Spellforce: Conquest of EO Review (Obsidian Shadow)
I highly recommend this fantastic game.
I rarely review a game before 150 hours of gameplay unless it is total garbage or a masterpiece. This one is a true masterpiece from a small company based in Austria named "Owned by gravity". I really hope they will achieve commercial success and expand this game with additional maps, randomized maps or make other wonderful games.
You start as an apprentice who inherits what is left of his master's tower and grimoire after an attack by the Circle of mages who came to resent his growing mastery of magic. There is much exploration, expansion, exploitation and extermination to do. (It is a 4X game) And much learning. The game doesn't hold your hand very much. You are expected to put in some effort.
But the rewards are amazing.
It is difficult and challenging. The AI is very competent.
Steam achievements show less than 47% of players successfully made their mage tower fly and less than 3.9% won the game as alchemist. ( I have not played artificer, necromancer, demonologist yet.) There are 6 victory conditions. It is not necessary to defeat all the rival circle mages for victory. There is an immersive story, beautiful graphics for the world map and combat areas and appropriate epic music as a background to your adventures.
Which kind of player is most likely to enjoy this game?
If you enjoyed any of these games: Master of Magic, Warlock 1 or 2, Age of Wonders, Endless Space, Endless Legend, Heroes of might and magic (Heroes3 complete) XCom, there is a strong probability of enjoyment. This game expects you to discover things by yourself. You will not be spoon-fed like a toddler. It's all about thinking and planning strategically. The map is huge. I could not explore it completely before victory.
There is a lot of replayability with 4 mage types, different quests and multiples choices and multiple outcomes, different starting areas, several difficulty levels, mage customization. I would recommend new players start as Alchemist, Explorer difficulty, Easiest starting area.
I recommend playing every battle manually especially for new players for several reasons: the graphics are great, the heroic uplifting music ambience is great, and you can learn so much about all the different units, their abilities, what works against certain enemies and not on others, how and when to use items in your backpack. I never tire of watching the troops fight each other.
Please do not use auto-resolve. Personally, I think it removes 50% of the game enjoyment. I don't feel the game is meant to be experienced that way.
The Demonology DLC has gotten very positive reviews but for new players it causes an event that will be hard to deal with so you should disable it in the Steam DLC options until you become a more competent mage.
Technically the game has been bug-free for me on W10.
It runs on Linux and is rated Platinum on Proton DB so you will still be able to play it when W11 forces itself into your computer and messes things up.
It is also free of the toxic game features that poison the current gaming environment: Datamining, account creation, denuvo, anti-cheat, microtransactions, pay to win, lootboxes, multiplayer.