SpellForce 3

The "Red Shell" Controversy
In 2018, SpellForce 3 (along with dozens of other popular games like Civilization VI, Kerbal Space Program, and Elder Scrolls Online) used a third-party analytics integration called Red Shell.
What it did: It was a "marketing attribution" tool. It tracked whether a user who clicked an ad later bought or played the game by matching anonymized digital fingerprints.
Why it was called spyware: Players were angry because it was installed without explicit consent and tracked data outside of the game itself (like browser activity related to ads).
The Outcome: Due to the massive community backlash and privacy concerns, the developers of SpellForce 3 (Grimlore Games/THQ Nordic) completely removed Red Shell shortly after the outcry.
Current Status (2026)
Clean Installation: Current versions of the game, including the standard edition and the SpellForce 3: Reforced update, do not contain Red Shell or any known malicious spyware.
Standard Telemetry: Like almost all modern Steam or GOG games, it may still collect basic, anonymous gameplay data (e.g., crash reports or hardware specs) to help the devs fix bugs, but this is standard industry practice and not "spyware" in the traditional sense.
Worth a purchase on a key site like ggdeals for 8 dollars. It's kind of like WarCraft 4 in an alternate universe, multiplayer is dead however. Enjoy the game my friends.
EDIT: Epic Online Services are DISABLED by default, which is good! People complained about that being intrusive a few years ago. Once again, enjoy the game.

honestly, this game is the best rts l've ever played and l love it so much (campaign player take)

Genuinely an outstanding RPG/RTS. It has hiccups along the way but generally speaking it scratches a very specific itch the likes of Warcraft 3, albeit with a far greater focus on the RPG side of things. You make your own hero, level up through different classes with varying spells to create your own varied party of heroes (or thoroughly despicable rapscallions) as your main character meets and grows alongside the game's existing cast of characters. Along with full co-op and a decently interesting storyline, it's pretty good all around. That said, $40 can be kind of high in today's economy, so it may be worth on waiting for a sale.
But if you're like me and expect about an hour of time per dollar spent when it comes to your value, there's enough here to get your money's worth.

---{ 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

---{ 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 15% 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

This is like warcraft III, it surely brings back memories. A lotta quests and all are fully voiced even the NPCs or the normal conversation to them. Great graphics and effects too.

I had never played an RTS game before, but I have a vast CRPG/ARPG experience, so when looking for a new game to play I came across with Spellforce 3 and decided to give it a go despite some negative reviews about its RTS part.

I've just finished the main campaign after a 50 hours journey so here I am to review it.

In the beginning I really got mad at the RTS aspect of the game, I felt like the game was cheating and I had to reload a few RTS battles. This changed though somewhere around midgame because, yes, I had 0 RTS experience, that was my fault for not knowing how to play a real-time strategy battle.


The voice acting is fantastic, the soundtrack is incredibly awesome, the skill trees are very interesting and the non-rts combats feel great. I got immersed in the story and wanted to learn more about the nobility, the lands, etc. The small amount of portraits bugged me a bit because there was a point where 3 different NPCs had the same portrait and I met them on the same day of gameplay. I don't consider that a huge flaw though.

I do agree with people who say you can make the RTS part of the game irrelevant by rushing to the main enemy camp, specially when you have lvl 2-3 Haze on two characters, but I only used that on the last two maps as I was very anxious to finish the campaign and see the ending. Now, speaking of the devil:

The ending is AWFUL...not how things unfold and what happens, but the ending sequence (if there is one at all)...I won't spoil it here but it was EXTREMELY disappointing, it feels like the devs had 0 money left to finish the game. Because of that, my previous 9/10 personal rate for the game was turned into a 7/10. I'm going to say again, the ending is AWFUL. Now I'm going to play Soul Harvest but with low expectations regarding its ending.

Spellforce 3 is a nice game and introduced me to RTS games even though it's not a full RTS game. Now I lost my fear for RTS games and I'm also willing to try Titan Quest II to give Grimoire Games some support as I love to try and encourage indie game companies.

Thanks Grimoire Games and THQ Nordic for the warming experience :)

Really amazing game. I've been playing RTS games since WarCraft 2, and RPG games since the first Final Fantasy. The story in SpellForce 3 is well written. Everything is voice acted. The campaigns are professionally crafted. And the ending was perfect.
There are so many ways to play this game:
You can focus more on leading vast army units, with your Heroes built to optimize army output.
You can focus more on Legendary Heroes. Where you need very little army because your heroes can solo the entire battlefield.
The gameplay is addictive, and this has high replayability. Highly recommend for anyone who loves RTS aand RPG games.