New to Spell Force. Is this game worth buying?

[Grey Wolf]

The mixed reviews make me hesitate a little bit. I am usually a strategy type player with games like Total War, Age of Empires, or StarCraft. I do love RPG games like Mass Effect or Dragon age though.

Would I enjoy this?

[Paradox]

Early release the game was / is good, granted that some things were bugged!
I haven't played for some time since the dwarf whatever his name was, was good with his armor, and that you couldn't speak to him again coz he gave the same line over and over which prevented you from upgrading his armor.

As i result this was fixed over the patches but it never got fixed in a save file, (you had to start over for it to have any effect)

But yes the game is good, infact the game is a masterpiece of RTSRPG

[Grandpa Who]

I think players new to Spellforce may like it more than first-minute veterans. I am one of few people who still play Spellforce 1 and 2, I also did some Spellforce 1 modding.

I like the new game and some things surprised me positively, like the skill system, or the "Dragon Age: Origins"-ish collection of heroes.

Others disappointed me, for example, the massive use of level recycling and the German writing (the overall story is okay/good, but the wording hurts me and is not true to the series).

But after all, I like the prequels way more.
Spellforce 1 & 2 shared the same pool of strategies which don't work any longer. That's no reason for them being better but for the new one being different. This is why many of my friends turned their back on the third part and why I think newcomers may enjoy it more because of different expectations.

If you are a fan of the prequels and read this - that's what I found to be the biggest game-changer:
You are no longer able to build a stable defense without heroes, especially on higher difficulty levels. By stable I mean, you normally don't lose units defending your base, while you explore the map with your heroes (which is, a core part of Spellforce gameplay to me). You have to manage your defense constantly or rush the enemy. There is almost no time to explore the map, enjoy the graphics or manage your city, while in RTS-mode. There are many reasons for this: there is no automatic healing, no NPC-healers, no healing staffs, no healing towers. Thus your defenders are going to die sooner or later if you don't manage your defense, which is again almost a fulltime job. Secondly, Titans (which are ridiculously named "Musterknabe" in German) are vanishing after some time. So even a Titan doesn't resemble a stable defense although, in any other Spellforce campaign before, it would easily. Thirdly afaik you can't patrol, so you need a defending army for every route, which sometimes is a lot of routes, because of the new area control system. Fourthly Towers are tied to Workers which limits them to very few. Fifthly Enemies come in a continuous flow or waves very close to each other. The healer in one wave can easily revive the wave before him, making the trouble double. Sixthly - units push each other as if they were standing on rollerblades. So, even if you block an entrance with several rows of units, they can just push through the formation without even killing one. Seventhly the auto-sorting of unit formations is quite stupid, putting the mages in front of the melees, for example, making the defense setup even more tedious. Eighthly you cannot comfortably set unit stances. For example, you cannot set your barracks to hold position, which makes every unit standing still, after its creation. Ninethly the barracks lack an auto-creation or autofill function to keep your army up without micromanaging. And lastly, the enemy builds a lot of siege weapons, forcing even hero defenses to be managed (meaning you have to leave your formation every single wave to clear out those catapults).
All these things together say clearly, the developers don't want the player to "turtle" but to play actively and/or rush. If you like this kind of gameplay, you will find it, it may even be modern, but it is not what a long times fan would expect of a Spellforce 3.

I am talking about the campaign here. In competitive MP stable defenses would be a no-go. Also, other, not mixed RTS are a completely different pair of socks, because you don't have as many game features to keep in your mind.

One advice at the end: If you want a campaign that is challenging but you don't like multitasking, play it with a friend on a high difficulty level. This way you can split the roles of defending&exploring/attacking. Spellforce 3 is one of few games, that offers enough tasks in a single faction, to be fun playing in coop. In fact, it is the only game I know of besides Anno 1404.

[Doromeo]

Such simple RTSs and RPGs are already in the past. Here you can not find the complex factor of thinking. If you are more fast you win, main thing is speed. I was waiting for a completely different and more complex game in aspects of RPG and RTS. RPG part is simple and banal, you can find such RPG system in many smartphones game. Developers did not really think hard about it.

[Vaylor]

I had a lot crashing with this game. Every hour or so on average my computer would hard crash to a black screen and I'd have to reboot it. I don't have this issue with any other games. I struggled with this to beat it through once, but it's the main reason I won't be doing another playthrough. This is on the most recent patch.

The hero balance is pretty far off depending on what you spec into. I did a full on elemental mage after trying a few different things out. It was just stupidly strong compared to any other tree I tried. My main hero could solo anything in the game in seconds basically, hordes of enemies or tough bosses. I just made my other 3 heros aura, auto attack, and heal bots basically to support my main hero.

The RTS part was really really poorly done. You're better off trying to beat the map with your hero's prior to the RTS part starting in any of those maps. The only point of building troops and a base is to defend that base so you don't lose the map. Your hero's are strong enough to beat the enemy themselves. You're basically fighting non stop wave after wave of enemies, just trying to build enough defenses so your hero's can go off and solo the objective. All of the troops are on a rock, paper, scissors type of build. So in the end you just spam a few of each troop and mass run them around without any real thought or strategy. They're all just fodder in the end really compared to the hero's power.

The good things, I really liked the visuals in this game. Even after finally finishing the game, I was still appreciating the visuals and feel of it. I normally don't care about graphics in games much, but this one impressed me.

The story was long and involved. Sure, you basically do each map twice, but this is a game you can get into for quite a few hours. You have a lot of options with your party and builds to play a round and try out everything you wanted to. There's always something in the maps you've missed or overlooked as well. A lot of hidden things that you don't need to beat the game, but if you find them they can be nice.

I'd probably recommend picking this up on a good sale. However, with the crashing, poor balance and lackluster RTS part I wouldn't recommend paying full price for it.