SpellForce: Conquest of Eo - Preview

[HiddenX]

Mortismal Gaming checked out the Strategy RPG SpellForce: Conquest of Eo:

Check Out - Spellforce: Conquest of Eo

More information.

 

[benedictg]

Playing this at the moment and really enjoying it. Has aspects of master of magic / heroes of might & magic / age of wonder etc, would recommend it.

 

[Morrandir]

Did I understand correctly that the "campaign" only consists of a single big map?

 

[Gwydden]

Did I understand correctly that the "campaign" only consists of a single big map?

Yes, there is only one big map. Variation comes from multiple starts (there are five of them), random placement of some quests and resources, and your wizard's class and build. I think it helps to think of this game as less of a traditional 4X and in some ways closer to an adventure strategy title like King's Bounty, though ultimately it's a hybrid and very much its own thing.

Most negative reviews I've seen stem from frustrated expectations, either from folks thinking this would be an RTS/RPG hybrid like the other Spellforce games or those expecting a Master of Magic/Age of Wonders clone. Even I thought it would be a bargain bin AoW based on the pre-release materials and almost passed on it as a result, but I'm really glad I didn't. So this is kind of a weird game, and I think it's important to approach it with an open mind and on its own merits.

 

[Couchpotato]

The developer also released a new patch for those interested.

SpellForce: Conquest of Eo - Patch Announcement 01.00.27144 - Steam News

Esteemed mages, our game has been out for a week now and we couldn’t be happier with your reactions and feedback. We have been listening and reading as much as we can and we immediately got to work on improving the game and fixing any bugs you have encountered. The current patch contains over 60...

store.steampowered.com

 

[SSIGuy]

I'm 15 hours in and really enjoying it but as noted above, you really do need to approach it with an open mind. It does some things differently than you might expect in a turn-based 4x-like strategy game; which is part of what I like about it.

I'm still not certain how good replayabiltiy will be, given the one map and some story/progression mechanics that don't change much—but at this point on my first play-thru and given the price, I don't really care. It's been a lot of fun.

 

[Morrandir]

@Gwydden @SSIGuy Thanks for your impressions! Being open minded won't be a problem for me, I don't expect anything special. However I don't think that I would play the campaign map mor than once. So to decide if I want to buy it, I'd like to have a rough estimate on how long it will take to finish it once.

 

[SSIGuy]

So to decide if I want to buy it, I'd like to have a rough estimate on how long it will take to finish it once.

Might depend on your play-style. I'm playing a slower, cautious game, trying not to bring down all the enemy mages on me and at 15 hours in, I've only explored about a third of the map (maybe even a bit less)?

 

[notdart]

could never get it to run for technical reasons and when the first patch didn't fix the issue i gave up (windows 10, 1070, 16gb ram) and refunded the game. Who knows - not the only one with this issue but others can run it fine.

 

[Gwydden]

@Gwydden @SSIGuy Thanks for your impressions! Being open minded won't be a problem for me, I don't expect anything special. However I don't think that I would play the campaign map mor than once. So to decide if I want to buy it, I'd like to have a rough estimate on how long it will take to finish it once.

I haven't finished a playthrough yet because I wanted to try each class before choosing one for the long-haul, but I am about ten hours into my current playthrough (the longest one yet) and have only explored a couple regions. Based on the objectives, I would guesstimate I am no more than a third of the way through? The preview that convinced me to get the game mentioned being twenty hours in and nowhere near the end, though I agree with SSIGuy that it probably depends on how aggressively you play and how thorough you are exploring the map and doing quests. I like to be cautious and smell the roses.

could never get it to run for technical reasons and when the first patch didn't fix the issue i gave up (windows 10, 1070, 16gb ram) and refunded the game. Who knows - not the only one with this issue but others can run it fine.

My specs are Windows 10 Pro, 980, 8gb RAM and I've had no issues, if that helps anyone. I am not tech savvy at all, so frankly I cannot even tell whether that's better or worse than yours—even had to google how to look that stuff up

 

[benedictg]

@Gwydden @SSIGuy Thanks for your impressions! Being open minded won't be a problem for me, I don't expect anything special. However I don't think that I would play the campaign map mor than once. So to decide if I want to buy it, I'd like to have a rough estimate on how long it will take to finish it once.

The map is big! First play through as well there's a lot of figuring out what the rules are and how to work around passing different terrain types etc, as well as a lot of variation in the difficulty of fights so there's often a need to clear out easier bits of multiple regions rather than exhaustively clearing zones. There is a lot of randomness as well (or at least it seems random!) with little mini quests triggering all the time as you explore around which can lead to picking up different items & units or creating new monster spawning sites etc that all affect gameplay and pull you back to areas you've been before. The crafting and spellbooks I think will add a fair amount of replayability, certainly on artificier the combat strategy really revolves around getting the glyphs.

I'm quite a way off completing my first map even with 20+ hours of play so definitely think I'll get good value from it even with one playthrough, and would expect to come back to it for another run.