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Note: I'll come clean and admit I've done my fair share of game development work (concept design and poly models, as well as graphic design and high end rendering), but I've had my eye on this game for months now so I'm only too happy to give my 'Professional Opinion'

I've had a good crack at playing the game, and I'm very surprised at what I found...

I think a lot of people here expected Warcraft 3.5, or at least something like that. My immediate feeling was,'Oh! It's Morrowind(MW) and it's Dungeon Siege(DS) and it's Neverwinter Nights(NWN)...' I really didn't expect to be thinking of those games!

Right from the start, it's obvious that this is a top quality title. The opening FMV is spectacular and of comparable quality to the opening of Age of Mythology.

Presentation is of the highest quality, creating more atmosphere than MW, NWN and DS. The interface is beautifully designed by a clearly talented artist and everything is well laid out and easy to read.

The Avatar creation is easy, fun and interesting. The character profile goes into far more detail than DS, a bit more than MW and almost reaches NWN in depth. You should get a good idea of the level of role-playing involved in the game just from this part of the game.

The game kicks off with an excellent and thorough tutorial that fully prepares the player. The voice acting is ok ( I've heard worse...) and the cut scenes are well directed.

The much-hyped 'third-person view' is fantastic! It's easy to forget that this game uses an RTS engine. Bearing this in mind, it seems amazing that the texture sizes and draw distance are so generous. Compare this game to Warrior kings:Battles or Empires-Dawn of the Modern World and you'll quickly see that there's some real power under the bonnet of this game.

The initial impressions of the graphics are very good. The colours are vibrant and the models are well designed and well made. Special effects(spells and spot effects) are lovely and colourful, and textures are generally of a high quality with excellent characters,and flora and fauna design. The quality of the architecture is mixed, with the cottage at the start of the game being one of the weaker examples (ugly window texture), but general most are well handled and textured. Some of the larger town environments are very spectacular and highly atmospheric.

The quality of the animation is mixed. The humans are excellent, as are the insects, woodland creatures and most of the monsters. However, the goblins are quite poorly handled, with jerky and unconvincing movements. The fire elemental encountered in the tutorial is dreadfully animated! It performs the worst pirouette I've seen in a game for years! I was shocked! Luckily it's an isolated example. The 'blocked' animation is awkward (running against a wall, for example), and the attack animations cannot be broken out of while moving, so the avatar is often seen gliding backwards in a stationary pose while casting spells. That needs fixing!

The game world is excellent. It feels more alive than DS, MW and NWN, due mainly to the high level of foliage, NPC's and the lovely 'Zelda' style Day/Night sequence( Sit down and watch that sunset!). The network of paths isn't anywhere near as restrictive as I first expected, with plenty of scope for adventuring off the beaten track. A major problem quickly becomes obvious when playing in the third person view: Awful collision! Want to run through a small wood? You got it! Want to walk between those generously spaced buildings? Think again! I've done my fare share of collision creation, and I'd be the first to admit that it's a slow and boring job, but I'd never get away with (or want to be responsible for) some of the examples here. My avatar has run straight through fallen logs, sunk up to his neck in huge boulders and had to run wide circles around tiny little shacks. Get it fixed!

Gameplay is very enjoyable. I've certainly enjoyed playing this game more than NWN or MW so far. The quests are interesting and well paced. The depth of the RPG elements is easily comparable with dedicated RPG titles and proves to be more exciting and involving than some of the best. I've mentioned before that this has been a real surprise, because I thought that the RPG would feel like Warcraft 3 or Celtic Kings. Right now it's the RTS sections that feel like the extra element. As far as I've played so far, base and army building has been quite limited. Placing the buildings is harder than it should be and doesn't really allow for the creation of convincing towns due to the wide 'dead zone' around each structure. Unit creation is simple and an army can be very quickly generated. It's amazing to see a game that looks ( and plays) a lot like Dungeon Siege with the hero being followed by 30 armed soldiers! It's a shame that the soldiers have been given American Marine Corps voices and say things like 'Area secure!' and 'Sir! Yes sir!' . The game's set in a magical world full of monsters, not modern day Downtown Baghdad! The game deserves better than this and it partly ruins the atmosphere.

Combat is great fun. It can be a bit tricky to select an enemy when things bet busy, but in general the 'Click and Fight' system works superbly. A true innovation! In fact I'd say that taken as a whole, the game is very highly innovative-a rare thing nowadays. It set's out to combine RPG's and RTS's and has clearly succeeded to a high level. The RPG content is up there with the best, and the RTS promises to be at least as good as an above average 'stand alone' RTS title,(though I'd like to experience it in a bit more depth before making any firm judgements).

In conclusion, I'd say that Spellforce has proved to be something far more surprising and interesting than it promised. The developers have clearly put a great deal of work and care into it's creation and have obviously pulled out all the stops to complete it. The collision problems suggest that the game was slightly rushed to release, and the silly ATI bugs are going to hurt sales (although I should point out that I played the game on a 9700 and didn't find the lack of FSAA harmed my enjoyment... but it wouldn't run with it turned on!), however I would have no hesitation in recommending this to anyone interested in the genre.

If only all games had this level of care and imagination poured into them.

Well done Phenomic!!!

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