Spellforce - The Order of Dawn Spellforce - The Breath of Winter Spellforce - Shadow of the Phoenix

Spellforce:
  • The Order of Dawn
  • The Breath of Winter
  • Shadow of the Phoenix

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    System: PC
    Genre: Fantasy-RPG / Real-time strategy
    Manufacturer: JoWood
    Publication year: 2003-2005
    During a special astronomical constellation calles The Convocation, the 13 mightiest mages of Eo called Circle Mages, tried to gain infinite power, similar to divine power. In the resulting Convocation War, these mages destroyed one another using their magic and their armies, chausing chaos and destruction to the world. Entire continents were sunk in the course of the war. What has remained are islands, connected to each other by portals. 8 years after the Convocation War, evil has returned to finish the work that had been begun. This can only be averted by a Rune Warrior who, bound to the acient power of the blood runes, is damned to be immortal.

    The Breath of Winter deals with a prince of darkness called Fial Darg, who has taken over the Red Empire and pursues the return of the Renegades, the dark gods. To achieve this, he needs the blood of a firstborn elf. Therefore, he kidnaps Cenwen, from the envireonment of the ice dragon Aryn. However, sinde Cenwen's singing has been putting the dragon to sleep, Aryn awakens and threatens to turn the word into eternal ice. An effort of the ice elves to free Cenwen fails. Therefore, the fighters Lea and Grim, who take care of refugees in the swamp area, call forth a Rune Warrior, for only he can avert the destruction of the world.
    In Shadow of the Phoenix, a necromancer has revived the dead Circle Mages and, with their help, strives for infinite power. The mages can only be stopped by the Phoenix Stone from The Order of Dawn. But what the stone contains can only be released by the Shadow Sword from The Breath of Winter. The heroes of the two foregoing parts can therefore be transferred to Shadow of the Phoenix.

    The player takes over the role of the Rune Warrior. Either the player creates a new character or uses a prefab one. Magi and combat skills can be combined so that e.g. a melee fighter can also cast spells. The hero gains experience points by killing his enemies, but also by performing quests. This makes him advance in his level, and the hero can be given 2 skill points and 5 attribute points per advancement. Of course, the character can also be equipped with weapons, rings and garments, which increase attributes or magic resistances.
    The Rune Warrior, however, does not have to wander Eo alone. He can call up to 5 other Rune Warrios at Hero Monuments, if the respective runes are in his possession. At Race Monuments, workers can be called to build resource and troop buildings to gather an army that fights the enemy. To get all this, runes and plans are needed, which can be partly bought, but also have to be partly found.
    Beside the portals, there are the Soul Stones. If the character dies, he will be revived at the last activated Soulstone. Apart from that, they also serve as a means to travel fast without having to roam the territory in between everytime. Those who know Diablo 2 will remember the waypoints; the Soul Stones in Spellforce work just the same.

    The troops of evil don't need any resources, but produce their minions infinitely, as long as their buildings are not destroyed. Thus, one can, of course, move up in levels much faster: one destroys the enemy troops, leaves the buildings untouched and seals the area off with defensive towers. They destroy the troop supply, new troops are built which, in turn, are destroyed by the towers again, etc. What I don't like about the game is that a map that has been fully explored has the "Fog of War" again once the player leaves the map or loads a saved game. Apart from that, Spellforce makes a very good impression.