SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars

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, it’s still far from a final say about the overall game, since at this point of the game I’ve currently at, every time I think I’ve got it all figured out, something new comes up. So stay tuned.

Graphics
Heavily superior to it’s predecessor, as what anything 3D should look like by today’s 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 you’re 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 I’ve 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 I’ll 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 you’ve 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? It’s predecessor clearly identified being both and at least to my recollection, delivered both. This game is still trying to be both but doesn’t 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 doesn’t seem to have an effective “follow camera” 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 doesn’t automatically follow. This obviously sucks during combat since you’d 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, it’s 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 units…four 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 units…thus, what’s 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
Don’t 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 it’s the best one yet, since you may be missing some better equipment you haven’t noticed yet. Even more irritating is that items you find tend to be better than the one’s on sale and there are a lot of items that you find, which usually is a nice thing in RPG’s but considering equipping items seems more like a chore, it’s not something I personally enjoy in this game. Now if you don’t 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 isn’t much creativity going on in the Magical Department either, since it’s 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.