Over the past several years, the videogame market has been flooded with “Lord of the Rings” type stories of fantasies and wizardry, especially in the RPG and RTS genres, which are primarily released on the PC. From Blizzard’s infamous “WarCraft” series to MMORPG’s such as “Dark Age of Camelot” and “Everquest,” every respectable gamer has at least engaged in one of these J.R.R. Tolkien inspired tales. Enter “SpellForce: The Order Of Dawn,” Encore’s latest software offering since its recently released sleeper-hit, “Silent Storm,” constructed by the primarily German based development house “Phenomic Game Development.” Though this game has been available since November 28th, 2003 in Germany, localization has finally been completed, and the game has debuted on American shores. While not outstanding from the rest of the Fantasy pack in terms of storyline, which is obviously “inspired” by Tolkien’s greatest works, “SpellForce” manages to bring interesting game mechanics to a tired and somewhat stale genre. What kind of game play mechanics? Read on young wizard, or risk the wrath of… ah forget it, I can’t think of anything clever to say this time.

There is always plenty of public outcry where 'Frankenstein foods' are concerned- mention genetically modified anything and people go berserk. But when it comes to Frankenstein games all is quiet and people carry on safely in their little lives doing jigsaws. Well, Spellforce is a stitched up torso and sawn off forehead of a game and I am outraged I tell ya, OUTRAGED!