Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars
Encyclopedia
Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars is a combination Real-time strategy
and RPG game created by German game developers Phenomic as a sequel to their 2003 release SpellForce: The Order of Dawn and its two expansions (Spellforce: The Breath of Winter and Spellforce: Shadow of the Phoenix). Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars has been followed by the expansion Spellforce 2: Dragon Storm
.
JoWood Productions announced a second expansion - Spellforce 2: Faith in Destiny
in May 2009.
The RPG aspects of Spellforce 2 parallel games such as Diablo
, Diablo II
, and Sacred for both character development and skill trees, equipment customization, and top-down isometric viewing. However the capacity to control multiple heroes often makes the gameplay similar to that found in the Baldur's Gate
or Neverwinter Nights
PC games.
The RTS aspects of Spellforce 2 mirror the Warcraft
fantasy RTS games. This includes the ability to control several separate factions such as "the Realm" (humans/elves/dwarves), "the Pact" (dark elves/gargoyles/shadows) and "the Clans" (orcs/trolls/barbarians). Each faction has its own individual troop and building types.
Spellforce 2 has several gaming modes, including Campaign play (which is expositional), Skirmish mode (which almost purely RTS), and Free Play (similar to Campaign play, but without an overarching plot). It can also be played co-operatively or competitively in multiplayer mode.
Only Campaign play allows the user to save the game.
RPG character development requires a player to obtain experience as well as high-quality armour and weapons. In campaign play these rewards are maximized by completing "optional" side-quests.
RTS sections usually involve building a camp, most often defended by RPG characters in its infancy. Then it typically involves marshalling the maximum number of troops to a point of conflict. While army composition does matter, unit micromanagement does not appear to be a major factor in RTS success.
As the avatar returns to the Shaikan fortress, he/she finds that small groups of dark elves have already started attacking. In a desperate attempt to save those caught off guard, the Shaikan enlists the help of the humans at a nearby outpost. After buying his/her people a chance to retreat, the Shaikan's patron Ur sends the avatar off to warn and unite the forces of light, the humans, dwarves and elves to battle with the help of a dark elf heroine, Nightsong.
The Avatar travels to Norimar who's leader is Baron Ordbragndt to convince him to help the Shaikan, however he does not feel he is threatened but decides to help when news arrives that the dark elves are attacking. The Avatar presses through the advancing elves and sounds the Horn of Norimar a device fashioned by the dwarves which causes the pass to collapse and block the Dark elf advance. The Avatar returns to the Baron and then leaves for Sevenkeeps sealing the vault of the undead and passing through rushwater downs to deliver supplies and free them from a siege by the forces of the clans. However upon arriving at sevenkeeps King Ulf arrogantly states that the dark elves are not a threat and gives the avatar the westguard a neglected piece of land that no one has found useful, the avatar and nightsong are angry that Falmar backs up the king by deciding that since king Ulf won't help them they will acquire the help of the Dwarves of Underhall and the Elves of Dun Mora.. However to get to Underhall they need the ambassadors permission the avatar acquires a special potion which revives the dwarven ambassador after he collapses after drinking grief stricken when he cannot return home and gain Jared in the process who catches the plague but is revived by the avatars blood and pledges to fight for him. The Avatar then helps the dwarves of Underhall reclaim their mines from an evil sorcerer and a frost witch, thus gaining the alliance of the dwarves. The Avatar's party then heads to Dun Mora, the home of the elves where they meet up with their sister Shae, an elemental mage. The party gains an audience with the queen who informs them that the elves are under the spell of several ghosts and that every night they are assailed by daemons. The avatar agrees to help the elves and they destroy the daemon army and their gateways to Barga Gor. Securing the alliance of the elves, the Avatar then heads for the Clans fortress of the Needle where they defeat a massive army of orcs, trolls and barbarians. They then make their way to the besieged Shaikan fortress and with the aid of the Realms, they defeat the army of the Pact but they are too late as a massive daemon had devoured most of the shaikan and the fortress is in ruins. The Realms refuse to lend aid in the Avatar's quest for revenge and so the Avatar turns to the Clans for help, thus beginning the 2nd act of the story.
Many of the criticisms of the original Spellforce (e.g. poor integration of RPG and RTS aspects, a confusing interface, and an overly cumbersome RTS system) were improved upon in the sequel.
While many reviewers indicate that Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars is one of the best hybrid games to date, most acknowledge that it presents little innovation for either of its RPG or RTS genres.
To quote Pro-G: "RTS and RPG, mesh together brilliantly, if you take either of those elements in isolation, they're perhaps a little on the lightweight side."
The Russia
n and European
versions of Spellforce 2 are protected by StarForce
copy protection system. The NA version is protected by TAGES
.
or by using a service such as Hamachi.
Real-time strategy
Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....
and RPG game created by German game developers Phenomic as a sequel to their 2003 release SpellForce: The Order of Dawn and its two expansions (Spellforce: The Breath of Winter and Spellforce: Shadow of the Phoenix). Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars has been followed by the expansion Spellforce 2: Dragon Storm
Spellforce 2: Dragon Storm
Spellforce 2: Dragon Storm is a combination Real-time strategy and RPG game created by German game developers Phenomic as an expansion to their 2006 release SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars after following the previous games SpellForce: The Order of Dawn....
.
JoWood Productions announced a second expansion - Spellforce 2: Faith in Destiny
Spellforce 2: Faith in Destiny
Spellforce 2: Faith in Destiny is the second expansion for SpellForce 2. Currently the expansion pack is on hold due to development issues.-Development:It was announced by JoWooD in May 2009...
in May 2009.
Gameplay
The Spellforce game series has been one of the few attempts to fuse role-playing game (RPG) and real-time strategy (RTS) elements. Other games that have attempted to integrate the two genres include Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard and Warcraft 3.The RPG aspects of Spellforce 2 parallel games such as Diablo
Diablo (video game)
Diablo is a dark fantasy-themed action role-playing game developed by Blizzard North and released by Blizzard Entertainment on December 31, 1996....
, Diablo II
Diablo II
Diablo II is a dark fantasy/horror-themed hack and slash, with elements of the role playing game and dungeon crawl genres. It was released for Windows and Mac OS in 2000 by Blizzard Entertainment, and was developed by Blizzard North. It is a direct sequel to the 1996 hit PC game, Diablo.Diablo II...
, and Sacred for both character development and skill trees, equipment customization, and top-down isometric viewing. However the capacity to control multiple heroes often makes the gameplay similar to that found in the Baldur's Gate
Baldur's Gate
Baldur's Gate is a computer role-playing game developed by BioWare and released in 1998 by Interplay Entertainment. The game takes place in the Forgotten Realms, a high fantasy campaign setting, using modified Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition rules...
or Neverwinter Nights
Neverwinter Nights
Neverwinter Nights , produced by BioWare and published by Infogrames , is a third-person perspective computer role-playing game that is based on third edition Dungeons & Dragons and Forgotten Realms rules. It was originally to be published by Interplay Entertainment, but the publisher's financial...
PC games.
The RTS aspects of Spellforce 2 mirror the Warcraft
Warcraft
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans is a real-time strategy game , developed by Blizzard Entertainment and published by Blizzard and Interplay Entertainment. The MS-DOS version was released in November 1994 and the Macintosh version in late 1996. Sales were fairly high, reviewers were mostly impressed, and the...
fantasy RTS games. This includes the ability to control several separate factions such as "the Realm" (humans/elves/dwarves), "the Pact" (dark elves/gargoyles/shadows) and "the Clans" (orcs/trolls/barbarians). Each faction has its own individual troop and building types.
Spellforce 2 has several gaming modes, including Campaign play (which is expositional), Skirmish mode (which almost purely RTS), and Free Play (similar to Campaign play, but without an overarching plot). It can also be played co-operatively or competitively in multiplayer mode.
Only Campaign play allows the user to save the game.
Tactics
The tactics for Spellforce are common to those used to successfully complete other RPG and RTS games.RPG character development requires a player to obtain experience as well as high-quality armour and weapons. In campaign play these rewards are maximized by completing "optional" side-quests.
RTS sections usually involve building a camp, most often defended by RPG characters in its infancy. Then it typically involves marshalling the maximum number of troops to a point of conflict. While army composition does matter, unit micromanagement does not appear to be a major factor in RTS success.
Game statistics
You can control up to 6 characters including your avatar and will also have the opportunity to be accompanied by one or more NPCs. Your main character, or avatar, can get to level 30, while your party members can only get to level 24.Plot
The main character controlled by the player is a Shaikan, or a character who has the blood of the dragon Ur. This dragon blood allows resurrection of oneself and followers, as well as the ability to summon followers instantly to one's side.As the avatar returns to the Shaikan fortress, he/she finds that small groups of dark elves have already started attacking. In a desperate attempt to save those caught off guard, the Shaikan enlists the help of the humans at a nearby outpost. After buying his/her people a chance to retreat, the Shaikan's patron Ur sends the avatar off to warn and unite the forces of light, the humans, dwarves and elves to battle with the help of a dark elf heroine, Nightsong.
The Avatar travels to Norimar who's leader is Baron Ordbragndt to convince him to help the Shaikan, however he does not feel he is threatened but decides to help when news arrives that the dark elves are attacking. The Avatar presses through the advancing elves and sounds the Horn of Norimar a device fashioned by the dwarves which causes the pass to collapse and block the Dark elf advance. The Avatar returns to the Baron and then leaves for Sevenkeeps sealing the vault of the undead and passing through rushwater downs to deliver supplies and free them from a siege by the forces of the clans. However upon arriving at sevenkeeps King Ulf arrogantly states that the dark elves are not a threat and gives the avatar the westguard a neglected piece of land that no one has found useful, the avatar and nightsong are angry that Falmar backs up the king by deciding that since king Ulf won't help them they will acquire the help of the Dwarves of Underhall and the Elves of Dun Mora.. However to get to Underhall they need the ambassadors permission the avatar acquires a special potion which revives the dwarven ambassador after he collapses after drinking grief stricken when he cannot return home and gain Jared in the process who catches the plague but is revived by the avatars blood and pledges to fight for him. The Avatar then helps the dwarves of Underhall reclaim their mines from an evil sorcerer and a frost witch, thus gaining the alliance of the dwarves. The Avatar's party then heads to Dun Mora, the home of the elves where they meet up with their sister Shae, an elemental mage. The party gains an audience with the queen who informs them that the elves are under the spell of several ghosts and that every night they are assailed by daemons. The avatar agrees to help the elves and they destroy the daemon army and their gateways to Barga Gor. Securing the alliance of the elves, the Avatar then heads for the Clans fortress of the Needle where they defeat a massive army of orcs, trolls and barbarians. They then make their way to the besieged Shaikan fortress and with the aid of the Realms, they defeat the army of the Pact but they are too late as a massive daemon had devoured most of the shaikan and the fortress is in ruins. The Realms refuse to lend aid in the Avatar's quest for revenge and so the Avatar turns to the Clans for help, thus beginning the 2nd act of the story.
Reception
Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars was well received by both critics and players. According to the metacritic website, it obtained a score of 80% from critics and 7.2/10 from players, as of July 23, 2008.Many of the criticisms of the original Spellforce (e.g. poor integration of RPG and RTS aspects, a confusing interface, and an overly cumbersome RTS system) were improved upon in the sequel.
While many reviewers indicate that Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars is one of the best hybrid games to date, most acknowledge that it presents little innovation for either of its RPG or RTS genres.
To quote Pro-G: "RTS and RPG, mesh together brilliantly, if you take either of those elements in isolation, they're perhaps a little on the lightweight side."
The Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n and European
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
versions of Spellforce 2 are protected by StarForce
StarForce
StarForce is a software copy protection mechanism developed by Protection Technology, which claims that products protected with StarForce are difficult to reverse engineer.- Product families :Currently known official versions of StarForce include:...
copy protection system. The NA version is protected by TAGES
TAGES
Tagès is a software copy protection system, jointly developed, at first, by MPO and the Thales Group starting in 1999...
.
Online Play
While the game originally featured a central online matchmaking service, this service shut down in 2009. Originally, the developers announced that a new contract for resuming matchmaking would take effect around July 2009, however as of February 2010 the online matchmaking is still unavailable. Multiplayer is still possible via LANLocal area network
A local area network is a computer network that interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building...
or by using a service such as Hamachi.