Loved SpellForce III: Reforced. In general, the SpellForce series has always fascinated me with its unique and successful mix of the RPG and strategy genres. A new entry is more than welcome.
Although I do enjoy this type of game, I truly love the previous Spellforce title's style. I really liked playing it as an RPG in one map, then moving into RTS mode for the next. It gave a great feel to the game and had a good story.
I didn't got it when it first came out because it was a TBS. I got it recently on a sale and i regret not playing it before. It's a really fun game filled to the brink with lore.
I love all things turn-based, so yes! This looks quite intriguing, I love the overall art style. Nothing groundbreaking, but the good stuff of turn-based gaming seems to be there. Thanks for covering this!
I grew up on HoMM, AoW, SpellForce and Disciples, so glad to see another entry in the SpellForce series, especially since III just got "Reforced" upgrades. Great review as always, and this helped solidify my purchase!
Previous SpellForce games are RTS-RPG, this one is more TBS-RPG. As SpellForce fan, I like this game, it's different, jet still the same in a way, send small armies on a journeys, completing different Quests, but, you have more freedom in this game: where to start, who to fight, where to go.
Man going up against age of wonders 4 is gonna be next to impossible. I feel like this game 2 years ago would have been an easy hit, but with age of wonders 4 just a few months off, not so sure. Also is it just me or do the units in the tactical combat map seem very bland? Like just blobs, that aren't distinct enough?
I didn't know anything about this game, and I love both the Spellforce series and turn-based tactical RPGs like Age of Wonders. This will fill the gap until the release of Age of Wonders 4 in (probably) 3 months.
I love strategy Games in general and this looks really good, especially for that price. A more compact game that appreciates your free time. Not every Game needs to be so long. And, the devs are from Vienna and i live in austria, so im more intrigued to buy it.
Based on what I'm seeing about this game, it feels a lot like Elemental. The only problem is that this game has more than a few negative and positive reviews on Steam saying that it crashes frequently. A problem shared by the previously mentioned game as well.
While i rather have a traditional Spellforce game, or even more in the likes of "Sacrifice and Battlezone". I do welcome when franchises delve into different genres. This should be the case with almost all franchises. For example, Fallout... a Fallout Racer would be dope.
Good that the spellforce series finally turned into TBS and is more close to Age of Wonders, now. However, only 3 wizard classes? Could be more. :) Do a warlock class with demons for a change.
turn based......i think i played enough turn based last year. Spellforce is a wonderful game with cool lore.....sadly their marketing suck balls......it took me more than a decade to know it exist.
From the timeline it should be after soul harvest and either abit before to way after fallen god cuz all the circle mages seem connected to the archfire already.
@sirnonsense5033 had to rush Fallen Gods to get to Conquest of Eo asap so i skipped some dialogues, but yes, you are right. If anyone else is curious, the timeline is approximately like this: - Spelforce 3 - 3 years later, Soul Harvest - 50 years later, Fallen Gods - 50 years later, Conquest of Eo *the number of years may be varying as they use decades for references* Long story short, CoE takes place 100 years after The Circle was formed. Managed only to play a couple of hours but since CoE was not made by Grimlore Games, it has a different pov of the events.
If Age of Wonders 4 hadn't been announced, I would have taken it. But with Hogwarts Legacy around the corner and AoW4 3 months away, I don't see the point in purchasing a less appealing product.
Every aspect of this video screamed Age of Wonders 3. Is that an accurate comparison? Would this game be similar enough to AoW to hold one over until AoW4?
Is this like the Heroes of Might and Magic games, where you have to rush the board, otherwise you end up fighting against impossibly large opposing armies?
Unfortunately, much like AoW, the models have no weight or substance. They look cartoony and have that light plastic feel that glows ridiculously when highligted. Enjoyed the proper Spellforce 3 RPG while the RTS never really worked out as it always just ended in a unit spamming grind. Probably pass on this but if you haven't played the Spellforce 3 RPG give it a whirl.
Not that I disagree about the models, but 3D models and animations are one of the hardest aspects of making games. In my experience, they almost always look a little off because there is generally a big amount of different creatures needed, and for a strategy title, that time is better spent elsewhere. Sid Meier's Civ as a flagship product probably has the highest quality models. Space games like Endless Space or Gal Civ can get off easier, because ships are simple and have almost no animations. I agree about the glow/highlighting. Amateur titles are usually too heavy-handed with specular and bloom. I tend to prefer edge highlighting, but that might look weird on a unit with multiple models which is most of them.
The analogies to Age of Wonders are pretty obvious, but I completely don't get this marketing "successor of Heroes of M&M" thing. This game has nothing to do with Heroes, has it?
Be aware, they took out multiplayer, so it's now single player only. HUGE letdown for me and my friends, but luckily, Age of Wonders 4 is here soon (WITH multiplayer of course) so we are waiting for that.
@@kristofh604 nice - do i have like one hero - or multiple - heroes of .... i was always bad - cause i just want to play with one hero - stacked will all my good units xD
@@toba5878 you can get multiple apprentices and heroes. You would need to hire atleast 2 apprentices for a important quest but you could fire the second one later. Tho they are kinda important to keep your campaign alive. The more good groups you have the better. And heroes and apprentices take no upkeep. So not using free tier 5 units would make the game on a relevant difficulty like hard or rather impossible (because the combat ai is really really dumb on the lower ones and thats kinda boring) pretty rough.
Not a good entry for Spellforce world. Is identical to AoW3 but doesn`t look that good and is not optimized at all. I can run no problems aow planetfall but this game i had to play it on 720p and low settings.
Tried it. Got into game. Started first battle, ended my turn and next turn.. Uff.. Felt bored, dull, silent game. Did not choose my next move or strike. Instead went for menu option, main menu, quit and then uninstalled this game. Really liked spellforce 1-3 but this.. This is not spellforce. Anyway.. Uninstalled and happy with my choise. Boring as hell this game is.
On the good side, looks like Age of Wonders 3, a great game. On the bad side, looks lile Age of Wonder 3, a pretty old game, wit ha new game price. Oh well, might be a way to wait for Age of Wonders 4 later this year.
For a game called "spellforce", there sure doesn't seem to be any fun or devastating spells... Well, the RTS never had any incredible spells either. It's a nice try to change the genre to turned based 4x but seems like there's a big lack of diplomacy, espionage, race selection, character development, ... I mean, they got the base to be an interesting game for new comers and fans of the serie but as far as 4x go, they seem to be pretty lacking. Though, the game seems far better than the "remake" of Master of Magic. I don't know how I really feel about this, maybe I'll pick up, most likely not since I'm waiting for AOW4 and meanwhile, I still have a bunch of great games to play in Planetfall.
Why does this even exist, Spellforce literally has zero competition to just create another clone of games that are already there makes no sense, now we have to wait years for another spellforce game while this dies off so fast
Soooo, it's basically Age of Wonders. Gotcha. No idea why SPELLFORCE needed to be an entirely different genre now. The games worked well the way they were... so why turn it into something ultra generic and remove all that made Spellforce, well, Spellforce? ...
Generic? You mean the lore around it right? Cause the whole Age of wonders series is fairly uncommon, unless I'm missing some major games you know about?
@@tobiasL1991 I'm not referring to the lore. I'm referring to the gameplay. AoW has a certain type of gameplay. Spellforce has its own unique kind of gameplay. Turning the gameplay of Spellforce into the gameplay of AoE feels pointless to me, because AoW already exists, while something like Spellforce doesn't. There's literally no other franchise that fills the RTS-RPG niche, so why turn the game into a "generic" 4X with tactical battles like AoW? That's what I mean. Doesn't mean the game won't be "good". But it's like closing down an Egyptian restaurant in central Europe and turning it into yet another pizza place. The pizza can be great, but I can get pizza at 5 different locations in 10 meter radius. Maybe that makes it clearer. And maybe this new pizza hut offers very unique pizza you can't get anywhere else, but from the looks of it that doesn't really seem to be the case.
@@Diree Wait what I'm mainly asking is how you call a game like age of wonders generic, like what other game is like age of wonders? Like how many pizza age of wonders joints do you know? Cause I find the age of wonder style quite rare actually. Should I be looking into older titles or something?
@@tobiasL1991 Endless Legend is similar. Maybe Master of Magic or Warlock. Civilization, perhaps, but the combat is different. Same for Gladius. Humankind might be similar. Fantasy General, perhaps? Maybe Thea the Awakening. And Fallen Enchantress. Also, AoW is getting another sequel this year ... No game is exactly like AoW. For a good reason. If you want 4X gameplay and bigger tactical turn based battles in a fantasy setting, chances are you're gonna play AoW (Fallen Enchantress is really similar though, it's almost the same if I remember correctly, just not as good, imho), because there's no need for another game just like it. Just like companies try remaking Civ games (and keep failing for the most part) or sth like Sudden Strike.
having been the producer on SF1 and SF2 and having been the dev on this one, I can confidently state we did not disregard the lore in the least. The game is a different genre, but still a blend of RPG and Strategy...just as a 4x.
@@janwagner4490 SF3 Lore is full of plotholes and nonesense. If this game has no relation to SF3 besides the clearly obvious maps and enviroments I'll change my mind.
@@clvrswine while I don't agree w/OP's point this is the internet ...not an english class. Even further its accessed by people who don't natively speak english. Your comment is pointless and toxic.
Check out SpellForce: Conquest of Eo here!: thqn.net/3Drb3Mh
Live on Twitch: twitch.tv/fextralife
💖 Become a Fextralife VIP fextralife.com/Be-a-vip/
Do you have a tik tok account under another name? Just there’s an account posting your Elden ring builds calling them “Builds on 60 seconds”
@@sharkinfestedcusterd Nope. Could you please link it here?
@@Fextralife it looks like the mentioned videos have been taken of his channel now though
My comments I leave with the link doesn’t seem to stay up, so don’t think I can paste a link here sorry. Unless it’s just my yt
Just want to relay that i appreciate yours and your teams unending hardwork for providing indepth guides/wikis
Loved SpellForce III: Reforced. In general, the SpellForce series has always fascinated me with its unique and successful mix of the RPG and strategy genres. A new entry is more than welcome.
Although I do enjoy this type of game, I truly love the previous Spellforce title's style. I really liked playing it as an RPG in one map, then moving into RTS mode for the next. It gave a great feel to the game and had a good story.
I didn't got it when it first came out because it was a TBS. I got it recently on a sale and i regret not playing it before. It's a really fun game filled to the brink with lore.
Looks like a streamlined Age of Wonders 3. Not a bad thing, have to wait for more info.
Age af Wonders 3 meets Thea the Awakening.
I love all things turn-based, so yes! This looks quite intriguing, I love the overall art style. Nothing groundbreaking, but the good stuff of turn-based gaming seems to be there. Thanks for covering this!
aside from basebuilding.
Been playing this all morning. Amazing game so far. Well optimized too.
I grew up on HoMM, AoW, SpellForce and Disciples, so glad to see another entry in the SpellForce series, especially since III just got "Reforced" upgrades. Great review as always, and this helped solidify my purchase!
Previous SpellForce games are RTS-RPG, this one is more TBS-RPG.
As SpellForce fan, I like this game, it's different, jet still the same in a way, send small armies on a journeys, completing different Quests, but, you have more freedom in this game: where to start, who to fight, where to go.
I like the Kings Bounty and Songs of Conquest battle view.
I’ll end up getting both this and AOW4. Curious to see which one will win the fantasy 4x title battle
Masters of Magic has the very same Allfire flow and was certainly first game with that system.
Man going up against age of wonders 4 is gonna be next to impossible.
I feel like this game 2 years ago would have been an easy hit, but with age of wonders 4 just a few months off, not so sure.
Also is it just me or do the units in the tactical combat map seem very bland? Like just blobs, that aren't distinct enough?
Game looks interesting - thanks for the video.
I didn't know anything about this game, and I love both the Spellforce series and turn-based tactical RPGs like Age of Wonders.
This will fill the gap until the release of Age of Wonders 4 in (probably) 3 months.
Just in time Age of Wonders 4 was announced
I love strategy Games in general and this looks really good, especially for that price. A more compact game that appreciates your free time. Not every Game needs to be so long. And, the devs are from Vienna and i live in austria, so im more intrigued to buy it.
It takes a few days to become a functioning individual again …. Sounds like my hangovers after hitting 35
Thanks for this video!
Based on what I'm seeing about this game, it feels a lot like Elemental. The only problem is that this game has more than a few negative and positive reviews on Steam saying that it crashes frequently. A problem shared by the previously mentioned game as well.
I loved the older titles
So this is basically the spiritual sequel to Fantasy General II from the same devs ?
The games seem very similar.
While i rather have a traditional Spellforce game, or even more in the likes of "Sacrifice and Battlezone". I do welcome when franchises delve into different genres.
This should be the case with almost all franchises. For example, Fallout... a Fallout Racer would be dope.
(The Allfire triangle is straight from Master of Magic; it's not original to this game.)
Good that the spellforce series finally turned into TBS and is more close to Age of Wonders, now. However, only 3 wizard classes? Could be more. :) Do a warlock class with demons for a change.
There's 4 options, as there is a custom class so you get to mix and match and you can get demon units.
turn based......i think i played enough turn based last year. Spellforce is a wonderful game with cool lore.....sadly their marketing suck balls......it took me more than a decade to know it exist.
Any idea if the story is connected in anyway to the events in Soul Harvest/Fallen God?
From the timeline it should be after soul harvest and either abit before to way after fallen god cuz all the circle mages seem connected to the archfire already.
@sirnonsense5033 had to rush Fallen Gods to get to Conquest of Eo asap so i skipped some dialogues, but yes, you are right. If anyone else is curious, the timeline is approximately like this:
- Spelforce 3
- 3 years later, Soul Harvest
- 50 years later, Fallen Gods
- 50 years later, Conquest of Eo
*the number of years may be varying as they use decades for references*
Long story short, CoE takes place 100 years after The Circle was formed. Managed only to play a couple of hours but since CoE was not made by Grimlore Games, it has a different pov of the events.
If Age of Wonders 4 hadn't been announced, I would have taken it. But with Hogwarts Legacy around the corner and AoW4 3 months away, I don't see the point in purchasing a less appealing product.
Yeah. Pretty awful timing. I would absolutely have given this a chance if AoW4 wasn't just around the corner.
Said pretty much the same on another video.
why not both? Still have 2 months+ until AoW4 comes out
@@xbrandon hogwarts legacy comes out on 10th and i am currently on forspoken. Not sure will be much time left untill aow4.
@@CaitSith87 sorry to hear that you spent your money on that trashcan of a game.
i loved the first 3 spellforces but im not liking those mage classes and the turn-based combat, might have to skip this one... 😶🌫
spellforce combined with heroes of might and magic ? im in
Every aspect of this video screamed Age of Wonders 3. Is that an accurate comparison? Would this game be similar enough to AoW to hold one over until AoW4?
Is this like the Heroes of Might and Magic games, where you have to rush the board, otherwise you end up fighting against impossibly large opposing armies?
Looks like Civ except fun. I may have to pull the trigger on this one soon.
Maybe I missed it but what’s re the game modes? is it only a campaign, does it have skirmish maps like in HOMM? What’s the replayability?
thank you !
Looks dope, but I wish there was more than just spellcasters, but then again it's called Spellforce.
Appealing visuals, but pales in complexity and possibilities compared to Master of Magic, the true king of turn-based fantasy 4x games.
Looks interesting but don't like the fact they are reusing pretty much all the units of spellforce III without changing anything.
Looks interesting, probably a game for a steam sale.
Unfortunately, much like AoW, the models have no weight or substance. They look cartoony and have that light plastic feel that glows ridiculously when highligted. Enjoyed the proper Spellforce 3 RPG while the RTS never really worked out as it always just ended in a unit spamming grind. Probably pass on this but if you haven't played the Spellforce 3 RPG give it a whirl.
Not that I disagree about the models, but 3D models and animations are one of the hardest aspects of making games. In my experience, they almost always look a little off because there is generally a big amount of different creatures needed, and for a strategy title, that time is better spent elsewhere. Sid Meier's Civ as a flagship product probably has the highest quality models. Space games like Endless Space or Gal Civ can get off easier, because ships are simple and have almost no animations. I agree about the glow/highlighting. Amateur titles are usually too heavy-handed with specular and bloom. I tend to prefer edge highlighting, but that might look weird on a unit with multiple models which is most of them.
interestingly enough they are based on SF3 models...so not that different surely?
Maybe it's because these models are made for RTS?
Thank you
The analogies to Age of Wonders are pretty obvious, but I completely don't get this marketing "successor of Heroes of M&M" thing. This game has nothing to do with Heroes, has it?
Trying to become the strongest mage... Heavy combat heavy blunt weapons it is no army needed since game 1
Seems like it is trying to be like the great game Disciples
So, how much like Master of Magic is this?
This game was amazing
*Hi I have a question which do you think is better this game or SpellForce 3 Refoged?*
*Also are they all connected in story or no?*
game looks nice, aow3 looking batter and fantasy king aow4 very close..
Be aware, they took out multiplayer, so it's now single player only. HUGE letdown for me and my friends, but luckily, Age of Wonders 4 is here soon (WITH multiplayer of course) so we are waiting for that.
i prefer kings bounty 1 right now. but when this game is on sale maybe i will buy it too ^^.
its already pretty cheap and last Kings Bounty got pretttttty horrible reviews.
@@xbrandon the second one yes but the first one is absolutly great. buyed the whole edition for 5 euro
@@bmarbler ya i had a few KB games... armored princess and crossroads come to mind.
@@xbrandon i play crossroads right now. and after it warrior of the north. can t beliefe i passed this game.
Is it coming for consoles too?
do you have like one tower?
or do you have to manage multiple?
You have one that you fly around.
@@kristofh604 nice - do i have like one hero - or multiple - heroes of .... i was always bad - cause i just want to play with one hero - stacked will all my good units xD
@@toba5878 you can get multiple apprentices and heroes. You would need to hire atleast 2 apprentices for a important quest but you could fire the second one later. Tho they are kinda important to keep your campaign alive. The more good groups you have the better. And heroes and apprentices take no upkeep. So not using free tier 5 units would make the game on a relevant difficulty like hard or rather impossible (because the combat ai is really really dumb on the lower ones and thats kinda boring) pretty rough.
So its not really spellforce, its an offshoot... thing.
Yes
O hi Cas.
Are commas good do they matter who cares?
It's a real gem
Not a good entry for Spellforce world. Is identical to AoW3 but doesn`t look that good and is not optimized at all. I can run no problems aow planetfall but this game i had to play it on 720p and low settings.
So they just slapped the Spellforce name on a Heroes of Might and Magic.
It is a sidegrade, yes. Similar how Disciples: Liberation is just King's Bounty set in Disciples universe / IP.
Is this coop?
Heroes of Might & Magic is way better.
Me: Sees its not on console 😔
Tried it. Got into game. Started first battle, ended my turn and next turn.. Uff.. Felt bored, dull, silent game. Did not choose my next move or strike. Instead went for menu option, main menu, quit and then uninstalled this game. Really liked spellforce 1-3 but this.. This is not spellforce. Anyway.. Uninstalled and happy with my choise. Boring as hell this game is.
If it’s top down or a side scroller I just can’t get into it
On the good side, looks like Age of Wonders 3, a great game. On the bad side, looks lile Age of Wonder 3, a pretty old game, wit ha new game price. Oh well, might be a way to wait for Age of Wonders 4 later this year.
Combat looks dull, nothing new.
For a game called "spellforce", there sure doesn't seem to be any fun or devastating spells... Well, the RTS never had any incredible spells either.
It's a nice try to change the genre to turned based 4x but seems like there's a big lack of diplomacy, espionage, race selection, character development, ... I mean, they got the base to be an interesting game for new comers and fans of the serie but as far as 4x go, they seem to be pretty lacking.
Though, the game seems far better than the "remake" of Master of Magic.
I don't know how I really feel about this, maybe I'll pick up, most likely not since I'm waiting for AOW4 and meanwhile, I still have a bunch of great games to play in Planetfall.
Why does this even exist, Spellforce literally has zero competition to just create another clone of games that are already there makes no sense, now we have to wait years for another spellforce game while this dies off so fast
Yawn.. looks generic
Soooo, it's basically Age of Wonders. Gotcha. No idea why SPELLFORCE needed to be an entirely different genre now. The games worked well the way they were... so why turn it into something ultra generic and remove all that made Spellforce, well, Spellforce? ...
Generic? You mean the lore around it right?
Cause the whole Age of wonders series is fairly uncommon, unless I'm missing some major games you know about?
@@tobiasL1991 I'm not referring to the lore. I'm referring to the gameplay. AoW has a certain type of gameplay. Spellforce has its own unique kind of gameplay. Turning the gameplay of Spellforce into the gameplay of AoE feels pointless to me, because AoW already exists, while something like Spellforce doesn't. There's literally no other franchise that fills the RTS-RPG niche, so why turn the game into a "generic" 4X with tactical battles like AoW? That's what I mean. Doesn't mean the game won't be "good".
But it's like closing down an Egyptian restaurant in central Europe and turning it into yet another pizza place. The pizza can be great, but I can get pizza at 5 different locations in 10 meter radius. Maybe that makes it clearer. And maybe this new pizza hut offers very unique pizza you can't get anywhere else, but from the looks of it that doesn't really seem to be the case.
@@Diree Wait what I'm mainly asking is how you call a game like age of wonders generic, like what other game is like age of wonders? Like how many pizza age of wonders joints do you know?
Cause I find the age of wonder style quite rare actually. Should I be looking into older titles or something?
@@tobiasL1991 Endless Legend is similar. Maybe Master of Magic or Warlock. Civilization, perhaps, but the combat is different. Same for Gladius. Humankind might be similar. Fantasy General, perhaps? Maybe Thea the Awakening. And Fallen Enchantress. Also, AoW is getting another sequel this year ...
No game is exactly like AoW. For a good reason. If you want 4X gameplay and bigger tactical turn based battles in a fantasy setting, chances are you're gonna play AoW (Fallen Enchantress is really similar though, it's almost the same if I remember correctly, just not as good, imho), because there's no need for another game just like it. Just like companies try remaking Civ games (and keep failing for the most part) or sth like Sudden Strike.
@@Diree Ok, I see what you are saying, thanks for the reply! There are several games I simply don't know, thanks for sharing!
This felt way more like a press kit than a review. With AoW4 around the corner and Songs of Quest in EA I remain thoroughly unconvinced.
It's not a review.
@@Fextralife "Should you play it" seems like the sorta question a review would ask. But okay. I guess it's an ad then, or something?!
more like a clone of Planetfall than anything else
Ah yes, the classic THQ 4D chess move to milk a franchise , disregard the lore and everything good that made Spellforce unique
having been the producer on SF1 and SF2 and having been the dev on this one, I can confidently state we did not disregard the lore in the least. The game is a different genre, but still a blend of RPG and Strategy...just as a 4x.
@@janwagner4490 SF3 Lore is full of plotholes and nonesense. If this game has no relation to SF3 besides the clearly obvious maps and enviroments I'll change my mind.
Looks complicated....if they made such games more simple with less to do they could go mainstream.
Complicated wont make enough $
turn-based ? i hate them all. im off
no. noone should be wasting time on anything turn based.
king of the internet hath spoken. Hate to break it to you but turn based games are still extremely well ranking.
@@xbrandon They've had a huge revival in the last couple of years, in fact. It's a great time to be a turn-based enthusiast.
Noone is not a word. Stop wasting time commenting and use that time to learn basic English and punctuation.
@@clvrswine while I don't agree w/OP's point this is the internet ...not an english class. Even further its accessed by people who don't natively speak english.
Your comment is pointless and toxic.
I hear replayability is bad
A lazy cut down version of an existing RPG, no thanks.