It's a great game, lots of fishing and exploration!
Firstly, I am not a great fan of roguelite games for a few reasons, which mainly is due to the tedium of each run being too similar. Although, there are a few that I very much enjoy, such as FTL & ITTB. The resource management aspect is akin to Anno and the storms / events have similarities to Frostpunk. However, this would do this game a great injustice to say this just borrows elements from either of these equally great games. This game hits the right spot for me. The balance of settling in the wilds for 1-2 hours (Pioneer / Settler difficultly) with differing challenging objectives each time, as you work to explore glades. Then when you have a handle, the area is complete. This then helps progress towards helping on your next run and working towards completing a seal. I have completed around 8 settlements (2 cycles) and only just completed a bronze seal, which this adds a new dynamic. If you enjoy games that include resource resource management, managing a population with the added challenges, this game is well worth ago. If you decide to make the purchase, here is a tip to help. There are many structures that produce the same goods (e.g. Fabric), the more specialist version of the stucture (i.e. Clothier in this case) will use less resources to produce the same goods.
The ambiance and visual effects are excellent. However, as an RTS, this falls short of previous greats such as DoW2 and CoH. In my opinion, this is primarily due to two things, firstly the cover mechanic being is flawed. Mechs including your own wander through cover as if this was nothing, which requires you to hold shift and map the path everytime. Cover is only useful in early missions or certain missions in conquest mode that are limited to infrantry. Secondly, the range of weapons such as long range guns or mortars make them ineffective to use. This means units such as the PZM-7 'Smialy' become the most cost effective unit with high speed and good firepower, this allows rushing through enemy cover with ease. Then there are some odd decisions, such as a field gun being able to hold off two units of infrantry and buildings taking up the small unit cap. This leads to placing minimal mines or bunkers, which again reduces the use of infrantry. In summary, this game has a great visual style, as well as interesting a mostly interesting campaign and decent conquest mode. However, the lack of tactics needed (such as cover, supression) made this less enjoyable to play than previous RTS greats.
I have only played an hour, which I needed a few restarts before realising the game needs to played at a slow pace to allow you to be forgiven for your mistakes. Just a tip for when starting, only use the land you provided until you start making money. Start with cabernet sav and perfect it before moving to other grapes. Enjoyable game to relax whilst playing. There is not much depth. This could be be a good series with more improvements / updates for future releases.
Hi... Lea... Hi....
Thank you for the free upgrade to the reforced edition! I have not been able to transfer my original save game over of 10+ hours playtime, which would have been nice. However, this forced me to start a new game; which already within 6 hours the improvements are evident. For example, loot drops are much more balanced and plentiful, especially for the goblin meat needed for one of the side quests. Also, the RTS elements are less of a chore, as previously it was such as grind to complete these. I will not list all the positives, as there are many other reviews that do a great job of this. Although, I will summarise that the lore is interesting, scenery is beautiful and the characters have enough depth to keep you engaged in the plot. The only negative that I have is the back tracking to areas previously completed. However, there is enough of a change on re-visiting these to not make this feel too much like a do-over. Lastly, I've not played Spellforce 2 but I have played the original 'Spellforce Platinum Editon' for a number of hours and this is by far better in every aspect. If you want a game that is entertaining with an interesting story, this is well worth a purchase.
