SpellForce
SpellForce is a real-time strategy and role-playing series created by Phenomic and currently owned by THQ Nordic. The first release was published by JoWooD Productions and Encore Software in 2003 and THQ Nordic in 2017.
Setting and plot
The games take place on a planet called Eo, a high fantasy world ruled by near-immortal mages and inhabited by various sapient races, such as humans, dwarves, elves, orcs and trolls. The mages used servants called rune warriors, summoned from magical monuments, to keep peace.Several years before the start of the first game in the series, the mages discovered an ancient text describing the Convocation: a dangerous, but supposedly power-granting ritual. They started fighting amongst themselves, rune warriors being their main weapons of war. When the planets and stars aligned, enabling the start of the ritual, each of the 13 of the most powerful mages performed the ritual; however, unable to control the power, the world was shattered.
Where once stood great continents of Fiara, Urgath and Xu, now only small pieces of land remain, centered around magical towers created by Aonir, the Star God.
The first game in the series begins with a reappearance of one of the Circle mages: Rohen. He summons a Rune warrior to save the world.
Gameplay
The role-playing game aspects of SpellForce games parallel games such as Diablo, Diablo II, and Sacred in character development, skill trees, equipment customization, and top-down isometric viewing. However, the capacity to control multiple heroes often makes the gameplay comparable to that in the Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights video games.The real time strategy aspects of SpellForce games mirror the Warcraft fantasy real time strategy games. These include the ability to control several separate factions such as "The Realm", "The Pact", and "The Clans". Each faction has its own individual troop and building types.
SpellForce games have several game modes, including campaign mode, skirmish mode, and free play. SpellForce can also be played cooperatively or competitively in multiplayer mode.
Games
SpellForce: The Order of Dawn
SpellForce: The Order of Dawn is the first game of the franchise, developed by Phenomic. It was first published by JoWooD in Europe on and by Encore Software in North America on.SpellForce: The Breath of Winter
On, JoWooD announced the first SpellForce expansion pack named SpellForce: The Breath of Winter. The expansion pack features over 40 hours of new single player campaign gameplay.SpellForce: Shadow of the Phoenix
Shadow of the Phoenix was released on. The expansion pack continues the storyline from The Order of Dawn and The Breath of Winter and enables the player to continue playing with a previous game character by raising the character's level limit to 50. The pack also includes upgrades for the game's Titan units.SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars
SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars is a 2006 real-time strategy and role-playing video game, developed by Phenomic and published by JoWooD Productions. It is the second major installment in the SpellForce series.SpellForce 2: Dragon Storm
SpellForce 2: Dragon Storm is an expansion to SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars and was released in 2007.Anniversary and Platinum Editions
"SpellForce 2 - Anniversary Edition" was released 29 October 2009. It included the first two parts: Shadow Wars and Dragon Storm. It does not include Faith in Destiny or Demons of the Past."SpellForce - Platinum Edition" was released 3 November 2009. It contains all three of the parts: The Order of Dawn, The Breath of Winter and Shadow of the Phoenix.
SpellForce 2: Faith in Destiny
The "Digital Extras" were released 19 June 2012 along with the core game.Three scenario DLCs were released:
- 17 October 2012: Flink's Secret Diary
- 18 January 2013: The Golden Fool
- 15 February 2013: The Last Stand
SpellForce Complete Collection
In October 2012 Nordic released a so-called "complete collection".The name was quickly invalidated by the scenario DLCs which it was missing, years before the release of the more obvious contradiction Demons of the Past.