My Last 3 Updates for SpellForce III just now

The Warcraft games hold a lot of nostalgia for me, so I was looking for something similar with Spellforce 3, but that's not quite what I got.

First I'd like to comment on the production value of this game. It has very high quality of graphics and incredible detail for an isometric RPG/RTS game. I'd actually argue that there may have been so much detail that it may have taken from other things, but overall it is a well polished game. As far as I can tell, the multiplayer is currently nonexistent, but I didn't spend a lot of time checking, so I could be wrong. The CGI intro is the only such scene you will see, which was a bit of a let down. Everything else uses in-game graphics The story is interesting, but drags on for a bit too long for my taste. The writing, world building, and character backstories are also good, but I've never cared much for the excessive conversations. Fortunately, you can speed through of the conversations, which I didn't try until halfway through. Many of the maps you can choose to first explore and then transition to RTS. There are three or four maps that you will revisit two or three times throughout the game, which probably saved the developers a lot of time and money, but it was kind of sad. The voice acting is very good with a variety of chit chat. It was very difficult to find a walk-through on this game, and the most extensive one I could find didn't even cover the last few missions.

While Warcraft 3 is still mostly a RTS, this game has a fairly even split between RPG and RTS elements. The RPG part of the game feels eerily similar to Dragon Age: Origins. The danger of mages becoming abominations is especially similar. Its a very standard fantasy with all the basic races and tropes.The discrimination trope is not used much. Orcs may be considered savage, but once you ally with them, it's like they're just another group of humans. The items are very detailed and extensive. There are over a dozen special items you can craft, but weirdly half of them aren't all that special. I found a holy hammer for my main hero early on and never found anything that came close after that. The stats are very basic like any D&D style RPG. The spell/perk/ability tree is probably one of the more original elements. Every hero has at least two magic/ability specialties and one special ability/spell/perk if you talk to the character about their background. You can upgrade every ability/spell/perk at least once. There is a quick use bar just like with Dragon Age, but you can't make it larger, so you have to pick and choose. This can be very confusing if you want to switch between the 9 different heroes. There were way too many spells and abilities. Halfway through, I had given up on new abilities and just focused on upgrading the ones I liked. My biggest problem with the RPG aspect of the game is that these abilities and spells were often barely noticeable. Every ability in Warcraft 3 is flashy or at least easy to see. Some of the abilities and spells here are visible especially the elemental and rock based spells, but almost everything else is easy to miss. Not only is this boring, but because some abilities take a few seconds to use and others are instant, I sometimes don't realize that I've canceled an ability by clicking on a new ability for the same hero.

The RTS aspect of the game was a bit similar to the first age in Age of Empires III, although I haven't played any of the other AoE games. There were three different tiers of units that were each introduced at different stages of the game, not really gradually enough for me. There were three different races, each of which had about ten or eleven units. The first tier was practically worthless once you get to the second tier. The second tier usually had a main melee, one or two ranged units, maybe a cavalry, and a siege unit. The third tier had two or three spell-casters. Finally each race has a titan unit. In order to get the titan, you need access to one of two special buildings on the map. The one thing I really liked about this game was the way it incentivized you to explore and expand throughout the map and then protect each territory. The AI wasn't half bad at taking advantage of my limitations. You really need at least two armies, one for defense and one for offense, especially in the second half of the game. The godstones were also a nice addition here for quickly warping across the map. The thing I hated most about this game was the way it handled blueprints and upgrading each race. Throughout the game you may find various blueprints allowing you access to new upgrades, or you may purchase them in Mulandir. The problem is that this is not explained very well. A third of the way into the game I was wondering why I still only have access to the same three units for each race. I could see the other units, but it said I needed a blueprint, as if maybe I had somehow not looked hard enough. In Mulandir if you complete the right side quests you can get at least two merchants for each race. And almost all of them sell blueprints, but half of them are worthless. There's a blueprint to upgrade the cost of almost every building, but when you only build them once per mission, why should I waste money? There are an excessive number of blueprints for expanding your population cap or health of workers, both of which are likely a waste.

Overall, I have mixed feelings. I should really be more selective.