Metareview - SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars
by Alan Rose 
{ Jun 13th 2006 at 4:30PM }
With all of the attention given to Rise of Legends and Heroes of Might and Magic V over the past month, another strategy title quietly made its way to store shelves. Aspyr's SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars is the latest attempt to mash up the role-playing and RTS genres, and with their expansive maps and attention to detail, German developer Phenomic should give Atari's Dragonshard some healthy competition.
- IGN (84/100) is impressed by SpellForce 2's sheer amount of gameplay: "One thing this game has in spades is replayability. Not only is the single player story campaign very long and involved but there's also a free-mode which amounts to a second campaign. There isn't as complete a story as in the normal campaign, but there are a lot of new quests across 31 maps and all of these maps can be played alone or with two friends along for the ride."
- GameSpot (82/100) applauds the ease of use: "Command and control of all these different units is easy thanks to the slick interface. While you can use regular real-time strategy conventions to create unit groups, SpellForce 2 goes a bit further by letting you easily designate targets for various groups or telling a hero to unload a particular spell or skill on a specific target with just a couple of mouse clicks."
- Yahoo! Games (80/100) feels the mix of RPG elements is just right: "Unlike most role-playing games, Spellforce 2 doesn't limit your hero's advancement with a class system. So you can explore both the combat and magic skill trees as you wish -- hybrid characters are entirely feasible. Although the system is nowhere near as deep as, say, Diablo's, it is considerably more complex than most other RTS games can boast."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Monster @ Jun 13th 2006 5:12PM
This game is great until you run into the game-ending bug partway through that makes it so you can't finish your mission, and thus cannot continue.
Randroid @ Jun 13th 2006 5:32PM
What bug is that? I beat the game multiple times with no problems at all.
Sam @ Jun 13th 2006 6:29PM
Monster, sounds like your disc is faulty. Try returning it to the store you bought it from in exchange for the same game. That would probably do it.
Jchen @ Jun 14th 2006 11:18AM
Aspyr recently started hosting online matches for SpellForce 2, to promote the multiplayer aspect and build up the community. For those interested, the matches are every MW and F from 4pm to 6pm Central.