SpellForce - Franchise Weekend Deal

Steam has a weekend deal for the SpellForce franchise with up to 80% off.



More information.

Own every game on Steam and GOG. If you don't buy them already.

Never tried that series. So many options… which one is the "must have" ?

Depends on what you're looking for as each new game in the series added and changed the core formula. Do you prefer base building, RTS games, or just RPGs?

Personally I'd try the older games because their cheaper, but I'd say play the last three games for newbies. As the older games are different. It's really up to you in the end.

One of those game series that is essential for me to own on multiple services so that I have a backup-of-a-backup!

I havent played enough of 3 yet to make too definitive of a call on it, but I do know that Spellforce 2 was a rare gem of a game, and I do think it's an improvement over the original Spellforce (which can be kinda clunky).

Basically you're rocking heroes in a rpg-centric RTS game, one of the big selling point for me, was that you can go third person and take part in the battles w/ your troops. That's always been one of my favorite gameplay styles, and Spellforce does it well.

Both the original spellforce and sequel for less than 5 bucks?

yeah, that's a lot of good gameplay there. Cant go wrong

Definitely the original Spellforce and it's expansions were clunky, but they provided 100's of hrs of enjoyment. The sequel improved the formula but changed base building.

To bad Phenomic was bought by EA, lost the IP, and was shut down in 2016. THQ Nordic now owns the IP and the new developer Grimlore Games did an okay job at least.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Definitely the original Spellforce and it's expansions were clunky, but they provided 100's of hrs of enjoyment. The sequel improved the formula but changed base building.

To bad Phenomic was bought by EA, lost the IP, and was shut down in 2016. THQ Nordic now owns the IP and the new developer Grimlore Games did an okay job at least.

From what i recall, Grimlore has a good number of former Spellforce 1/2 devs. I might be wrong, though, of course.

Bottom line: this is one of the very few RTS/RPG hybrids that i've enjoyed tremendously. The formula isn't new, as the first series to use it was Warlords Battlecry (another favorite hybrid RTS/RPG series). But Spellforce refined it and evolved it.

If you are new to the series, Spellforce 3 is the place to start, as the Spellfore 3+ standalone expansions are a prequel for the original Spellforce games and for Spellforce 2.

P.S.: i've loved the original's Rune warrior system and i am sad that it wasn't further developed. At least, they've come up with a good story for why it didn't exist anymore.

Originally Posted by wolfsrain
From what i recall, Grimlore has a good number of former Spellforce 1/2 devs. I might be wrong, though, of course.

If true they did a shitty job as all three new games needed over 30+ patches. Some of the patches even broke the game and had to be rolled-back and fixed.

Remember not saying the games were bad just the technical side needed work.

Originally Posted by wolfsrain
P.S.: i've loved the original's Rune warrior system and i am sad that it wasn't further developed. At least, they've come up with a good story for why it didn't exist anymore.

The rune system wasn't invented yet in the Spellforce 3 prequels, and was ended in the first games last expansion. Spellforce 2 explained the rune warriors had control now.

If I go on it will be spoilers for new players.

Hmm I've never played any of these. I've got 1 and 2 sitting around to give a go at some point.

Honestly what I really want to play are more King's Bounty's… I find Turn based strategy combined with RPG particularly enjoyable. Still RTS and RPG could be good.

Daniel.

wait a bit longer for the first game, seems its getting updated on steam to make it work nicely on modern systems

The original runs smoothly on it's highest setting for me with no problems. I'll never understand why we need remasters for older games that run fine. Just a cash grab.

Anyway buy the GOG version that's my preferred version.

SpellForce 1 is my no. 1 game of all times. I had my regular replay of this recently and put more than 200 hours into it (with expansions, GoG-version of SpellForce Platinum).

I played about 6 hours of SpellForce 3: Soul Harvest and ultimately stopped - but that's because I'm not fond of RTS games - and even with the other elements mixed in, I couldn't get past the RTS stuff. That said, I can see its a well made game with good attention to detail, visuals and design… so if some RTS doesn't scare you off, even as someone who didn't really enjoy it, I'd say it's worth trying.

Originally Posted by bkrueger
SpellForce 1 is my no. 1 game of all times. I had my regular replay of this recently and put more than 200 hours into it (with expansions, GoG-version of SpellForce Platinum).

so spellforce: platinum is spellforce 1 + the expansions? good to know if so, because i want to play the series and start with the first and i happen to already own platinum on steam.

Originally Posted by TheRealFluent
so spellforce: platinum is spellforce 1 + the expansions? good to know if so, because i want to play the series and start with the first and i happen to already own platinum on steam.

Yes, this is correct.

Originally Posted by bkrueger
Yes, this is correct.

thank u kindly. God bless.

Originally Posted by SSIGuy
I played about 6 hours of SpellForce 3: Soul Harvest and ultimately stopped - but that's because I'm not fond of RTS games - and even with the other elements mixed in, I couldn't get past the RTS stuff. That said, I can see its a well made game with good attention to detail, visuals and design… so if some RTS doesn't scare you off, even as someone who didn't really enjoy it, I'd say it's worth trying.

May be you try it on easy? Then the RTS-part is not punishing and you can enjoy the adventure in it.

(I completed Spellforce 3 on the highest difficulty level once. But I gave up on the highest difficulty level in a later playthrough because you can get completely wiped out to easily on that level and it is more work than fun to play it, at least for non-RTS-specialists. But the story and the RPG-parts are still worth it on a lower difficulty level.)