First Impressions: SpellForce 2

Today, I went to a couple of electronics/computer stores, and had a look at the prices of some graphics card for my upgrade. I was sidetracked, however, when I saw SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars displayed on the game shelves. I was waiting for this game since last May 2006 but I guess it only became available here, in the US, about a week ago. So I bought it, and hastily went home.

I've only started playing the campaign but a lot of improvements, since the first game, are already evident. The first thing I noticed was that the third-person view is much easier to control. The skill system is also presented in, the more organized, "tree" format. Your other hero companions can also gain levels, and you can even distribute some of their points. Unit commands are now available which helps a lot in micromanaging your units.

The gameplay, however, hasn't changed that much. Besides the new units, the real-time strategy elements are still the same. The dialogues are still one-liners, and the quests are horrible as before.

So far, I like SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars because, like its predecessor, its the only game, to date, that successfully blended real-time strategy and role-playing. Since it is most likely that the gameplay won't improve much later in the game, I just hope that the story will build up into epic proportions.