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Games / Spellforce (1 and 2) Megathread - RTS+RPG Goodness
« on: October 24, 2010, 03:05:43 PM »
Spellforce is a combination of both RPG and RTS games, creating a (in my eyes) unique experience.
Gameplay
In Spellforce: The Order of Dawn you control 1 main hero (the avatar). When the avatar finds a big monument he can activate it with his runeboard and summon up to 5 other heroes (at a hero monument) or large armies (at a race monument). But in some levels, there are no monuments available (or just a hero monument) and so you have to use your band of heroes to fight through the level.
There are 6 different races in Spellforce, each of which are either good or evil. The good races are the humans, dwarves and elves, while the evil races are orcs, trolls and dark elves. As you progress through the campaign/free play you earn new runes, unlocking new heroes and races. You also find new plans to make new units or buildings for a certain race.
Spellforce also has 2 expansion packs: The Breath of Winter and The Shadow of the Phoenix. Breath of Winter introduces free play mode, which is like the campaign but without quests and a story, but just levels to complete. The player can choose to play RTS and RPG levels, and they can also be repeated for more XP and items, plans and runes.
The Shadow of the Phoenix adds 2 new buildings to each race, ups the level cap by 20 and gives free play mode a level filled with quests.
The Breath of Winter also adds another campaign where you create a new character (not the same one as from the order of dawn) and The Shadow of the Phoenix allows you to import characters from either The Order of Dawn or The Breath of Winter, or make a new character which starts at level 30 (the level cap of the other campaigns).
Story
A few years before Spellforce: The Order of Dawn, a group of 13 powerful mages called the Circle found a book speaking of a ritual that would give them immense power. However only one of them would be able to receive this power, and each of them wanted it. To this end they made the runes: magical stones that could produce living creatures, and whenever that creature died, it could be reborn from the rune. Runeslaves also have to serve the owner of their rune. While they were working on the ritual, the 13 mages of the Circle all sent their armies at each other. The ritual, later known as the Convocation, shattered the world and all but 1 of the Circle Mages died. The last Circle Mage, Rohen Tahir, connected the last 'islands' of the world floating on the nether sea with portals, because there was no way to get from island to island without strong magic (like his, for example). The tutorial starts with a woman, Tahira, helping some of her friends on their mission for Rohen to find a special runestone. After the tutorial the runestone is given to Rohen, when it turns out that the runewarrior in the runestone is the player avatar. The game starts with Rohen summoning the player, then giving him his own rune so he can control himself.
The Breath of Winter starts with 2 humans from a refugee camp summoning the player at a hero monument so that he can help them get back 2 other rune warriors who were with the refugees first, but had their runes stolen. Like Rohen, they give the player his own rune.
The Shadow of the Phoenix continues where the first 2 games left off. The storyline is different for Phoenix Stone (Order of Dawn) and Shadowblade (Breath of Winter) characters.
Images
Inventory screen
A dwarven town
Dwarven army from said town vanquishing the enemy
Gameplay
Like in the first game, in Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars you control a main character: Your avatar. However there are some significant changes in the game mechanics.
One of these is that you no longer control a rune warrior, nor do you have any runes to activate rune monuments. Instead you are a Shaikan, a human with dragon's blood in his veins, making you immortal. If you or one of the heroes in your party dies, one of your other heroes has to perform a ritual near your body to resurrect you.
Since you no longer use monuments, the RTS part of the game is more like regular RTS. You have 1 main building (headquarters) that can produce workers and the first 2 soldiers of your race. There are 3 different races/alliances. Each race actually is a group of 3 other races. The Realm consists of humans, dwarves and elves. The Clans consist of Orcs, Trolls and Barbarians and The Pact which is made up out of Dark Elves, Shadows and Gargoyles. To learn new abilities for your avatar and heroes, you do not find spells like in the first game, but you have to invest 1 skill point into a specialization tree each level. There are 2 general specialization trees, Combat and Magic, which split into 2 smaller trees which split into 2 smaller trees etc.
Like Spellforce: The Breath of Winter and Shadow of the Phoenix, there is a free play mode where you can choose between RTS and RPG maps, and if you want you can repeat them. The freeplay mode has a lot of quests and a small storyline of its own.
The (so far) only expansion is Spellforce 2: Dragon Storm. In Dragon Storm you get one additional race to play with: The Shaikan. The Shaikan have the Shaikan Humans, the Blades (creatures made of iron) and Dragons. Dragon Storm comes with a new campaign and an addition to the freeplay mode: An Arena where you fight extremely powerful enemies to test your character's strength.
All heroes and your avatar unlock a smaller, third skill tree alongside Combat and Magic: Shaikan. The Shaikan tree has useful spells for both soldiers and magicians with abilities which often relate to blood and/or dragons.
Story
After the events of Spellforce: Shadow of the Phoenix all rune warriors were gone. The game starts with the player looking at an old hero monument, wondering what the world would be like if the rune warriors were still there. He is then approached by his 'brother' Bor (all Shaikan are semi-related because of the same dragon's blood in their veins) who tells him they shouldn't be late for the player's coming of age. They head towards the town when they notice that there's a huge dark elf army heading for the Shaikan city in the Iron Fields.
In Spellforce: Dragon Storm, the portals connecting the different islands are collapsing and it's up to the player character (another Shaikan) to find a way to stop them from doing so. The new leader of the Shaikan, the player character from Shadow Wars, has also disappeared and the Shaikan are under siege from different fronts.
Pictures
Inventory Screen
Pact Town
Realm Titan
Additional Stuff:
Spellforce Platinum Edition on steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/39540/
Spellforce 2 Gold Edition on steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/39550/
The third expansion for Spellforce 2, Spellforce 2: Faith in Destiny is scheduled for release sometime this year (2010).
I've played every game so far but finished none of them (I suppose I should)
Gameplay
In Spellforce: The Order of Dawn you control 1 main hero (the avatar). When the avatar finds a big monument he can activate it with his runeboard and summon up to 5 other heroes (at a hero monument) or large armies (at a race monument). But in some levels, there are no monuments available (or just a hero monument) and so you have to use your band of heroes to fight through the level.
There are 6 different races in Spellforce, each of which are either good or evil. The good races are the humans, dwarves and elves, while the evil races are orcs, trolls and dark elves. As you progress through the campaign/free play you earn new runes, unlocking new heroes and races. You also find new plans to make new units or buildings for a certain race.
Spellforce also has 2 expansion packs: The Breath of Winter and The Shadow of the Phoenix. Breath of Winter introduces free play mode, which is like the campaign but without quests and a story, but just levels to complete. The player can choose to play RTS and RPG levels, and they can also be repeated for more XP and items, plans and runes.
The Shadow of the Phoenix adds 2 new buildings to each race, ups the level cap by 20 and gives free play mode a level filled with quests.
The Breath of Winter also adds another campaign where you create a new character (not the same one as from the order of dawn) and The Shadow of the Phoenix allows you to import characters from either The Order of Dawn or The Breath of Winter, or make a new character which starts at level 30 (the level cap of the other campaigns).
Story
A few years before Spellforce: The Order of Dawn, a group of 13 powerful mages called the Circle found a book speaking of a ritual that would give them immense power. However only one of them would be able to receive this power, and each of them wanted it. To this end they made the runes: magical stones that could produce living creatures, and whenever that creature died, it could be reborn from the rune. Runeslaves also have to serve the owner of their rune. While they were working on the ritual, the 13 mages of the Circle all sent their armies at each other. The ritual, later known as the Convocation, shattered the world and all but 1 of the Circle Mages died. The last Circle Mage, Rohen Tahir, connected the last 'islands' of the world floating on the nether sea with portals, because there was no way to get from island to island without strong magic (like his, for example). The tutorial starts with a woman, Tahira, helping some of her friends on their mission for Rohen to find a special runestone. After the tutorial the runestone is given to Rohen, when it turns out that the runewarrior in the runestone is the player avatar. The game starts with Rohen summoning the player, then giving him his own rune so he can control himself.
The Breath of Winter starts with 2 humans from a refugee camp summoning the player at a hero monument so that he can help them get back 2 other rune warriors who were with the refugees first, but had their runes stolen. Like Rohen, they give the player his own rune.
The Shadow of the Phoenix continues where the first 2 games left off. The storyline is different for Phoenix Stone (Order of Dawn) and Shadowblade (Breath of Winter) characters.
Images
Inventory screen
A dwarven town
Dwarven army from said town vanquishing the enemy
Gameplay
Like in the first game, in Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars you control a main character: Your avatar. However there are some significant changes in the game mechanics.
One of these is that you no longer control a rune warrior, nor do you have any runes to activate rune monuments. Instead you are a Shaikan, a human with dragon's blood in his veins, making you immortal. If you or one of the heroes in your party dies, one of your other heroes has to perform a ritual near your body to resurrect you.
Since you no longer use monuments, the RTS part of the game is more like regular RTS. You have 1 main building (headquarters) that can produce workers and the first 2 soldiers of your race. There are 3 different races/alliances. Each race actually is a group of 3 other races. The Realm consists of humans, dwarves and elves. The Clans consist of Orcs, Trolls and Barbarians and The Pact which is made up out of Dark Elves, Shadows and Gargoyles. To learn new abilities for your avatar and heroes, you do not find spells like in the first game, but you have to invest 1 skill point into a specialization tree each level. There are 2 general specialization trees, Combat and Magic, which split into 2 smaller trees which split into 2 smaller trees etc.
Like Spellforce: The Breath of Winter and Shadow of the Phoenix, there is a free play mode where you can choose between RTS and RPG maps, and if you want you can repeat them. The freeplay mode has a lot of quests and a small storyline of its own.
The (so far) only expansion is Spellforce 2: Dragon Storm. In Dragon Storm you get one additional race to play with: The Shaikan. The Shaikan have the Shaikan Humans, the Blades (creatures made of iron) and Dragons. Dragon Storm comes with a new campaign and an addition to the freeplay mode: An Arena where you fight extremely powerful enemies to test your character's strength.
All heroes and your avatar unlock a smaller, third skill tree alongside Combat and Magic: Shaikan. The Shaikan tree has useful spells for both soldiers and magicians with abilities which often relate to blood and/or dragons.
Story
After the events of Spellforce: Shadow of the Phoenix all rune warriors were gone. The game starts with the player looking at an old hero monument, wondering what the world would be like if the rune warriors were still there. He is then approached by his 'brother' Bor (all Shaikan are semi-related because of the same dragon's blood in their veins) who tells him they shouldn't be late for the player's coming of age. They head towards the town when they notice that there's a huge dark elf army heading for the Shaikan city in the Iron Fields.
In Spellforce: Dragon Storm, the portals connecting the different islands are collapsing and it's up to the player character (another Shaikan) to find a way to stop them from doing so. The new leader of the Shaikan, the player character from Shadow Wars, has also disappeared and the Shaikan are under siege from different fronts.
Pictures
Inventory Screen
Pact Town
Realm Titan
Additional Stuff:
Spellforce Platinum Edition on steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/39540/
Spellforce 2 Gold Edition on steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/39550/
The third expansion for Spellforce 2, Spellforce 2: Faith in Destiny is scheduled for release sometime this year (2010).
I've played every game so far but finished none of them (I suppose I should)
