SpellForce: Conquest of Eo - Review @ Gamebanshee

Gamebanshee has reviewed the strategy RPG SpellForce: Conquest of Eo:

 SpellForce: Conquest of Eo - Review

Released back in 2003 hot on the heels of WarCraft III, SpellForce: The Order of Dawn was following what was supposed to become this big trend of combining the RPG and RTS genres. Far from a mere clone, the original SpellForce tipped the design scales closer to the RPG side of things, offering entire sections that played like a more traditional action-RPG in a fantasy setting that gladly embraced all the cheesy clichés.

The game was followed by several expansions and a proper sequel that had its own share of post-launch content. Afterward, the series laid dormant until THQ Nordic and Grimlore Games resurrected it in late 2017 with SpellForce III. The new entry experimented with a more grounded tone and acted as a prequel to the first SpellForce.

But seeing how, unlike in the early 2000s, it's the turn-based games that get people going these days, THQ Nordic has apparently decided to hedge their bets. Enter Owned by Gravity and SpellForce: Conquest of Eo - a turn-based take on the long-running series.

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Conclusion

A somewhat askew balance of narrative and sandbox content, a haphazard approach to combat arenas, and a far from stellar UI prevent SpellForce: Conquest of Eo from becoming an instant, probably cult, classic.

But even so, it's still easily one of the best and most engaging video games in recent memory thanks to its complex interconnected systems, satisfying level of challenge, emergent elements, and that hard-to-pin-down "just one more turn" feel.