SpellForce Platinum

I actually had Spellforce 2 for a while, finally got around to playing it. Thought it was a very good mix of RTS and RPG, so decided to buy the first one off GOG. Don't regret that decision one bit. Great game if you're into Witcher type RPGs, and even has some RTS elements. I wanted to give it 5 stars, but save that for the rare top notch games. Buy this game from GOG, you won't regret it.

Summary: a time-consuming RTS with decent-yet-worthless quests, that takes some of the worst MMORPG aspects and adds infuriatingly bad unit AI and controls. Imagine an RTS with no "stand ground" unit command with absolutely suicidal units and you have Spellforce. The "RPG" parts with the fully controllable avatar are solid, mostly because there is no unit AI to mess up everything. If you can get past the controls, there is a lot of stuff to go through and enjoy here. The two major pros of the game are tailor-made maps and quests. Warcraft III's maps look so boring and repetitive after this game and makes Diablo series-style quests look rubbish by giving them some depth and believable narrative. For example, "Amra and Lea" is super-long with many different kinds of tasks to complete. As a major con, the ambient bird sounds are ear-splittingly loud even in low volume. I had to disable sound effects (SFX) because of that. SF is one with great content potential that I cannot recommend. I spent 95 hours on the first campaign and the horde mode style gameplay on some levels got really old. Speaking of which, the worst one i.e. "Rift" is the level from the demo. That is from near the end of the game, which is quite a hardcore choice. You can try the demo to get a good idea about the game. The plot was an anti-plot and the ending was the worst one I have ever seen. A hint: nothing significant happens. That left a sour taste in my mouth.

.. and the Game is still a Masterpiece. More then 20 Years ago a bought the Collectors Edition of SF1 and loved the Game. A few Days ago i bought on GoG the Platinum Edition and i got the SF Fever again. The mix or the combination of RPG and RTS here still feels somehow unique. But today this lovely shiny Pearl needs a bit of technical help; since the Game itself only support the old 4:3 Ratio Resolutions, you maybe want to check the inet for a Mod called „Widescreen Fix“. It works perfectly and you can play then at fullscreen without black bars on the left and right side. In my case its on a 32“ WQHD. The other thing is: there seems to be a bug (maybe Radeon gfx card only?) that doesnt shows the Hitpoint bars. Not at the Avatars, not at the Units, doesent matter if enemy or own ones. Makes the use of the Skill „White Magic“ quite useless this way …. But theres a fix and it works: check the inet for „Missing HP Bar fix“. All you need is a small Tool called „DGVoodoo2“ and a Hex Editor. In less then 5 Mins the Problem is solved.

The game play is highly polarized. Sometimes its all about playing the game as an RPG, and other times you are playing the game as you would Warcraft II (NOT WC 3). Sometimes your party is the only thing standing between you and total defeat. At these times you don't have access to an army. At others your hero is a somewhat more versatile and sturdier minion. The interface for RPG SF is bad. There is no pausing, the over-head view makes things too small, and hard to target. In RTS mode, the method of building (summoning at the monument) is slow and annoying. There are hardly any upgrades to purchase. It was worth $5 to try it (I got it on sale), but if I could return the game, I would.

I have played this game at least 10 times. I know it very well and I love it very much. It is the best game in the whole series and it is a game that have started my gaming live, as one of the first games I had on PC. Great RPG, Great RTS. I love the lore. I love all races. The game can be very challanging and demanding. Finally, after almost 19 years I have bought it and I will enyoy it for who knows how much times more. I hope that one day they will make a remake of this game, but only like improving graphics and physics and that the gameplay stays the same. It will never happen but a gamer can dream, you know,,,