SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars
Description official descriptions
SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars is the sequel to SpellForce: The Order of Dawn. In Order of the Dawn, the player vanquishes evil as a Rune Warrior. In Shadow Wars, the player takes on a new role as a Shaikan, a bloodline created by the powerful alchemist Malakay, where the blood of humans are bonded together with dragon blood. In this saga, the Shaikan homeland is invaded by the Pact, an alliance between the Dark Elves and the Shadows. Our hero desperately travels the continent to gain allies in order to save the Shaikan homeland...but that's only part of the story.
Game play in SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars features a unique combination of Real-Time Strategy (RTS) and Role Playing (RPG). RTS game play only occurs (in campaign mode) when the player has access to workers and a headquarters to develop units and resources. The playerâs units and buildings consist of an alliance between the three major light races: the Humans, the Dwarves and the Elves (Realm Alliance). This alliance allows the player to build and recruit all three different buildings and units from those races. Establishing a presence of all three races, will allow the player access to more powerful buildings and the ultimate unit: the Titan! Later in the game, the hero will be able to access other opposing (dark) races.
The player during travels will be accompanied by other Shaikan heroes and Shaikan companions. Heroes may be equipped with weapons and armor, as well as directly accessing each individual skill ability and spells. Companions are similar to heroes, but their inventory and skills may not be accessed. They can however, like the other heroes be directly controlled. Unlike Rune Warriors, the Shaikan need only directly resurrect a fellow member if killed in battle. However, there is a time limit before permanent death. If a Shaikan hero dies a permanent death, the player loses the game. The Shaikan may also summon other members to the player's location anywhere on the map.
A new highlight in this installment features (later in the game) your role as the new ruler of Westguard, a poor and often disputed land, besieged by Beastmen and the Undead. Here, you may escape the pressures of the main plot, develop your land and help your new found subjects.
Spellings
- ĺčŻĺéIIďźć役ćäş - Simplified Chinese spelling
Groups +
- Fantasy creatures: Dragons
- Fantasy creatures: Dwarves
- Fantasy creatures: Elves
- Fantasy creatures: Griffins
- Fantasy creatures: Orcs
- Games made into books
- Middleware: Bink Video
- Middleware: Rendez-Vous
- Middleware: SpeedTree
- Protagonist: Female (option)
- Sound engine: AIL/Miles Sound System
- SpellForce series
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Credits (Windows version)
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 84% (based on 22 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 15 ratings with 1 reviews)
[v1.0] Almost gave up on this game...
The Good
Game Review Update: v1.0
Game Version: v1.0
Game Mode used: Campaign mode
Game Difficulty used: Hardest...forgot the default name.
Specs used: Intel Dual Core 2 1.86 Ghz. 1GB, 256MB NVIDIA 7300 LE
Have restarted this game already several times, up till now I've finished more than half of the campaign mode, itâs still far from a final say about the overall game, since at this point of the game Iâve currently at, every time I think Iâve got it all figured out, something new comes up. So stay tuned.
Graphics
Heavily superior to itâs predecessor, as what anything 3D should look like by todayâs standards. The game introduces a beautiful and not-so-serious (almost cute) like kinda of graphics, similar to Warcraft 3 and Heroes of Might and Magic IV. Graphics effect you differently, depending on what kind of perspective youâre using here: may it be in the RPG 3rd Person Perspective mode or the RTS Top-Down Perspective mode. Obviously, the detailed graphics are much more noticeable in 3rd Person Perspective.
Sound and Music
Most of the music Iâve noticed (and you really need to notice) is epic-oriented, which is obviously fine. I do hate the fact that you really tend to not notice music during RTS chaos, but some of the compositions are noticeable as the game theme. The sound however, is pretty much standard.
Story
Well, more bad than good in this department, but Iâll tell you the good first. There are a lot of holes in the story, not quite sure if this actually has anything to do with the first Spellforce in terms of continuing story. But, fortunately, some of these holes are filled up by short written story-telling every time you enter a new map (waiting for the game to load).
Bugs
A very good thing in this game, since bugs are minimal if not randomly rare. At least with the specs I was using, the game was very much stable, even when a multitude of my troops, allies and enemies swarming all over the place (or at one place), which usually for some RTS games requiring heavy 3D graphics tend to introduce some serious lagging. Fortunately, this is not a factor in this game. Good going!
Acting
Well, at least the for the Male main character (you can also play a Female main character), the voice acting is above average, if not very good. A very mature like approach, which is always a good thing for games. Though, I do wish they added a more flavor/depth in the material, but overall most of the acting for the main characters is good enough, unfortunately the acting for many minor characters is noticeably ugly.
The Bad
A lot of bads going on in this game. Not bad in the sense of it sucks, but bad in the sense that you know or feel that this game could be much, much more. And why should it be more? Well, if you create a game that supposedly is can be both played in RPG and RTS modes, then technically youâve got a really ambitious concept, which I greatly felt from Spellforce 1. Now the problem with an ambitious concept is you have to fulfill the minimal expectations of the RPG world AND the RTS world. Which unfortunately, in many cases, this game I personally felt did not fulfil:
Game Focus
RPG, RTS or both? Itâs predecessor clearly identified being both and at least to my recollection, delivered both. This game is still trying to be both but doesnât seem to focus too much on neither. This will be explained in more detail.
Game Perspective Blunder
The RPG 3rd Person Perspective was a total disaster, which technically means the RPG concept was a disaster. You cannot play this game seriously as a traditional RPG simply because of the perspective. The game doesnât seem to have an effective âfollow cameraâ mode, which follows the direction your main character is facing. You have to manually turn the camera to where your character is facing, so if you turn your character left, the camera doesnât automatically follow. This obviously sucks during combat since youâd prefer to focus on fighting than rotating the dang camera all the freakin time. One would think everyone knows about this by now. Again, apparently not.
Thus, the only playable mode is the RTS top-down perspective mode.
RTS Gameplay Disaster
A somewhat failure for anyone who plays RTS games seriously. And to a certain extent, itâs as bad as Warcraft 3. What bad? Well, any RTS game that only focuses on total swarming (building maximum troops and bulldozing everything on the way) is simply what this game introduces. In my case, I just built all ranged units and was technically invincible. Oh, how I do miss the troop formations they had in Age of Empires 1&2 in comparison this 3D swarming technology where your troops keep bumping with each other, which is technically a nightmare when you tell your troops to travel a far distance and discover half of them are stuck in front of a narrow path or some are walking around in semi circles trying to pass a minor obstacle.
Unlike Warcraft, this game does not introduce a form of balance between the existing units. For example, the Dark Forces (Orcs/Trolls/Barbarians) have a lot of ranged unitsâŚfour different types in fact (Archers, Axemen, Shamans, and one big Troll dude). Now the thing is, you never want to build the Orchish Archers which has the least range, the least damage than the other unitsâŚthus, whatâs the point this unit even exists?
But I do have to admit, the Titan units are freakin cool!
Story
Somewhat boring in the first several hours of the game, basically just destroy anything in your path. Though to a certain point of the game, there are some certain plot twists, but the game is still pale in comparison to its predecessor in story and plot, especially the RPG quests.
Item Management
Donât know what happened in this department, but buying items and equipping them is somewhat an irritating procedure in the game. Items are not ordered in sequence based on their level requirements, thus quite frustrating finding items that first meet your character requirements then wondering whether itâs the best one yet, since you may be missing some better equipment you havenât noticed yet. Even more irritating is that items you find tend to be better than the oneâs on sale and there are a lot of items that you find, which usually is a nice thing in RPGâs but considering equipping items seems more like a chore, itâs not something I personally enjoy in this game. Now if you donât enjoy item management in RPGs, you know you got a problem game.
Magical Inefficiency
First I am somewhat pissed that your heroes (excluding your main character) may only memorize 3 types of spells. Later, some spells are merely just upgrades of an already earlier weaker spell (ie. Heal, Greater Healing, a little more Greater Healing with sugar on top). There isnât much creativity going on in the Magical Department either, since itâs basically just blow them up, weaken them, strengthen us and healing spells. Pretty much standard, nothing ground breaking going on.
English Translation Mess
Well, the average low IQ teenager might not notice it, but when you're old and cranky, some funny instances do show up in the translations, which you will obviously notice was originally German, since some occasional German texts pop-up now an again (though rare).
One funny instance in the story was between an attacking barbarian female talking to one of your sub-ordinates:
Female Voice: "I'm carrying your child, idiot."
Sub-Titles:: "I'm carrying your idiot."
Then again, unintended humor to a certain extent is harmless and very much entertaining. :)
The Bottom Line
Very much playable, but don't expect this game to win any awards either as an RPG or as an RTS. Still playing the game, so this may not be my final word on this game.
Windows · by Indra was here (20747) · 2008
Trivia
Awards
- PC Powerplay (Germany)
- Issue 03/2007 â #3 Best RPG/Adventure in 2006 (Readers' Vote)
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Related Sites +
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SpellForce 2
Official game website -
SpellForce Italia
Italian fansite and community -
Spellforce 2 - Shadow Wars - JoWooD Productions
Official SpellForce portal
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Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, JRK, Sciere, DarkDante, Patrick Bregger.
Game added May 12, 2006. Last modified June 20, 2024.