Review 1
Purchased!
Ultimately, I refunded because of the core gameplay.
I've put hundreds of hours into these kind of games and the necromancy focus
interested me the most.
The problem for me is I've played this exact game before...
I shit you not, it's a diet Age of Wonders 3 with the unit crafting system from
Iratus: Lord of the Dead.
And I know, Spellforce is a franchise known for slapping two genres together and
calling it a game, but I just can't justify getting this, even on sale, when I
already own and have experienced all of this years ago.
There is replay value with the multiple choice story events, 5~ different
starting locations, different playstyles and enemy AI factions - which is great!
And I like some of the artwork too.
However, it's a story-focused game and the entire story is presented entirely
through text boxes.
The soundtrack is very forgettable. The unit designs are uninspired. There are
less options in this game than the aformentioned games. And the necromancy
gameplay isn't appealing compared to other titles in the same genre.
I hope next time they can come together and make something innovative, because I
really REALLY wanted to start this review with "This game is totally wizard,
dude!". But I can't.
Review 2
Purchased!
This game makes you feel like you are part of this world as a powerful wizard.
Surprisingly, this game isn't as popular as it should be. I enjoy this one more
than Age of Wonders 4 for its well-written stories, a huge amount of interesting
random events, RPG elements, reasonable army sizes (the biggest thing Age of
Wonders failed for me is the tedious task of managing too many armies each turn
in late games), and amazing crafting system (one of the best crafting system
over the years).
Only two things bother me really: 1. there's a serious bug that prevents you
from doing anything in the late game and you have to reload to keep going, and
it's still there one year later after the DLC release. 2. There are no mods to
play with like AOW 4, I think modding saved that game long-term and kept the
community engaged
Review 3
Purchased!
It is a lovehate game, more love from me I guess... But could not play more, the
love things started to vanish in the shadow of the hate things.
Review 4
Purchased!
i like the idea but there's some really crippling issues
-events spawn circle mage stacks anywhere they god d-mn feel like instead of
from the actual circle mage.
lets say gor is north east of you, you just came in from the west and theres
basically no threats behind you anymore. but gor has gone into "cold war" and
has just spawned a big meaty stack you cant even hope to stop with your best
stacks on the higher difficulty. why? just spawn in on gor, at least give me
some time to react instead of "yeah gor is in your domain now teehee" this is
incredibly frustrating on the higher difficulties, because they can have several
tier 3 units. ive seen ingrim spawn several miner stacks just to hard mine out
my entire vicinity before. and i cant even catch him because hes pathfinding his
entire army.
everyone just magically getting pissed off at you isnt actually fun. let the
events decide outcomes. not "haha -10 everyone" because your usually forced into
a war with all the factions so fast. with very little reasons for it. like if i
take the allfire yeah sure understandable. its like "okay its the 3rd tuesday of
the month, i hate you more now!". i cuddent even contest the starting allfire
once because it spawned in a circle mages domain.
on top of wild stacks and circle stacks getting tier 3 units on higher
difficulties, they also have pretty stupid fast stack limit count increases. so
your maximum stack size of 6 is having to fight 7/8. your out numbered, and out
strenghed. having one of the stack caps tied to a building forces you to go and
collect it every game just to NOT Get out numbered. and its not like this is an
easy thing to do; the city s quest rarely gets you high enough to take the 2nd
quest. meaning you have to wander around until eventually a quest might trigger
to help you improve relations. when i need a critical tower building like that
yeah, its really frustrating. not fun. "oh well its the first town right?" only
if you start in the lower difficulty area. which feels borderline forced because
of that. this building is just That important.
there's just too many "fuck the player" mechanics for what feels like no reason.
having some actual diplomacy options would help so much. its either kill or be
killed.
but i doubt they'l really give this game any balance fixs, half the icons are
actually bought from the unity store. maybe even all of them from what ive seen.
Review 5
Purchased!
This game is absolutely great! Feeling alot like AoW, but while this is only
singleplayer, it also caters this; There is tonnes of adventures, and things to
keep you thinking: "i just need to do this and i will save and quit", 5 hours
later, you remember you had to pick your kids up 4½ hours ago, and your wife
moved out while you were playing.
But thats fine! Cause you almost got the next research!
Review 6
Purchased!
A hidden gem, solid 8/10 game in 4X genre. Good looking, and has interesting
progression.
Strong 'one more turn' and Master of Magic vibes.
One thing I did not like - rubber band balancing, when all your enemies
magically become stronger when you level-up. Or I should have played on easier
difficulty, not sure.