Spellforce: The Order of Dawn
Score: 65% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Encore Developer: Encore Media: CD/1 Players: 1 - 8 Genre: Real-Time Strategy/ RPG
Graphics & Sound: The graphics in Spellforce: The Order of Dawn are good and feature about the same level of detail as Warcraft 3 or Age of Mythology. The environments are big, colorful, and detailed. Character models all have their own animations and it is always fun to sit and watch each worker do his/her own thing depending on the job assigned. Since this is the first RPG/ Real-time Strategy game, your avatar is shown with every piece of weapon and armor equipped. However, I was not particularly impressed with the character head choices used. The music is epic and sweeping, and was probably inspired by the Lord of the Rings (that's what I heard anyway). The only problem I had with the 'epicness' of the music was the fact that every time I got in the littlest skirmish, a sweeping battle soundtrack would arise. This can really get old once you finally get to your epic battle. The sound effects are good, and you can hear clangs and bangs all over the battlefield when armies collide. The real problem with the sound are the absolutely horrible voices for the characters. Remember the old Godzilla movies where the voiceovers would all be done really fast? Like: 'ohgodzillaiscomingwemustrunnow'? Well, it is the same thing here. Everything is done in monotone voices with no emotions. It's hard to immerse yourself in the game when all the people sound like cardboard.
Gameplay: Eh. Just Eh. Its good in several aspects, but it also fails in several more. Spellforce: Order of Dawn is the first ever HBRTS or Hero-based Real-time Strategy game. This means that you create a character like you were in an RPG, and then you use the character that you create to lead armies and crush foes. This is very well done. Your character can have a variety of skills and abilities, from light-handed weapons to bows, to all the different kinds of magic. In addition, loot that you pick up along your journey can normally be equipped by this avatar, allowing for plenty of customization. The RTS side of it is good as well. You can take over 'Rune monuments' which are basically your headquarters and barracks where all the unit production is done. Unfortunately, you cannot use these units until you gather the 'unit plans' and 'building plans.' These are basically scrolls that your avatar 'equips' and can then make those types of units. Each of the six races is very different and each have their own strengths and weaknesses, which always helps to vary the gameplay. Spellforce suffers from a great many problems. The scenarios are very epic indeed, but it also takes hours and hours to finish one. The gathering of resources is never particularly fast, so you are stuck waiting around to build up your army. Even worse is when the resources start to become scarce. They do regenerate over time, but not nearly fast enough. This resource management would not normally be a problem, such as in Age of Mythology, where it was handled very well. So what's the problem? The length of each scenario lends itself to two hours or more, and normally you are trying to defeat multiple enemies in the same scenario. Normally, your first big attack will be repelled at some point or another, which means that you've got to go back to your base and wait for resources to replenish to continue your campaign. There were several times in the first few missions where I just set up a few guard towers and left the computer to go do something else while my resources replenished. ANY game where the player is inclined to leave the computer is just not that good.
Difficulty: The RPG sections, where you are only controlling your avatar, are very easy. You're avatar can pretty much take out anything one-on-one as long as he/she is leveled up properly. The real difficulty comes in the RTS parts. One such difficulty is the unit A.I. (which will be discussed later) and another difficulty is the management of units and resources, which are found in just about every RTS. Actually using some form of strategy lessens the difficulty tremendously.
Game Mechanics: The controls are pretty standard for a RTS and a RPG. You click and they move, or click on an enemy and they attack. The camera can be changed from a top-down view to a third-person view and everything in between. It's neat to see all of your troops up close and personal, but it's very hard to see the battlefield from that perspective. Since it does not help you strategically, its a useless feature in the game. It's also hard to control all of your troops when a gigantic battle is happening from this view. The one thing that really lowers the score for this game is the pathetic unit A.I. At one point, a group of my own units, whom I commanded to 'stay put', decided to chase after a certain target. They chased this target until they were about half way into the enemy base, and then decided to return to the point in which I told them to stay in the first place, forcing the entire enemy force onto my position. That is inexcusable, as far as I'm concerned. If you don't mind micro-managing groups of units, then it won't be a problem. But when I tell something to stay put, I mean for it to stay, not run. Spellforce: The Order of Dawn is an experiment as much as it is a game. Certain things came out really well and other things didn't. If you are the type of player that likes micro-managing armies and building up stats and skills then this might be the game for you. If you are the type of gamer who is looking for deep gameplay, with plenty of choices and role-playing decisions, then look elsewhere. And, if you're looking for new Godzilla voiceovers, buy this game without hesitation.
-Vaxeks, GameVortex Communications AKA Joshua Benedetto
Minimum System Requirements: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, Pentium 3 1Ghz, 256 MB ram, 16x CD Rom, DirectX 9.0a, 32 MB video card, 2 GB free space.   Test System: Windows XP, AMD Athlon 3200, 512 Ram, DVD Rom, Directx 9.0b, 128 MB video card, 120 Gig Hard Drive.
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