In short: - Not the best STR nor action-RPG, but the best hybrid of both. - Rich developed fantasy setting - Graphics are still good nowadays - A long campaign, plus the other add-on campaign, which make ratio money/lifetime worth it In long: This game is suppose to be a mix of STR and action-RPG, and there will be mission where it will be only an STR, other only RPG, other both. To be fully honest there are better STR AND better action-RPG, but the mix of both is quite well done, and far better balanced as in the first episode (which I also loved for different reasons). The mechanics are not to deep, but still allow good tactics, and customization of the main character (tip: don't try to mix your character to many direction, as in most of the action RPG). The fact having your main character leading an army as a commander, or a brutal hero depending of your orientation, is always something nice. Regarding the STR side, expect a bit of collect&build typical of the STR of 95-05, with building to make units. Not strongly original, but still well working. The setting is for me one of the strongest argument of this game. If you have played the first episode with all the extension, you will be familiar with the pantheon, legends and creatures running into this world. The guys of Nordic really made a good job here, having a developed coherency. Plus, you will having feeling to this world (ok not always), like when you will discover ancients location, you will really have the impression that you dig up something old. The character cast goes from average to good, but do not expect some revolution here. Graphically, expect a game of post 2005, so still ok if you are not regarding (I am the quite of guy which still find KOTOR 2 good-looking today), and quite clear. The campaign is quite long, even if some (few) mission artificially over-expand by having a huge enemy base to destroy with dozen of defenses. The mix of genre allows the game to alternate genre. However I recommend it for people which are bit hard-headed and have to fear to spend time collecting resources and building huge armies, as typical for the solo-campaign STR of this time. Oh, and you can have coop gameplay. All in one, that is, at least for me, a game that is worth its price, not without flaws. Spellforce 2 is like a buddy you like to have a beer with, he's not perfect, he will unlikely be your love, but you can still like it and have fun with. But I will not recommend if you expect a good RTS and hate action RPG, and the other way around.
This game is quite an alien, and I don't think anything ever tried to go in this direction. It is an STR, but it's also a god game, with a round(!) planet as level. I don't know hoe to describe it, but it really as, let's say a soul. Not in the sense, the ambiance and graphics, no, in the sense, you will have the feeling that something live under your cursor. An emerging civilization will be your tool, your care, your success. Even black and white in the same genre did not manage to give me this thrill (Probably I've never get along with the pet mechanics). Pros: - Living follower, and a self management IA not so bad for a game of this time. - Few units, but well rounded - Lots of magic power to play with - A LAN (or even internet) mode! Yes it's painful to start, but with friends, it's awesome. - Audio is still good today Cons: - A bit of pixelsoup, and you will probably have to look on the internet to avoid the rainbow color bug. - IA is not so challenging. But if you want to suffer, some crazy guys put on the internet some map which will make you cry, not because enemies are overpowered, but because they will strike you at the more painful moment - You could sometimes hate your followers in the rare case they act as morons
TBS with sci-fi setting The game improves the mechanics of its predecessor, and add a really welcome diplomacy component, or some sea station. But, the guys got some weird ideas, and we go from a really good UI to one of the less user-friendly I've ever seen, which is really a shame considering the other improvement of the game, but digging it is to painful and I cannot honestly recommend it.
This game was really good in my memories as kid, but it is also still good today. That is a TBS with sci-fi setting, where you collect ressources, develop technologies, and crush player. The Pro: - Games are around 3 hours timespan, meaning that if you're a worker with an heavy loaded agenda, it suits perfect. - Interface is, even by today's standard, quite good. You have to manipulate cursor and drag and drop, but it's really tuned. - Games mechanics works fine, like you have a cost to transfer ressources form A to B, but it's done automatically, you cannot overflow a region with armies and so on. - Graphics also are not so overpixelated, as the game was planned for standard windows in win 95/98 with scalable elements The con: - IA is not really challenging, even in harder modes - You got only one soundtrack pro civlization, and it is quite repetitive - When you're economy start to goes wrong, getting into micromanagement could be painful
