 Let's start by asking ourselves what are the genres most associated with computer games. Let's see... There are three: action/shooters, strategy and RPG. What if I told you that there is a game that combines in a marvelous way both the strategy and RPG genre. It's name is SpellForce, and it was produced by the germans working at Phenomic. It's a game that achieved what others tried, mixing the RPG and strategy in one game. I don't say that it's the best one, but it's sure one of them. And this is why I'm going to tell you something about it. And for those that will have the will and courage to enter in his world, I say "May the SpellForce be with you, young gamers.".
The story is realized in the RPG style – the eternal battle between Good And Evil, but there is a special element, which was exploited to the maximum in SpellForce – the dependence of the whole story to the so-called “Ancient Runes” – magic stones. In the introductory movie we learn about the discovery of the Old Fire, the convocation of the “Circle of the Thirteen”, the bloody war that followed for the absolute power and the survival of two magicians – Rohen and the “Dark One”.
The action of the game starts eight years after the end of the war, at a Rune Monument, where the great magician Rohen brings to life a “Rune Warrior”, none other that the main character, a warrior which serves the Good, to which Rohen gives the rune that was used to create him and gives him this way the liberty to control his own destiny.
The story creates the idea that this warrior will also decide the fate of the world, but till there is a long way to go, a road full of surprises.
Like any other respectable RPG, SpellForce gives you the possibility of customizing the character by choosing from sixty possible skins and several attributes, but you can also begin with a pre-made character: Shadow Mage, Fire Warrior or Ranger.
At the beginning of the game, it is preferable to customize your character. You have to distribute twenty points to the seven statistics: strength, life, dexterity, agility, intelligence, wisdom and charisma. Like in few RPG, there are also a few characteristics like the weapon speed, casting and recasting time, elemental resistance … so, when you level up, you can increase the statistics, your specialty and also choose new specialties.  So you can be a powerful magician, a mighty warrior or between them. Anyway, you have to be something to be feared by your enemies.
There are the bindstones, some kind of magical stones who have two properties: they are used for auto saving and also for transportation. Detailing a bit, in every map there are a couple of bindstones. When you activate them, you can teleport between the already activated bindstones, thus providing you with a faster mean of transportation. Still, there is a catch: when you teleport on different maps, you lose all you gathered. When you die, there are two possibilities: you can respawn at the last activated bindstone and lose some of your experience and you can also load your last save. But sometimes that happened long time ago, so what to do?
There are two types of runes and also two types of monuments: race monument and hero monument, so at the first one you can create the peasants and troops of that race, at the other you can create your rune warriors.  The races that you will encounter in SF are: humans, elves, dwarfs, orcs, trolls and dark elves.
The rune that creates the units has a certain level, so the higher the level is, the better the units are, gaining more health, speed or, for the heroes, a higher experience level, more specialties, magic and abilities.
The first units that you can create at a monument are the peasants, which can collect resources available to all races: wood, stone, iron and food, and also the magical ones : lenya, aria and moonsilver. Every building can host up to five workers that become artisans. You can construct buildings that double some of your materials income so you can do it. The bad thing is that some of the workers do not work when the resources tend to become low, but in the right-up corner there is an icon that allows you to select the ones that stay and send them back to work. Of course, that doesn't mean that the artisans that stay can be selected with these method. When the base is big it is very useful. The food is a very important resource because with it you can increase the number of workers and troops, up to eighty troops and fifty workers.
After you had gathered some resources it’s time to make an army, because life’s not easy, and the enemy is always watching. Therefore, you have to construct military buildings, then military troops, easy and heavy infantry, healers and mages. The stronger the troops created, the more resources you need for creating them. You can increase some of your troops’ abilities, but this costs resources, sometimes quite many. But it’s worth it because now your troops will be better armed or armored or even have more and better spells. |
