to find a solution quickly before all human territories perish. Oh before I forget, your superior? Geralt of Rivia. Yeah you heard that right. Doug Cockle’s voice graces our ears once again.
Good o’l RPG + RTS
Great sense of gradual progression for newbies in the genres. Starting out, you’ll learn the basics of both building an army, setting up a base, how to manage your units to attack, how to bind units/structures onto a keybind for easier access along with a spellbar for easy use during engagements. For those unaware or find it daunting to juggle building a base and managing armies on the go. Have no fear, there’s multiple settings in the game and I played on normal, finding it a good middle ground for RTS veterans. If you’re having trouble remember you can pause and take a breather or set the difficulty lower. No shame in doing either actions considering I always switch to a lower tier myself when things get too hectic for me.
One of the most gratifying qualities SP3 nails is the RPG element in hero management and customization of your heroes. To an extent, I wish more RTS games followed through from WC3’s example and implemented them further. Dawn of War I’m glad has their own version which is equally great and stands on its own too. Here I felt a greater sense of WC3 nostalgia when launching my devastating aoe spells, buffing my allies with defense, empowering them with unique items from common to legendary with oh my lord NOT-Borderlands-style of a gajillion gear to pursue and mix-match to make my min-maxing lifestyle succumb to retirement.
Concerning the RTS component. I found the experience decent, with some minor issues i’ll detail later on. First off, on positives. Build order is pretty easy to remember, you basically always start off with your main base, having to construct resource gathering houses to accrue more wood, stone, food, iron and a water essence. You can easily see which resource nodes are nearby to erect quickly.
Satisfying Strategy Synergy. A guilty pleasure of mine in strategy games is using the least amount of units possible to wipe out a large force. In Total War(a mix of turn based strategy and real time combat) games I've done skirmishes against a force with similar 1 to 3 odds or larger, not give or take 300 Greeks against the gazillion Persians. Using clever unit compositions similar to rock-papers-scissors maneuvers that would make Shouzou Kaga(Fire Emblem creator) proud. Shoutout to Total War: Warhammer for using heroes right in the series!
I found the storytelling to be strangely compelling in ways that surprised me considering I doubted the grounded fantasy would work in ways that would keep me interested. I admit to having major doubts after the early game concluded and I felt the weakest part was the middle-half of the narrative to keep me interested. Yet the endgame, reeled me back in like fish on a hook. Without going into spoilers the whole world of Eo at the time is a mature setting delving into topics of class hierarchy, corruption, innocents suffering, duty and orders, slavery, genocides, is merely a small drop of what else the title offers.
Casting a Mixed Feelings Spell!
Sadly I must admit to some mixed feelings in varying degrees from minor to major that I feel should be noted.
Lots of yapping, the biggest weakness is loads of npc’s, questgivers, companions and generally antagonists will yap your ear off until you get sick of it. The amount of expository lore, backstory, and in general needless information you’ll succumb to is something I felt was overdone and should’ve done more on showing us than telling us.
Dialogue history box to see past conversations, why this wasn’t implemented with loads of discussions I have no idea. With the loads of text you’ll read and listen through and to voice actors credit, a large chunk is voice acted. Sucks to accidentally move forward and try to recover from your mistake only to see you can’t re-listen to what your companions/npc’s said. Feels like a missed opportunity to include.
I’m not sure if it’s just me but I had to rebind controls to proper RTS protocols. Using a mouse to move the screen isn’t optimal in my opinion. Personally I prefer using the w,a,s,d, format to optimally adjust the screen in the up, down, left, right direction which is faster than using a mouse to drag to the corner/edges of the screen.
Not a fan of breaking apart upgrades(blueprints) for each of your factions by endgame via finding them around maps, by endgame if you are missing upgrades and units you likely didn't grab the blueprints tucked away in some previous maps/sidequest maps. So by the time you reach maps before the end credits roll you may not have everything to upgrade your units/buildings. So enjoy playing against the toughest enemies with a handicapped build order because you didn’t exert enough effort to explore every map.
One and done strategy I don't think works for a RTS/RPG combo. Primarily in regards to sector grabbing for resources. For those unaware i think rapidly expanding to gain resources feels too limiting in spellforce 3.
Wish there were more varied objectives beyond the standard go to point a to point b quests. Accept quest, go to area with npc/item, return to quest giver complete. Combine this with the occasional kill and im straight into yawning city. Sure there’s some outside the norm to finish puzzles, play detective, investigate, but these seem too little compared to the majority in the former. I wish the developers decided to go bolder with their design.
Despite my mixed feelings affecting my overall experience in major & minor ways, I don't think it takes away from the positives much. There’s still a decent to great RTS game here coupled with the slice of RPG pie I haven’t felt since my Warcraft days. Evoking similar feelings of nostalgia with enough content to stand on its own two feet, hopefully when I feel I'm ready I'll tackle the expansions to see if the story is better and see if they fix any of my criticisms from the main game. Honestly we don’t often see these types of games that evoke the old Blizzard magic, there are some I've been keeping an eye on in the indie scene like Age of Darkness: Final Stand, Darfall, Godsworn, The Scouring, Liquidation and perhaps Lessaria: Fantasy Kingdom Sim. But the rest in the sea of indie RTS don’t go forth to take direct inspiration. I sincerely wish one day another developer studio will lead the charge for another in a heroesque RTS mindset, for the potential is there shining brightly.
7.5/10