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RPGDot Forums > CRPGs General

Author Thread
Gorath
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Joined: 03 Sep 2001
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Location: NRW, Germany
Reviews (German & English)
   

The German print mag PC Action published the first SpellForce review. It was written by the former RPGDot editor Lord Darkmoon! So itīs somewhat from an RPGerīs perspective.

The text was copied over and slightly edited from this thread in the JoWooD boards.



The german magazin PC Action provides the first review of Spellforce. Here is a short part of the article in the issue 01/2004 which comes out on November 21st 2003:

Test of the month: Spellforce
How the genre mix from Germany attempts to dethrone Warcraft 3 and Diablo 2.

Facts:

Mix of real time strategy and role playing game
complex character generation
isometric and 3rd person view
6 races
4 kinds of magic
22 single player maps
14 multiplayer maps
350 pieces of equipment
over 30 enemy races

Comment Andreas Bertits:
"SpellForce let my jaw drop more than once. Graphics are fantastic and I wouldnīt have thought the genre mix works so well. The identification with the avatar works like in a good role playing game. The base management is fun although it takes its time. It's a pity thereīs no coop mode. Wandering through the scenery with friends would have been fun. What I dislike are the many resources. Two or three would have been enough."

PC Action Gold Award

Rating:
Price/Performance : 86%
Controls: 92%
Graphics: 93%

Sound 86%
Multiplayer: 79%
Single player: 90%
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Last edited by Gorath on Wed Dec 03, 2003 12:51 pm; edited 3 times in total
Post Thu Nov 20, 2003 1:09 am
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the mighty stamar
High Emperor
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Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Posts: 602
Location: arcata ca, humboldt county
   

When is the english version?
Post Mon Nov 24, 2003 10:53 am
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Gorath
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The release dates for the usual territories can be found in the intro thread. Euro versions are already gold.
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Post Mon Nov 24, 2003 5:10 pm
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Gorath
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Joined: 03 Sep 2001
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Location: NRW, Germany
   

PC Games 12/03:


Graphics: 91%
Sound: 86%
Controls: 91%
Atmosphere: 90%
Game design: 92%
Multiplayer: 70%

Rating:
90% + Game of the Month Award

Pro:
+accessible genre mix
+fantastic graphics
+exciting story
+intuitive controls

Contra:
-minor design flaws (for example blown up base building; islands have to be explored again on the next visit)

Target audience:
advanced, pro

Hardware
max. details: 2.2 GHz, 512 MB, helluva graphics card
min details: 1.6 GHz, 512 MB, GF 4 Ti
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Post Mon Nov 24, 2003 9:02 pm
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Gorath
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Location: NRW, Germany
   

GameStar 01/04

Graphics: very good
Sound: very good
Controls:good
Multiplayer: sufficient
Price/performance: very good

Rating: 85%

Details follow.
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Post Tue Nov 25, 2003 10:26 pm
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Zakhal
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Joined: 13 Oct 2002
Posts: 188
   

quote:
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!!!
Post Wed Dec 03, 2003 2:33 am
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Gorath
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Interesting. Where did you find this?

edit: Found it. A first impressions thread in the official forum.
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Last edited by Gorath on Wed Dec 03, 2003 12:44 pm; edited 1 time in total
Post Wed Dec 03, 2003 12:31 pm
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Gorath
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Location: NRW, Germany
   

Jolt.co.uk - 89%

The first English review. Itīs a good read.
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Post Wed Dec 03, 2003 12:39 pm
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Gorath
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Gamer Nation UK gave it 92% and an award. (English)
The link goes to the last page.


4Players.de: 74%. (German)
The gist of what the reviewer says is: Donīt believe the hype! Both RPG and RTS are shallow, quests are boring, ... SpellForce is only average.
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Post Thu Dec 04, 2003 6:15 am
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