SpellForce 3: Soul Harvest

They really did fix many of the issues. The RTS component feels solid now. The UI is much better than before The AI is not AS clunky Story elements and characters are even better. Still, it is not a perfect game I would have liked my main PC to become a god instead of capping at lvl 20 and just being really strong. Too few stat boost potions. 2 revive limit means you can't let your heroes die and that's lame. I would have also LOVED to keep the old broken Circle Mage difficulty of SP3 that had the enemy throw you entire SCREENS of enemies. While your heroes are more balanced now, enemies are fewer and attacks are not as constant as before, probably because of the 200 unit limit regardless of the map. Still a great game, i'll gladly buy the next expansion

This standalone expansion to SpellForce 3, a solid RTS+RPG hybrid, delivers exceptional value (almost a full game at expansion price), and retains the high level of quality and attention to detail of the original. Once again, great graphics, sound and art direction are joined by outstanding writing, voice-acting and music (though perhaps I preferred the original plot, where characters evolved more naturally). Two new and rather unique factions spice-up the RTS side, and the campaign is as involved and adventurous as ever. On the flip-side, sadly the RTS part got "streamlined" - that is, simplified, as the features that made it unique were unceremoniously removed (supply chains, worker/carrier, balance, multi-step production lines). This didn't help in fixing the actual problems on the RTS model (snowball effect, rush friendliness). Also, the RPG model was simplified too (less damage types, simpler items, no unique specializations for companions, etc.), which is a shame. Still, for the price, this is hard to beat and it remains a very fun experience (some rather well written and voiced characters that return from the original are worthy of the price of admission alone). Another easy recommendation for me.

I thought base SF3 was already a gem in its own right, after the massive patching that had been done. Soul Harvest only improves on it further. Better UI, tighter story, 2 new factions, the 3 factions from the base game were all revamped and much improved design-wise. the revamp of the heroes class trees also makes for more interesting hero building. graphics and sound are as good as ever, SH even looks a tiny bit better with the really pretty autumn theme it has. I can only recommend this, I'm really loving it and I can't believe we got something like this in 2020. Feels like from the early 2000s with modern production values.

This is another great addition to the spellforce world. Love the graphics, music and voice acting. Great challenge to manage army building while defending relentless attacking hordes. Once you get used to the mechanics it is brilliant!

This Expansion is a lot different from the base game. It streamlined a lot of things. For example the 4 physical damage types were fused to only 2 while the 4 magic types were put together as one (more or less, fire and ice effects deal more damage on monsters from the other type and often no damage to the same type). Equipment was also heavily condensed. A little too much for my taste. The skilltrees have been completly overhauled. You no longer have 3 Trees (+ leadership on main) but 2 trees with one synergie skill, depending on which trees you chose (unforunately the game doesn't tell you what those synergies will be beforehand). The companions also no longer have a companion-specific tree like in the basegame. There are also fewer companions available than in the basegame. To compensate you can hire custom mercenaries, whithout personality. Unfortunately the others do not have much of one either. I never felt compelled to talk with them much. The RTS parts also got streamlined a bit. The sector outposts no longer have their own storage, everything is stored globally. You can now gather resources in the back and have unit-production in the frontline sectors without having to haul the ressources there. Most units have some unique unlockable skill or effect, which makes the different races more distinct than in the base game. So mechanics-wise they did a lot very right with only a few hiccups that might be only my personal taste getting in the way. But the story part lost me. The companions are lacking. The MC is even worse. Tahar was intriguing, Aerev is horrible. He "made a mistake" that should have him demoted, exiled or executed, but instead he gets to command the elite Wolfguard, because they killed Tahar offscreen. The main storyline didn't capture me like the one from the base game. It also felt unfitting for the SF universe. Much of it felt conflicting with the lore from SF 1 to me. So far I couldn't bring myself to replay the campaign because of that.