Single player

[xsys]

Has anyone played this game on single player? Is it possible to go through a campaign in just a "story" mode without building? I was looking for a Dungeon Siege type of game and this certainly seems to have some of the elements of that rpg, but the building makes it seem like a SIM type of game.

[Cunin]

I'm playing it right now, about 20 hours in.
This isn't SIM, this game is a mix between an action-RPG and a RTS (real time strategy), and a good one at that.

I never played a game like this before, and this was the thing that made me want to buy it, because I love both of those genres.

About your question, it's not possible to win the game if you don't build anything, because your character would not be enough to kill the enemy hordes. It's also possible that you would not be able to complete the main quest if you don't build anything, as that's a requirement sometimes.

[xsys]

That settles that...I have to build. I went through the tutorial and liked it up to the part about building. My first impression was "I have to build my game in order to play?", but I never played anything like this before so I will give it go.

[Cunin]

I'm not sure if it'll change in the next hours of my playthrough, but so far, the base building part hasn't been neither complex nor excessively punishing if you do something wrong.
It's kinda like a simpler version of Age of Empires (some sounds are even similar lol), without the extenuating, continued need of keeping technology up to date with your enemy, while keeping your base safe by building up walls, gates and so on.

I hope you will like it :)

[DoctorBest]

I played most of the three campaigns without building, with some exceptions. Its possible, actually sometimes easier because the enemy won't have respawn points if you are playing hero only, at least in the maincampaign But you'll have to pull some enemies, you can't face groups alone. Sorry for the late answer^^

[Cunin]

Wow, I noticed that yesterday, though I didn't make the connection. Went alone around a big map with lots of enemy settlements and they didn't have spawn points. Then I activated some monument and they started coming my way. I thought it was just a coincidence that the settlements I found didn't have spawns, but now..

I quite remember some objectives requiring you to build something, though. Will they be completed once you destroy the enemy?

Thanks for the info, doc.

[DoctorBest]

It varies. There are missions in which you are supposed to build something, some of them can be finished without building anyways. I did a "safe-save" at the beginning of every map, so I could restart if I messed up because I was supposed to build. Also, in the addons, the enemies will have respawn points anyway, but they won't search for you unless you attack them. Heromonuments won't could as building if I remember correctly.

[xsys]

Thanks for the encouraging replies! I think I will try to go through without building if I can (maybe a cheat) just to get a feel for this game. I also picked up Kings Bounty and Disciples II to try to get into this genre in general...I'm used to regular RPGs and action RPGs so this will be interesting!

[DoctorBest]

Never played Kings Bounty and Disciples, would like to know if they are any good, and similar to Spellforce.

[Cunin]

King's Bounty looks more like a turn based strategy game rather than real-time like this one (judging from screenshots). I never played it so I can't be sure, though.

Btw, I just got to a map where it looks easier to just go alone than building an army, as the units I would be able to build, would be kinda too weak to face any of the enemies I find around.
Fortunately there's an hero monument, and I'm trying to use just them and my own Rune Warrior to complete that map. Doing good so far lol.

[DoctorBest]

Yeah, it works really well and for a person like me, who loves RPGs way more than RTS, it was the most fun. I played about 150+ hours of Spellforce, its truly awesome.

[Capybara]

In the vanilla version (without any patches) enemies would only be able to spawn new units once you've started to take a race monument, so you could complete lots of levels by just using your avatar and heroes. Now in the latest version the AI will always spawn units, so you will need armies to beat it (at least on the highest difficulty).
However, the levels are really great and there's a decent mix of levels where you just have your heroes and no army. Even if you have to build a base, that won't take long and while you're gathering ressources you will have to use your main avatar all the time to defend enemy scouts / complete sidequests.

Anyways I can highly recommend this game, it's one of the best games I've ever played. You can build your avatar in so many different ways so you can play through it 5 times and won't get bored, the "click 'n fight" system is awesome and should be in every modern game, there are hundreds of items and hundreds of spells. Also there are dozens of sidequests, some of which follow you throughout the campaign. Since you can travel between the worlds (levels) you can always go back to a level you already completed to finish a quest that was too difficult for you at the start which is really motivational. You don't just finish level after level but have to go back to old areas to talk to people again and finish quests, also some of the worlds change later on.

[DoctorBest]

To bad EA bought Phenomic, they have to develope browsergames... :p