SpellForce 2 - Demons of the Past

It’s been a long road for Spellforce 2 – Demons of the Past (DOTP) to come to pass, with the original sequel release dating back to 2006. Since then, the game has changed hands and added a few side attractions, but with this standalone expansion, it wants to close off with a bang. While it does provide tons of content, the capping is less explosive than desired, primarily due to an unkind campaign, barring off newcomers and punishing absentees. Luckily, DOTP retains the core of its strategy versatility, even if it’s a little old by now.

The campaign is just silly.

In the main story, the game takes on some sort of epic struggle against the land’s biggest threat yet. This comes at the hand of conversations with powerful warriors, spirits and even dragons. It’s a plot device for destruction, but it does manage to convey the role-playing game (RPG) illusion. People in medieval cities stand ready to pass on quests, side objectives and the like, which results in experience for the avatar and the adjacent troop of heroes when completed. Progression then adds more abilities for each, available from a small skill tree in different categories; more than plenty to work with for any party selection. Hell, there’s even loot standing by to equip and improve stats. As your turn-of-the-century, isometric RPG in disguise, DOTP could still roll with its contemporaries. With large maps and a variety in enemy units, it’s not even half-bad by today’s standard. That’s just the smaller element of Spellforce, so credit where it’s due; that’s impressive.

Now, since the game stems from an ancient build, its angular models and flat characters may seem dated. They aren’t, however, ugly or off-putting, as care is put into adjusting the current theme with modern effects, ample shading and saturation where possible. Some characters may shine brightly and sparkle across the screen, while others impress in stature and rumble over others like ants. Moreover, as the game includes a highly detailed zooming system, it’s possible to look into combat from the ground level without losing quality. Yes, those square heads aren’t of this time anymore, but it sure tried distracting from that fact. That deserves points for effort.

Much better.

What’s less enjoyable is how DOTP welcomes people to its story. From the start, missions are set on one large and ongoing fight with many different objectives and pitfalls for any diversion. Enemies will downright crush the party, even on easier settings, if the open terrain is explored beyond its linear constraint, which is absurd. Worse yet, the challenge curve outright starts at a high point, making the first few missions a pyrrhic victory, if at all possible. It’s not even a trial by fire situation, as this will be the line throughout the campaign. Die or die trying. When the actual tutorial is recorded from a functional build and just shown to players instead of put in their hands, something fishy could’ve been sensed.

Struggling is aided with the extensive options, which are helpful, but necessary to master immediately. Characters come with different skills and need to be used in unison, which is hard to achieve by selecting them one by one. For each microsecond lost on selection, a unit dies. If that unit isn’t on the designated area, it will also suffer from perhaps this game’s weakest point: Path finding in DOTP is a nightmare. Amidst the chaos of two armies diving into melee combat, clicking anywhere is hard enough, but messing up will have the entire hoard bounce off others and stutter around for ages, not reacting to the thrashing they’re dealt. When all problems combine, there’s almost no playing Spellforce without chagrin. It’s an inch away from being uncontrollable.

Yup, that dude is the size of a building.

If it weren’t for the sizable strategy options available, this game would be put into the bin well before it’s time. It’s only through there that some annoyances can be held at bay, by strategizing approaches. For instance, there are a ton of different units available, which are born from their selected housing, requiring their own resources and so on. This way, it’s possible to concentrate mostly on flying units that can’t be hindered by movement or build large titans that can dish out tons of damage as a singular entity. Within the building element, there’s also leeway on what to expand, since multiple buildings have different tiers, which yield a different sort of warrior. With 3 forms of resources, it’s also needed to stay on point with tons of workers fanning out, without having them crushed or slow down progress. Setting up a perimeter with guard towers would be wise.

Another fortunate point is that the campaign can be skipped altogether for a routine skirmish match or slightly altered game mode. Those seeking to play against others can do so as well, since nothing spells victory like approaching another human’s camp with a skyscraper of a demon breathing fire and three heroes behind it healing everything it has in its wake. While maps appear big enough at first, heads butt much earlier than expected, making territory another thing to plan out. Planning and strategy titles are a wonderful combination. There are, however, only a few maps so far, but community tools could see that change, hopefully soon.

For an aging but functional title, Spellforce 2 – Demons of the Past does a horrible job at presenting itself with an unforgiving campaign pointing out its biggest issues right out the gate. It nearly goes under just providing flaw after flaw. There is, however, actually a large selection of versatile options that lists the best balance between both roleplaying and strategy elements to discover beyond its constraints. It’s not exactly a forgivable offense, but it does reach deep to try and bring variety. That has to count for something.

Daav Valentaten, NoobFeed (@Daavpuke)