Spellforce 3 - New Details, Screenshots

[Aubrielle]

Heads up, Spellforce fans! New details and screenshots of our favorite vaguely campy RPG/RTS hybrid have emerged.

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After a long period of silence, Nordic Games cranked out a fistful of details and a smattering of screenshots for Grimlore Games' SpellForce 3 earlier today. The imagery can be found on our profile page, while the core details on gameplay and other mechanics can be found below:

Heroes and Quests
Similar to its successful predecessors, players create their hero from scratch and can then develop the hero’s skills during the campaign, complete quests, explore the game world and join forces with up to three characters to form a group of heroes.

Organic Growth
The map in SpellForce 3 is divided into different sectors. The player’s base will always grow organically, not arbitrarily. This means that the player can only conquer sectors, which are connected to the base or other, already conquered, sectors. This is important, because there is no “Global Economy”, but the distribution of resources will happen mechanically (resources are being transported via carts). The player can decide which raw materials they want to collect, distribute and export in each sector and must therefore carefully plan where to build the sectors.

Sector Management
If, for example, the player defeats all the enemies in a particular sector and the bandit camp is captured, they can establish an outpost in this area. The player can then construct buildings in the sectors, exploit raw materials (wood, stone, food, etc.), transport goods and produce resources to then recruit new fighting units. Each outpost has a set number of workers who can be hired, so a core element of the game is to balance the economy and manage the sector to ensure the most efficient deployment of the available workers.

Hybrid gameplay
We don’t want to ignore the RPG component and want players to have the best gaming experience possible with SpellForce 3, so the micro management is not as hectic and fast-paced as in many other RTS games. Players can therefore enjoy both gameplay genres (RTS and RPG) in equal measure.

SpellForce 3 Features

- RTS/RPG Mix: Unique gameplay combining RTS and Top-Down RPG genres
- RTS: the RTS part focuses on macromanagement (overall strategy, building a base/economy, conquering of zones, managing large groups of units)
- RPG: the RPG part puts emphasis on micromanaging the party of heroes (skills of ALL heroes of the party have assigned keyboard bindings) in battles
- Create & Customize: assemble your party of heroes and choose between numerous combinations of different skill builds
- Strengthen and command your army: Prepare your troops and f ight the mother of all battles. Moreover, players can utilize a wide array of strategic choices (like e.g. terrain, troop formations, visibility, scouting etc.) that would make Sun Tzu proud
- Epic Storyline: Unravel a deep and sophisticated story, eventually leading up to the events that cause the world-changing convocation ritual
- Rich Universe & :Lore: Explore the world Eo and discover intrigues, secrets and a lot of loot for your hero
- Extensive Single-Player Campaign: 30+ hours, even more when you manage to discover all the things Grimlore put in the world
- Multiplayer: Strong multiplayer component with various modes - Play cooperatively or in versus battles

More.

More information.

 

[Silver]

Didn't realise this series was still going. Good stuff

 

[redman5427]

Cant wait, I really love this series and this type of game

 

[Darkheart]

Does it still have endlessly spawning enemies that get stronger and stronger over time?
If yes, I pass.

 

[Deleted User]

Sounds great to me! Have never played a Spellforce game yet, but this does seem really cool. Glad to hear the RTS won't be too fast or hectic.

 

[Maylander]

Does it still have endlessly spawning enemies that get stronger and stronger over time?
If yes, I pass.

The spawning mechanic was gone already in Spellforce 2 (replaced by traditional bases and so on). It's the main reason I prefer SF2 to SF1, as the mechanic lead to some really silly gameplay, especially coupled with how experience points were gained (clearing the map incredibly fast to avoid the spawning going crazy, but camping certain spawn points etc).

As for SF3: I didn't even know this was in development. Do we know anything about the developer other than the name? What little I've found out about Grimlore Games indicates they're owned by Nordic Games, as something of a Germany based developer to handle specific Nordic Games projects. Nothing about who it actually consists of, what their previous experience is or whether they have anyone who was involved in previous SF games.

 

[Aubrielle]

Sounds great to me! Have never played a Spellforce game yet, but this does seem really cool. Glad to hear the RTS won't be too fast or hectic.

If you want to break into the series, I highly suggest Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars. It's my personal favorite of the ones I've played. It's got really nice graphics and just a good feel overall. It's everything we like in a classic fantasy RPG.

 

[Couchpotato]

As for SF3: I didn't even know this was in development. Do we know anything about the developer other than the name? What little I've found out about Grimlore Games indicates they're owned by Nordic Games, as something of a Germany based developer to handle specific Nordic Games projects. Nothing about who it actually consists of, what their previous experience is or whether they have anyone who was involved in previous SF games.

All I know is that the development team used to be called Coreplay.

Grimlore Games GmbH is a German video game developer and the first European in-house studio of Nordic Games. The studio began as a developer team in Nordic Games in December 2013 with key members from former Münich-based game development studio Coreplay.

Link - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coreplay

Beyond that not much media is available for the game.

Some Links

Steam Page - http://store.steampowered.com/app/311290/
Home Page - http://grimloregames.com/projects/

 

[Sacred_Path]

oh... the Chaos Chronicles guys?


Why... fingers crossed that they get the chance to work on an RPG again.

 

[Xian]

This and Elex have been the top two entries on my Steam wish list for months. I am looking forward to this after playing them all, though I still have to complete Demons of the Past.

 

[redman5427]

oh… the Chaos Chronicles guys?

I want Chaos Chronicles badly even though the rights to it were sold to another developer.The game was cancelled and restarted a number of times. Rumour has it that someone here on the forums is in the beta and it was renamed.Demons Age I think. Was supposed to be released in the first quarter.

As to the respawning, yes SF1 was bitch. It was fun though and a race to take down the buildings that were respawning enemies. I love the running through the maps, quickly erecting towers to protect your forces as you marched toward victory.

Hehe, you could leave your hero fighting those respawns overnight and they would level up while you were sleeping.

 

[Couchpotato]

I want Chaos Chronicles badly even though the rights to it were sold to another developer.The game was cancelled and restarted a number of times. Rumour has it that someone here on the forums is in the beta and it was renamed.Demons Age I think. Was supposed to be released in the first quarter.

Correct the game was sold off and renamed Demons Age. Unfortunately not a single bit of news has been released in months since it entered closed Beta last year.

Link - http://www.rpgwatch.com/games/demons-age-914/news.html

CRPGnut was a Beta tester, and the game is way past it's promised release date.

 

[Alistair]

I don't want 30+ hours. They could split it in two quite happily as far as I'm concerned.

 

[TheSHEEEP]

I don't want 30+ hours. They could split it in two quite happily as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah, why would you want to pay the same amount of money for more time of fun if you can pay it twice for half the time, am I right?

Uhm...
What a weird thing to say, really.

If you lose interest in something that fast, I can recommend Angry Birds.

 

[Gorath]

If I have only a finite amount of time for gaming, I still want to see the end. In that context longer isn't better.