SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars - First Impressions
Gorath, 2006-05-06

The sequel to Phenomic´s 2004 surprise hit SpellForce: The Order of Dawn just hit the store shelves in most European markets and North America should see it in a few days. Aspyr, the local publisher, is already in the process of supplying the channel. 

As expected, SpellForce 2 offers a lot of content. We´ll bring you a first impressions article now, followed by a review when we are through the campaign. Our impressions are based upon a European multi-language DVD version sent to us by Deep Silver, who are publishing the game in the biggest European markets. We patched the game to v1.01, which is identical to the boxed US version.

Gameplay overview

SpellForce 2 is a fifty-fifty mix of action-RPG and RTS. You explore 20 large islands with your party, battle enemies, solve quests and collect loot. Sooner or later you´ll run into a situation requiring more firepower. You'll then ramp up a base and build an army with your party and a faction-dependent titan -- the most powerful units. The ultimate goal of every map is to access the gate to the next map. Spread all over the maps are teleporters. The avatar can travel between them, even across islands, which is quite helpful when doing sub-quests.

The RPG and RTS elements aren´t clearly separated. On several maps it makes sense to use an army to stabilize the situation in one area and take out a small camp with your party somewhere else.

RPG mode

Unfortunately the character development is a little thin. The main character is accompanied by up to five permanent party members he meets during his adventures. All but one of them have predetermined classes - the last one can be freely evolved, which is done through skill trees for magic and combat. You get one skill point per level. The level-cap is 30 for the avatar and 24 for the rest of the party. By default, the distribution is handled automatically, although this can be turned off with a nearby button.

This is the only complaint about the action-RPG part, though. Some of the quests are quite creative and a few of them even require thinking. Of course, they give you an excuse to explore the map´s most remote areas. When you receive a new quest the target area is marked on the map, so it´s nearly impossible to lose your way. The items you receive as a reward or find during your journeys are scaled to your level, and they´re relatively low in number - a nice measure to make sure items are meaningful and the inventory doesn´t get cluttered with junk.

RTS mode

The RTS part isn´t as simple as it appears at first glance. Let´s have a look at the numbers first: SpellForce only has 3 resources (silver, stone, lenya) for all nine races (humans, elves and dwarves; trolls, orcs and barbarians; dark elves, gargoyles and shadows) in three factions (The Realm, The Clans and The Pact). Each faction has 12 different units and a titan strong enough to take on half an army.

Building a base only takes a few minutes. First you take care of resource supply, then you build basic army buildings followed by a few simple soldiers, advanced buildings plus the available upgrades and finally farms to increase the unit limit. All of this is comfortably done within 10-15 minutes.

In contrast to its predecessor, which endlessly spawned troops and made scripted asaults, Phenomic decided to include an AI. Now the computer also has to collect resources and construct a base. He even shows a certain flexibility as to when and where to attack.

One important standard feature of the RTS genre is missing: formations. Now your troops automatically sort themselves in a logical way. Ranged and magic units stay away from melee combat if possible, which works surprisingly well.
The combat options are good enough to produce controlled chaos: 10 groups can be built, you can give order to hold ground, patrol or follow the selected unit. An advanced features deserve a more detailed explanation: Assault. If you mark a few waypoints and give the assault command the selected group will run to the first waypoint, kill everything, move on to the next one, and so on.

Interface

SpellForce 2 has a fantastic interface. It´s fast, it´s comfortable and it offers tool tips for everything.

Naturally, you´ll spend most of your time on combat or exploration, so that´s a good starting point. Near the top you can see several character portraits. From left to right they stand for: your avatar, the party members, temporary party members and groups. Combat is handled by what Phenomic calls the Click 'n' Fight interface. After selecting an enemy either by a mouseclick or by toggling though them from strong to weak with TAB, the icons under each character or group show what action can be taken against the chosen enemy, who is displayed in the window in the bottom left corner. One click and the action starts.

At the bottom right is a map, to the left a "goto alarm" button and above it quick selectors for the most important buildings. With their help it´s possible to produce new units and move them to the front without scrolling to the camp. Workers are created the same way, just select the main building and queue up specialized workers for the three resources. They´ll find work without further help. The whole thing works intuitively, although a brief look into the manual will reveal a few expert functions the tutorial left out.

Impressions

So far I´ve spent approximately 35 hours on the campaign, which means I´m somewhere in the middle of the advertised 60 hours. SpellForce 2 starts with a spectacular intro movie and simple character creation followed tutorial identical to the demo. The first few maps are rather easy, then the game accelerates without getting hectic. Many maps mix up RPG and RTS aspects nicely, allowing you to explore the rest of the island when the main threat, usually at least one enemy camp, has been dealt with. Not separating both genres clearly is part of the concept.

The introduction phase is obviously over when you reach the capitol. Sevenkeeps, the King´s domicile, serves as a hub during the first act. It´s the start and finish for a lot of quests and missions on several maps. How much is going on is illustrated by the fact that no less than 18 teleporters are distributed on the island. Moreover, Sevenkeeps is also the place of the game´s first highlight: the king grants you your own fiefdom, a small island named Westguard! When the situation on the current map is stable you can go there to check for new quests or visit the local traders. Teleportation is easy. Your avatar can directly beam to every known teleporter on any island he has visited before, for example to the marketplace in Sevenkeeps.

After about 10 hours Shadow Wars moves from good to great, and stays that way for nearly 20 hours. More races are introduced, and each of them plays a little differently. The enemies are also changing, which helps keep things fresh. No map is like the other, each one has distinctive qualities. A spectacular example: On a map with a gigantic fortress you can order two generals to attack specific targets. Their troops will put pressure on the opponent until they receive different orders. Meanwhile you can either infiltrate the fortress through the backdoor or go through the main entrance with an 80 piece army.

The first act ends with a bang - and helps you make new friends: The Clans. They have quite a simple world view valuing two things: honor and survival of the fittest. Which is not only a nice contrast to the rather flexible Realm, it´s also another boost for the game´s atmosphere, because SpellForce 2 doesn´t take that much time to develop characters, and the orcs´ outspoken attitude doesn´t need explanations to be in line with their world picture.

Hours 30 to 35 are a mixed bag - both great stuff and filler material in quick succession. There´s a Diablo type level, for instance. Of course nothing can be said against speeding things up for a while - but not if it lasts for an eternity. However, the very same map suddenly shifts into one of the most exciting situations so far: an army has to be built while the still nonexisting camp is under heavy pressure from 2 sides alternating their attacks. This is in the spirit of the original SpellForce, and it demands an energetic solution I won´t spoil here.

The quests in this segment of the game also use the whole spectrum. On the one hand there are spectacular arena fights and a confrontation with an undead dragon. Both demand full attention. But on the other hand you have to carefully sift through a part of the orc hub map for artifacts and resources with the help of a metal detector. Fortunately the reward is worth it ...

Conclusion

SpellForce 2 is a very enjoyable game. Phenomic fixed the biggest problems SpellForce 1 had: it wasted time on walking and micromanagement. Both are now dealt with in a more than convincing way by enough teleporters and the superb interface. The positive effect on playability is more than obvious. Shadow Wars flows nicely and it´s very easy to get into.

On the technical side we have great visuals and sound track, but also relatively high system requirements and substandard voice acting. Both the RPG and RTS part have been simplified compared to SpellForce: The Order of Dawn. It´s a double-edged sword - you can either see it as "streamlining" or "dumbing down". I´ll reserve the verdict for the review.