SpellForce 2: Demons of the Past: Review
Series SpellForce turned out to be unique in every sense. She was the first to show how to competently and efficiently mix the strategy in real time and RPG. And now he sets other, not so unambiguous records – this is the only game for today, the official additions to which are released after 6-8 years, continue the story interrupted by half -corner and do not change the usual game mechanics for iot.
SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars She came out in 2006, at that time she looked very good at that time and generally deserved high marks. A year later we saw an addition Dragon Storm. The authors promised another, Faith in Destiny, But the development frankly dragged on. For five years. During this time, almost everything has changed: the developer and publisher changed, completely new trends in the market appeared, online and the conditionally deposit model captured the world, and the genre of classic strategies in real time practically died out. Only the love of fans for the series remained unchanged SpellForce – It was on this that the new masters from Nordic Games. At first they brought the development to a logical conclusion Faith in Destiny (the release took place in 2012), and two years later, after several transfers, they released the next, this time seemed to be the last addition- Demons of the Past.
SpellForce 2: Never-Ending
Focusing on fans, the authors decided to ignore almost all the modern trends that happened in the industry in recent years. AND Faith in Destiny, And now Demons of the Past – This, in fact, is the same SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars 2006, only with a new plot, improved graphics, new spells, objects and a pair of fresh modes.
We still run by the party Bradforddisabilitysports of heroes in meadows, fantasy cities and towns, communicate with quest characters, take tasks, trading, kill some living creatures or monsters, gain levels and generally behave like in a regular party RPG. But then the moment inevitably comes when the main villain and the enemy begins to rebuild the base and produce the army of the minions. Then we have to do the same.
Here, quite traditional RTS begins: cheap labor mines resources, builds warehouses for their storage, different barracks for hiring all kinds of fighters, special buildings for the “upgrade” of soldiers, and so on. Neither the interface, nor types and quantity of resources, nor restriction on the size of the army, or the fact that all aspects of the conflict (and after Faith in Destiny Their number increased to five!), by and large, differ from each other only by the types and appearance of “units”.
At the same time as the base of the base, no one prevents you from continuing to play RPG: all the same by the party of heroes, “swing”, perform some side quests, collect the merchant’s things scattered on the map, or look for his lost dog, free the villages from undead and periodically commit sabotage against the main evil. Well, then, when you accumulate a decent army and study all the “upgrades”, a decisive assault time comes.
We are waiting for changes!
Of course, the authors (both last additions were made by the studio Mind Over Matter) tried to introduce something more fresh, modern. IN Faith in Destiny Domination mode has appeared, where players fought for control points. And in Demons of the Past added Free Game Mode, which allows you to play RTS or RPG cards, including in a cooperative;as well as the currently fashionable Survival online mode: there you are not just fighting off the waves of enemies and periodically buy new “units”, but you still “pump” and explore the territory in search of special spheres and chests that give certain bonuses.
However, all these are just optional superstructures, the same bonuses that do not affect the main mechanics. And if in Faith in Destiny We were more happy that after a long break again returned to their favorite game, and watched a really exciting story, now we are rather perplexed why we have to do the same thing again and again.
In addition, the plot in Demons of the Past It does not catch – you need to stop the villain and save the world, listening to pathos receptions in the spirit of “you thought that it will end with this?! Ha ha ha! Everything is just beginning!”. The nonlinearity of the script, the introduction of the second campaign for the “villains” – all this could save the game, but there is nothing like that here.
And against this background, long -standing problems are becoming especially noticeable: uncomfortable control and interface, where it is impossible to hang skills on “hot keys”, monotonous mechanics of protecting the base with constant rebuilding of rifle towers, primitive AI and enemies, which allows one to “make them out” from the group one at a time.
“Demons of the past” – a very successful and symbolic name. The game itself is clearly suffering from them. It’s good, of course, that the series did not turn into another conditionally-free “browser” and did not overgrown with its own social superstructure. But now it has become too obvious that it has turned into a dusty museum of historical values for fans, the keepers of which do not want to at least elementarily improve management. In this form, of course, she has no future. And it’s good that Demons of the Past will be the last addition-you still need to somehow finish this epic until it finally turned into a joke. Now we will better wait for the collectible card SpellForce 2: Master of War. And secretly hope for a full -fledged and truly updated third part.
Pros: Time -tested mixture of strategy in real time and RPG;New survival regime.
Cons: The game was mothballed at the level of 2006 and does not want to change in any way;outdated graphics;Unknown management.