Misplaced Pages

#583416

66-434: The games take place on a planet called Eo, a high fantasy world ruled by near-immortal mages (collectively known as The Circle) and inhabited by various sapient races, such as humans, dwarves, (dark) elves, orcs and trolls. The mages used servants called rune warriors, summoned from magical monuments, to keep peace. Several years before the start of the first game in the series, the mages discovered an ancient text describing

132-493: A building. Controlled sectors must be next to each other, otherwise resources will not be shared. Because the number of workers is limited for each sector and the number and level of outposts also determines the number of units the player can make, expansion is required to build, harvest resources and create more units. All army units have strengths and weaknesses, meaning they are stronger when fighting certain enemies and more susceptible to damage from others. Players can choose

198-500: A character they created and up to three companions, each with different abilities. Like many role-playing games, these characters can be customized by equipping them with different items such as weapons, armor and jewelry which influence their various abilities and effectiveness in battle. Some maps require players to construct a base of operations and specialized buildings to gather resources and recruit units to defeat larger groups of enemies or fulfill certain tasks. The game features

264-417: A character's abilities directly, such as increasing damage dealt with a certain weapon or heightened health regeneration. Skills are grouped into "skill trees", requiring players to unlock certain skills first before others. All skills can be upgraded once or twice, with the base skill of each tree having eight possible upgrades. Each companion has a special powerful skill that can only be unlocked by completing

330-758: A day. Within two weeks of release, the developers had issued 21 patches. On 9 February 2018, THQ Nordic released a level editor and modding tools that allow players to create new maps, quests and campaigns (including MOBA -style maps) with plans to support sharing user-generated content through the Steam Workshop . On 19 December 2018, THQ Nordic announced a standalone downloadable expansion entitled SpellForce 3: Soul Harvest. Soul Harvest reintroduced dwarves and dark elves as playable races, both of which were featured in previous games but missing in SpellForce 3 , adding new units including flying units as well as

396-451: A deep concern with moral issues; in other works, the conflict is a power struggle, with, for instance, wizards behaving irresponsibly whether they are "good" or "evil". Role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons with campaign settings like Dragonlance by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis and Forgotten Realms by Ed Greenwood are a common basis for many fantasy books and many other authors continue to contribute to

462-402: A free multiplayer-only version called SpellForce 3: Versus. On 6 December 2021, an upgraded version of the original, SpellForce 3 Reforced was released for Microsoft Windows, and was released for PlayStation 4 , PlayStation 5 , Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on 7 June 2022. SpellForce 3 is a role-playing video game with real-time strategy game elements. Usually, players control

528-425: A new 20-hour single-player campaign. Additionally, the expansion contains new game modes and overhauls some major aspects of the gameplay. Soul Harvest removes resource transports and optimizes the interface and adds more races, classes and skills for heroes as well as more varied races. Changes were made available for all players of the main game in multiplayer when Soul Harvest was released with plans to upgrade

594-831: A new entry in the SpellForce series was in development in September 2013, while announcing the release date for SpellForce 2: Demons of the Past , the third expansion for SpellForce 2 . Development began at the start of 2014 at the gaming studio Grimlore Games , which THQ Nordic established in Munich in 2013. It was Grimlore Games' first game, although the studio consisted of a number of experienced programmers, designers and graphic artists, who worked on titles like The Settlers II , Knights and Merchants: The Shattered Kingdom and SpellForce 2 . THQ Nordic previewed SpellForce 3 with screenshots at Gamescom 2014 and 2015, sparking interest in

660-531: A prequel to the first game ( SpellForce: The Order of Dawn ), depicting events that lead to the creation of The Circle, the group of mages whose actions were the basis for The Order of Dawn . The game combines role-playing and real-time strategy elements like previous games in the series . Players control a mage called Tahar and a group of supporting characters with different backstories and abilities. Like many role-playing games, characters can equip various items such as armor, weapons and jewelry that influence

726-436: A race to control when entering a map with real-time strategy elements. There are three races to choose from: elves, humans and orcs, down from six in the first game and nine (bundled in three factions) in the second game. Elves favor defense, including strong buildings and outposts that can defend themselves. Orcs favor fast expansion and brute force. Humans favor defense and offense equally. Advanced units and buildings require

SECTION 10

#1732859334584

792-409: A side quest. Spells and auras must be "equipped" before they can be used in battle. Players are limited to three spells and/or auras, and must strategically choose which spells or auras to equip. Skills are depicted as pictograms below each character's portrait in the upper left corner of the screen and can be accessed by clicking on them. The game displays potions and equipped items in a slot next to

858-432: A single scenario as a campaign demo. An upgraded version entitled SpellForce 3: Reforced was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 , PlayStation 5 , Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S four years after the release of SpellForce 3 on 6 December 2021. Reforced was made available for free to buyers of the original version of SpellForce 3 . Reforced includes new game modes: Journey Mode allows players to play

924-448: A so-called "complete collection". The name was quickly invalidated by the scenario DLCs which it was missing, years before the release of the more obvious contradiction Demons of the Past. SpellForce 2: Demons of the Past is an expansion to SpellForce 2. SpellForce Complete was released 4 December 2015 and, unlike the previously released Complete Collection , did include the Demons of

990-474: A story-driven campaign and a skirmish mode which allows players to fight battles on the game's maps without previously playing through the campaign mode. Both modes can be played alone or with other players online. In skirmish mode, players can share responsibilities of managing a single race with others. Players can create their own character in campaign mode, customizing appearance and gender. They can also choose three different skill trees , depending on

1056-400: Is a subgenre of fantasy defined by the epic nature of its setting or by the epic stature of its characters , themes , or plot . High fantasy is usually set in an alternative, fictional ("secondary") world , rather than the "real" or "primary" world. This secondary world is usually internally consistent, but its rules differ from those of the primary world. By contrast, low fantasy

1122-467: Is a traitor. After defeating Noria in battle, they discover that the source of the plague is a Shaper woman, who is also Tahar's mother. In an act of betrayal, Lacaine steals her essence, seals it in an amulet and leaves Tahar to die. Several weeks later, Tahar awakens in Mulandir to find Lacaine has taken control of Greykeep and is marching on Mulandir. After driving back Lacaine's forces, Tahar, now aided by

1188-407: Is an orphan or unusual sibling, and frequently portrayed with an extraordinary talent for magic or combat. They begin the story young, if not as an actual child, or are portrayed as being very weak and/or useless. The hero often begins as a childlike figure, but matures rapidly, experiencing a considerable gain in fighting/problem-solving abilities along the way. The progress of the story leads to

1254-575: Is characterized by being set on Earth, the primary or real world, or a rational and familiar fictional world with the inclusion of magical elements. The romances of William Morris , such as The Well at the World's End , set in an imaginary medieval world, are sometimes regarded as the first examples of high fantasy. The works of J. R. R. Tolkien —especially The Lord of the Rings —are regarded as archetypal works of high fantasy . The term "high fantasy"

1320-745: Is incarcerated beneath the Keep where they befriend Yria, an elven light magic user. The Purity of Light's leader, Rondar Lacaine, asks for their help to stop the Bloodburn and gives them runes that allow them to use the Godstones. He tasks them to travel to Farlon's Hope to find Isgrimm, a dwarven archaeologist looking for Mulandir, the lost city of the Shapers. The Shapers were an extinct race that ruled Eo with their advanced technology and magic millennia ago. Tahar and Yria find Isgrimm and Mulandir where Isgrimm determines that

1386-491: Is not considered to include the sword and sorcery genre. High fantasy has often been defined by its themes and messages. " Good versus evil " is a common one in high fantasy, and defining the character of evil is often an important theme in a work of high fantasy, such as The Lord of the Rings . The importance of the concept of good and evil can be regarded as the distinguishing mark between high fantasy and sword and sorcery. In many works of high fantasy, this conflict marks

SECTION 20

#1732859334584

1452-513: Is the first game of the franchise, developed by Phenomic . It was first published by JoWooD in Europe on November 28, 2003 and by Encore Software in North America on February 11, 2004 . On March 1, 2004 , JoWooD announced the first SpellForce expansion pack named SpellForce: The Breath of Winter . The expansion pack features over 40 hours of new single player campaign gameplay. Shadow of

1518-412: Is the last add-on for SpellForce 3 . Versus is a stand-alone free-to-play version of SpellForce 3 which includes multiplayer mode and a single-map scenario. Players choose one of the main game's three races, humans, elves or orcs, at account creation and can only use that race in the free version of the game. Versus offers skirmishes against the computer AI and ranked multiplayer matches but only

1584-549: Is the second major installment in the SpellForce series. SpellForce 2: Dragon Storm is an expansion to SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars and was released in 2007. "SpellForce 2 - Anniversary Edition" was released 29 October 2009. It included the first two parts: Shadow Wars and Dragon Storm. It does not include Faith in Destiny or Demons of the Past. "SpellForce - Platinum Edition" was released 3 November 2009. It contains all three of

1650-629: Is then saved to the hero and available on the next map they choose. Journey Mode maps also contain quests that carry over between maps as well as fully voiced dialogue for the hero and various non-player characters. Arena Mode pits players against ever-increasing hordes of enemy units. Reforced also bring mechanics and designs introduced in the expansions to the base game as well as improvements to graphics, artificial intelligence and loot distribution. SpellForce 3 garnered "mixed or average reviews" from critics according to review aggregator Metacritic , based on 37 reviews for Windows. Critics lauded

1716-553: The Convocation: a dangerous, but supposedly power-granting ritual. They started fighting amongst themselves, rune warriors being their main weapons of war. When the planets and stars aligned, enabling the start of the ritual, each of the 13 of the most powerful mages performed the ritual; however, unable to control the power, the world was shattered. Where once stood great continents of Fiara, Urgath and Xu, now only small pieces of land remain, centered around magical towers created by Aonir,

1782-596: The Lord Marshall, travels to strengthen their union. After rescuing Angar's sister, the Lady Myriah Ultran, from Lacaine's mind control, they seek an alliance of the remaining noble houses. Lacaine amasses his combined forces in The Golden Road, a region near Greykeep. Tahar's allied forces defeat Lacaine and march on Greykeep, defeating Lacaine's lieutenants and a brainwashed Betrand. They find Lacaine trying to use

1848-455: The Past expansion. The name still became outdated in 2017 since it does not include the SpellForce 3 series. Despite this, it's still sold under the misleading name by some companies. It includes the contents of "SpellForce - Platinum Edition" combined with "SpellForce 2 - Anniversary Edition" as well as the two SpellForce 2 games missing from the Anniversary edition - Faith in Destiny (including

1914-538: The Phoenix was released on November 12, 2004 . The expansion pack continues the storyline from The Order of Dawn and The Breath of Winter and enables the player to continue playing with a previous game character by raising the character's level limit to 50. The pack also includes upgrades for the game's Titan units. SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars is a 2006 real-time strategy and role-playing video game, developed by Phenomic and published by JoWooD Productions . It

1980-549: The Star God. The first game in the series begins with a reappearance of one of the Circle mages: Rohen. He summons a Rune warrior (the protagonist) to save the world. The role-playing game aspects of SpellForce games parallel games such as Diablo , Diablo II , and Sacred in character development, skill trees, equipment customization, and top-down isometric viewing . However, the capacity to control multiple heroes often makes

2046-478: The campaign, a number of other characters (companions) can be recruited . All characters gain experience points by killing enemies and completing quests, regardless of whether they were involved in combat or the quest. Experience points allow players to unlock improvements for their character and companions, such as learning new skills, improving attributes and unlocking advanced equipment. The game uses an isometric perspective that players can rotate to display

SpellForce - Misplaced Pages Continue

2112-540: The character's abilities and traits. Many maps allow players to construct buildings and gather resources to create additional units with fixed abilities. The game features an extensive campaign that can be played by a single player or two players. It also includes a skirmish mode allowing players to battle against the AI or other players, independently of the campaign. Two standalone expansions were released for SpellForce 3 , Soul Harvest (2018) and Fallen God (2020), as well as

2178-405: The character's learning the nature of the unknown forces against them, that they constitute a force with great power and malevolence. The villains in such stories are usually completely evil and unrelatable. "High fantasy" often serves as a broad term to include a number of different flavors of the fantasy genre, including epic fantasy , mythic fantasy, dark fantasy , and wuxia . It typically

2244-416: The chosen fighting style. All player-created characters have a fourth skill tree called "Leadership" which contains skills related to the real-time strategy parts of the game. Each character has five attributes (strength, dexterity, intelligence, willpower and constitution) which influence what weapons, armor and items they can use as well their health, focus, damage, block and critical strike chances. During

2310-698: The city's Nexus, a powerful energy source and source of Shaper knowledge, might help determine the cause of the Bloodburn. Outbreaks of the plague occur after a Shaper song is heard. Tahar establishes a base of operations in Mulandir and convinces the Mohir Elves, the human Wayfarers and the Orcish Firewielder tribe to help find a cure. They locate the Bloodburn's source inside Isamo's old laboratory in The Eye. Joined by Lacaine, Tahar travels to their father's old laboratory where they fight Noria's forces, who believe Tahar

2376-470: The crown (known as the Mage Wars). General Sentenza Noria, tasked by the queen of Nortander with eliminating Isamo, travels with his companions – siblings Anselm and Gwen and young Betrand – to Isamo's hideout in The Eye. Upon arrival at Isamo's laboratory, they learn that his child tried to betray him and is about to be executed. Noria saves the child, but Gwen dies and Isamo escapes. Noria takes Isamo's child to

2442-570: The digital extras and 3 scenarios) and Demons of the Past. SpellForce 3 , the third and latest major entry in the series, was released in December 2017. The game was developed by Grimlore Games and published by THQ Nordic . The story of SpellForce 3 takes place before the events of The Order of Dawn in the fantasy world of Eo. The first glimpses of the game were seen during Gamescom 2014 in Germany, where Nordic Games first released gameplay of

2508-499: The environment. Depending on the map, players control a single character or a group. The mouse, along with hotkeys , can be used for actions such as selecting enemies to attack or skills to use. Alternatively, selecting an enemy and holding a certain key will slow down the game and shows a wheel of possible skills to use on the unit. The skill-wheel was added for the first time in the SpellForce series in SpellForce 3 and allows players to quickly select and perform an action. Both

2574-414: The essence he stole to summon Aonir, but instead summoning a beast from another world. Tahar defeats Lacaine and the beast, but Angar dies. Shortly afterwards, the queen wakes from her coma. She proposes a committee of mages called The Circle which she invites all of Tahar's companions to join. Tahar's future is left unclear but Yria mentions several things that still need to be done. The SpellForce series

2640-405: The first game as the mages of The Circle. Among them are Yria, an elven white mage; Isgrimm, a dwarven archaeologist; Rohen Tahir, a human mage and former follower of Isamo; Uram, a demon summoner; Ianna, an assassin; Undergast, a mage who is able to wield both light and dark magic; and Gor, an orcish shaman and chieftain. Isamo Tahar, a powerful mage, has started a rebellion of fellow mages against

2706-497: The game alone or in co-op mode on skirmish maps but also features a campaign system. Unlike in regular free play, players can create a Journey hero which will be the same for all these maps and which can be customized from the races and skill trees from the base game as well as the expansions. Player can play official Journey Mode maps (called "Contracts") but also player-made maps or skirmish maps that are Journey Mode compatible in order to level up their hero and gain new equipment that

SpellForce - Misplaced Pages Continue

2772-402: The game from trade magazines. The first hands-on preview was shown at Gamescom 2016 where multiple features were demonstrated. Although THQ Nordic announced SpellForce 3 would be released in 2016, the release date was later changed to 7 December 2017, a year later than originally planned. The developer released patches to address most issues, at one point releasing patches multiple times

2838-420: The game's voice acting , with Wccftech opining that the voice actors were not skilled enough and at least one voice actor was miscast to the point of distraction. It was also noted the written dialog does not match the speech in several places. Conversely, other reviewers lauded the voice acting, especially of the main characters. Eurogamer drew another parallel to The Witcher series, noting Doug Cockle ,

2904-503: The game, as reported by German online magazine PCGames.de . SpellForce 3: Soul Harvest is a standalone expansion released on 28 May 2019. SpellForce 3: Fallen God is a standalone expansion released on 3 November 2020. SpellForce 3: Versus Edition is a free-to-play version, released simultaneously with the Fallen God expansion. Much like Blizzard's free version of Starcraft 2, it allowed online multiplayer while excluding

2970-899: The gameplay comparable to that in the Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights video games. The real time strategy aspects of SpellForce games mirror the Warcraft fantasy real time strategy games. These include the ability to control several separate factions such as "The Realm" (humans, elves and dwarves), "The Pact" (dark elves, gargoyles and shadows), and "The Clans" (orcs, trolls and barbarians). Each faction has its own individual troop and building types. SpellForce games have several game modes, including campaign mode (expositional), skirmish mode (real time strategy based), and free play (similar to campaign mode but without an overarching plot). SpellForce can also be played cooperatively or competitively in multiplayer mode. SpellForce: The Order of Dawn

3036-623: The mages, an action tolerated by the queen's Lord Marshall Angar. Isamo's child (called Tahar) is now a corporal in the Wolf Guard, serving alongside Betrand in Greykeep. When the Bloodburn, a mysterious plague, ravages the kingdom and kills non-mages randomly, they travel to Liannon to discover the Bloodburn is magical in nature. While trying to stop Noria destroying the town, Tahar is attacked by Anselm, who blames Tahar for his sister Gwen's death and they kill Anselm in self-defense. Sentenced to death, Tahar

3102-422: The main character and companions have magical talents ("skills") which come in three forms: spells , auras and passive. Spells must be activated and sometimes targeted. They allow players to focus a positive or negative effect, e.g. healing a group of friendly units or damaging a certain enemy. Auras have a positive effect on nearby friendly units or a negative effect on nearby enemy units. Passive skills improve

3168-423: The main game's campaign later as well. Soul Harvest was released on 28 May 2019. On 3 November 2020, THQ Nordic released the second standalone downloadable expansion entitled SpellForce 3: Fallen God . This expansion reintroduces the troll race with its own campaign, adding another 20 hours of gameplay. Fallen God takes place about 50 years after the events of the main game and does not require knowledge of

3234-434: The main game's story. Unlike other playable races, the troll race uses a tiered approach to unit creation, requiring players to create basic units which can either be used as normal front line fighters or trained to fulfill different roles (melee fighter, ranged fighter, magic user). In addition, trolls can recycle gear for heroes of other races to improve the gear used by the troll heroes. According to THQ Nordic, Fallen God

3300-455: The number of bugs severe enough to deduct 15 points (out of 100) from their score of 82. The magazine later updated the score to 77/100 after most bugs were fixed and later upgraded the score to 84 upon release of the Reforced edition. Both Gamestar and fellow German trade publication PC Games , which did not review the game until version 1.21 had been released, advised players to wait until

3366-613: The offline single-player campaign missions. SpellForce 3: Reforced is an upgraded version of SpellForce 3 . On 6 December 2021, the version was officially released and made available as a free upgrade to owners of the original version. Spellforce: Conquest of Eo , a turn-based strategy role-playing game developed by Owned by Gravity and published by THQ Nordic , was officially released on February 3 2023. It received "generally favorable reviews" according to review aggregator Metacritic , based on 11 reviews for Windows. High fantasy High fantasy , or epic fantasy ,

SECTION 50

#1732859334584

3432-561: The parts: The Order of Dawn, The Breath of Winter and Shadow of the Phoenix. The "Digital Extras" were released 19 June 2012 along with the core game. Three scenario DLCs were released: The "Faith in Destiny Scenario Bundle" was sold 17 December 2012 in advance of the second and third, gaining access to their impending release. In October 2012 (following the June 2012 release of Faith in Destiny, part 3 of SpellForce 2) Nordic released

3498-539: The player character and companions. Maps that allow the player to control an army are separated into sectors. The main character or a companion are required to create outposts to expand their territory. This concept was made popular in Z . Resources are limited in each sector and transported by automatic horse carriages between several sectors. The carriages can be attacked by enemies. Unlike in most real-time strategy games, workers are limited in each sector and cannot be controlled directly; instead, they are assigned to

3564-476: The player to find blueprints or buy them from merchants. SpellForce 3 is set in a fictional fantasy world called Eo, 500 years before events in SpellForce: The Order of Dawn . Several races such as humans, elves, orcs and dwarves co-exist and magic is an important part of life. The player controls Tahar, the child of Isamo Tahar. Tahar quests alongside a number of characters that were mentioned in

3630-501: The queen, who grants them amnesty and allows them to train as a Wolf Guard. Eight years later the Mage Wars are over. At some point during the wars, Isamo was killed in an assault on Greykeep castle. A cult called the Purity of Light appears, spurred on by public resentment of the mages. The Purity preaches that Aonir, the god of gods, will return when magic use is banished. The cult persecutes

3696-401: The real-time strategy parts were weak on their own. Conversely, some reviewers noted that by trying to be two games at once, SpellForce 3 failed to be outstanding in either category. The game's multiplayer was considered by some, such as Eurogamer, as decent but unspectacular. Rock, Paper, Shotgun expressed surprise that the multiplayer worked so well despite the missing context of

3762-615: The series did. GameSpot criticized the amount of detail, which caused slow loading times and overwhelmed the player, making it hard to notice certain important elements. The soundtrack of SpellForce 3 was considered to fit well and helped to create the game's atmosphere. Opinions on the sound effects were mixed. While some critics emphasized they helped establish a great ambience, others considered them sub-par, highlighting (among other reasons) that combat sounds don't exactly match displayed combat and some effects feel generic, out of place and repetitive. Reviewers were also divided over

3828-463: The settings. SpellForce 3 SpellForce 3 is a 2017 video game developed by Grimlore Games and published by THQ Nordic . It was released for Microsoft Windows on 7 December 2017. SpellForce 3 is the third full and the ninth overall release in the SpellForce video game series . It is the first entry in the series since 2014's SpellForce 2: Demons of the Past . The plot serves as

3894-433: The single player campaign and associated quests. A major criticism was the game's technical issues on release. Critics likened the release to a beta version and pointed out various bugs, such as missing triggers for missions and broken quests, leave players unable to progress in the game. Further criticism was directed at the slow camera rotation, and units' movement speeds and pathfinding . GameStar considered

3960-402: The skills slot. The game features a World Map from which players can travel to certain locations. When entering a map, the player can choose which companions to accompany them, which influences some quests. Up to three companions can be selected, although sometimes a map requires a certain companion to play. On each map, several "Godstones" allow the player's units to teleport and to revive

4026-450: The story but noted the number of similarities to Dragon Age and The Witcher , and criticized the companions as likeable but not memorable. Jeuxvideo considered the plot too generic and simple and Wccftech criticized the forced deliverance. GameSpot also noted that although some choices can be made, they never change the story enough to make players want to replay the game. The combination of role-playing and real-time strategy

SECTION 60

#1732859334584

4092-439: The visual design and the attention to detail as well as the variety of settings and lighting effects which enhanced the realism of the landscapes. Reviewers also highlighted the character and building models and details. German magazine PC Games compared the graphics and level of detail positively to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt , although they noted the game no longer offered a third person perspective as previous games of

4158-510: The voice of Geralt of Rivia , plays General Noria in a similar voice. For the German original version, the voice acting was generally considered good, although reviewers noted that orcs sounded too tame and that the narrator's voice acting did not fit with the game's atmosphere. The plot and storytelling also drew mixed reactions. Some reviewers noted the game offers a compelling story with believable characters and ample lore. PC Gamer praised

4224-515: Was coined by Lloyd Alexander in a 1971 essay, "High Fantasy and Heroic Romance", which was originally given at the New England Round Table of Children's Librarians in October 1969. Many high fantasy stories are told from the viewpoint of one main hero. Often, much of the plot revolves around their heritage or mysterious nature, along with a world-threatening problem. In many novels the hero

4290-439: Was considered a success, with many reviewers noting the unique and cohesive experience created by the merger. Critics also praised the smooth transition between role-playing and real-time strategy and how naturally the real-time strategy elements fit into the story. Some critics noted the differences between the races (humans, orcs and elves) in real-time strategy mode were mostly cosmetic and without real distinctions and

4356-510: Was originally developed by Phenomic , which were bought and later disbanded by Electronic Arts . The original publisher, JoWooD Entertainment , had to file for bankruptcy and was bought by Nordic Games (which later bought the THQ trademark to become THQ Nordic ). With the acquisition of JoWooD Entertainment, THQ Nordic also gained the rights to the SpellForce franchise. Development of SpellForce 3 took over four years. THQ Nordic first mentioned

#583416