God I wish I could play this for the first time again. Nothing else compares to that mystical feeling this game gave me, that atmosphere of the different maps, the thunder sound in the swamps, the cute elf priestesses in skimpy outfits, the wonderful soundtrack, that whole otherworldly vibe that so perfectly captured what fantasy is truly about.
Love this game so much, thank you for covering it. Also a point for the voice acting: The original developer studio is German, and they didn't really expect to sell the game anywhere outside of Germany, so the German voice acting is actually really good, while the others are... as you've experienced.
I played this game as a kid all the time, loved it. Returned to it as an adult to play it through multiple times, I still love it, but the game lacks polish. There's so many typos in the characters' dialogs and quest text, so many unclear quests, a lot of quests are buggy and their progression is badly set up. Not to mention the occasional blackscreens when playing some of the later maps. The RPG elements are lackluster, the only viable build is heavy combat arts. Magic is brutally underpowered and needs constant management, which makes the game extremely repetitive and close to impossible when played as a mage character. It would benefit so much from a simple auto-cast option. I'm surprised this fusion of genres hasn't taken off more, I find it the perfect marriage. I believe it could be such a wonderful game if it was made today with a little more thought. For anyone looking for something similar, Dragon Age: Inquisition comes pretty close imo.
some of your criticisms are fair but some are just plain wrong. For instance, SOME magic is underpowered (all of mind magic, earth school of elemental magic, nature school of white magic) but some is really strong and arguably stronger than heavy combat arts. My favorite and most played build is Ice (Elemental magic) + Boons (White Magic) + whatever from either Elemental or White magic. It's an undefeatable build: ice has both damage and excellent CC properties - enemies will hardly ever touch you if you have enough mana. And Boons has both the QoL spells (like Aura of Fast Walking - helps a lot due to the huge Spellforce maps) and anti-undead spells (like Hallow and Aura of Light). And the third school can be either Fire for higher damage output or Life - to heal yourself and your troops, doesn't really matter which one to pick, the core is Ice + Boons, an OP build. but things like Mind magic and mentalist builds really are lacking, thats for sure. Mind magic works better against enemies with higher intelligence but most of SF mobs are thick skulled morons, they dont care none for no mental tricks, so the mind magic ends up being weak most of the time.
@@hoarder1919 I'm gonna have to give it a try for one last playthrough. :D That's still pretty narrow when it comes to magic. An RPG should have a wide variety of viable builds and magic/melee types. Your point also only applies to the main character, not the Rune Servants that always get the weirdest most lackluster combinations of talents and spells with no customization available. To add to that, controlling paperweight heroes that can't do anything by themselves isn't really fun.
@@michalsvihla1403 I recommend mods for delete requirements to upgrade talents. It allows to make hybrid without spending points in useless stats like charisma or even agility
4:11 lol this is true. 9:14 Also true, which is why I play this game exclusively in German language. The Phenomic Game Development studio is German, so the German voiceacting is better by MILES than this English trash lol. EDIT: I continued to watch for a bit after the first 10 minutes, but stopped thereafter and skipped right to the 1:55:58 Retrospecin Time section of the video. I didn't expect this to be a guide on how to beat the game, and I found that too much. Your video is titled "Was SF the perfect RTS/RPG Hybrid?", not "Extensive SF Guide and how to clear each map". I had hoped for a more in-depth conclusion. The playthrough part should have been a separate video.
Thansk for the video man. I loved this game as i child, and tho even if i finished it, dont remember everything that happens. Like i never finished the quest with amra and the shadow one. ( And now im too lazy to start again). I think is one of the best videogames i ever played. Especially for how complex the story line is.
God I wish I could play this for the first time again. Nothing else compares to that mystical feeling this game gave me, that atmosphere of the different maps, the thunder sound in the swamps, the cute elf priestesses in skimpy outfits, the wonderful soundtrack, that whole otherworldly vibe that so perfectly captured what fantasy is truly about.
One of the best games ever. Flawless design.
Love this game so much, thank you for covering it.
Also a point for the voice acting: The original developer studio is German, and they didn't really expect to sell the game anywhere outside of Germany, so the German voice acting is actually really good, while the others are... as you've experienced.
Yes, it was! I play it at least once in 2 years 😊
Музыка красивая, вспоминаю ночи когда играл почти до утра) эта игра как первая любовь со мной наверное до конца.
Damn, a Spellforce video in 2024?
What a classic. guess I'm replaying it now.
Yeah it was better, much better than Warcraft which was an excellent RTS but didn’t deliver what was promised in terms of mixing RPG with strategy.
Yes it was and still is.
I played this game as a kid all the time, loved it. Returned to it as an adult to play it through multiple times, I still love it, but the game lacks polish. There's so many typos in the characters' dialogs and quest text, so many unclear quests, a lot of quests are buggy and their progression is badly set up. Not to mention the occasional blackscreens when playing some of the later maps. The RPG elements are lackluster, the only viable build is heavy combat arts. Magic is brutally underpowered and needs constant management, which makes the game extremely repetitive and close to impossible when played as a mage character. It would benefit so much from a simple auto-cast option.
I'm surprised this fusion of genres hasn't taken off more, I find it the perfect marriage. I believe it could be such a wonderful game if it was made today with a little more thought. For anyone looking for something similar, Dragon Age: Inquisition comes pretty close imo.
some of your criticisms are fair but some are just plain wrong. For instance, SOME magic is underpowered (all of mind magic, earth school of elemental magic, nature school of white magic) but some is really strong and arguably stronger than heavy combat arts. My favorite and most played build is Ice (Elemental magic) + Boons (White Magic) + whatever from either Elemental or White magic. It's an undefeatable build: ice has both damage and excellent CC properties - enemies will hardly ever touch you if you have enough mana. And Boons has both the QoL spells (like Aura of Fast Walking - helps a lot due to the huge Spellforce maps) and anti-undead spells (like Hallow and Aura of Light). And the third school can be either Fire for higher damage output or Life - to heal yourself and your troops, doesn't really matter which one to pick, the core is Ice + Boons, an OP build.
but things like Mind magic and mentalist builds really are lacking, thats for sure. Mind magic works better against enemies with higher intelligence but most of SF mobs are thick skulled morons, they dont care none for no mental tricks, so the mind magic ends up being weak most of the time.
@@hoarder1919 I'm gonna have to give it a try for one last playthrough. :D
That's still pretty narrow when it comes to magic. An RPG should have a wide variety of viable builds and magic/melee types. Your point also only applies to the main character, not the Rune Servants that always get the weirdest most lackluster combinations of talents and spells with no customization available. To add to that, controlling paperweight heroes that can't do anything by themselves isn't really fun.
@@michalsvihla1403 can't argue with that, no idea why rune people get the weirdest unusable combinations.
@@michalsvihla1403 I recommend mods for delete requirements to upgrade talents. It allows to make hybrid without spending points in useless stats like charisma or even agility
@@wookieleniu Sounds interesting, where can I get those?
4:11 lol this is true. 9:14 Also true, which is why I play this game exclusively in German language. The Phenomic Game Development studio is German, so the German voiceacting is better by MILES than this English trash lol.
EDIT: I continued to watch for a bit after the first 10 minutes, but stopped thereafter and skipped right to the 1:55:58 Retrospecin Time section of the video. I didn't expect this to be a guide on how to beat the game, and I found that too much. Your video is titled "Was SF the perfect RTS/RPG Hybrid?", not "Extensive SF Guide and how to clear each map". I had hoped for a more in-depth conclusion. The playthrough part should have been a separate video.
Thansk for the video man.
I loved this game as i child, and tho even if i finished it, dont remember everything that happens. Like i never finished the quest with amra and the shadow one. ( And now im too lazy to start again).
I think is one of the best videogames i ever played. Especially for how complex the story line is.
Yeah, for a game that originally released in 2003, this game was absolutely 100% underrated. There were so many builds you could do. Glad you enjoyed!