2003 video game
SpellForce: The Order of Dawn is a 2003 real-time strategy and role-playing video game, developed by Phenomic Game Development and published by Encore, Inc. The first instalment in the SpellForce series, the game takes place within a high-fantasy world in the years following a devastating cataclysmic event that has shattered the lands into several islands. The story itself focuses on an immortal slave who is granted their freedom in order to investigate growing troubles amongst some of these islands, which soon brings war to their inhabitants. The game combines elements of role-playing such as taking on quests, equipping characters and improving them when levelling up, alongside real-time strategy elements focused on gathering resources to construct bases and units. In addition to the game's story campaign, players can also engage in skirmish battles, and multiplayer matches.
The game was released in Europe on November 11, 2003,[1] and in North America on February 11, 2004. The Order of Dawn received favorable reviews, with two expansions later released for it by JoWooD Productions: SpellForce: The Breath of Winter in June 2004, and SpellForce: Shadow of the Phoenix in November that same year. Both the main game and the expansions were later re-released as a package titled SpellForce Platinum Edition in November 2005. The success of the game led to it spawning two sequels: SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars on August 21, 2006, and SpellForce 3 on December 7, 2017.
Gameplay
SpellForce is both a real-time strategy and role-playing video game played from the third-person perspective. In the game, players take on the role of a character that they create (an avatar) who explore a variety of maps, conducting quests and killing monsters, and earning experience to level up, improve skills, and unlock the ability to wield new equipment. Alongside their character, players can summon immortal warriors (deemed as "Runewarriors" in the game) who act like additional party members to help in exploration of the game world and combat, as well as armies of military units - done through gathering resources, building structures, and then recruiting units that are unlocked as a result - to help with large-scale battles.
As with traditional role-playing games, player-created characters can be assigned to one of three classes - fighter, archer or magician - with different stat points and allocated skills when being created. By increasing certain skills, players can equip their character to using new types of weapons and spells for combat. However, death does not permanently end the game – if a player has activated a monument called a "bindstone" on a map, then their character will re-spawn at if should they die in battle. In battles, players have access to a system that allows them to activate combat skills and spells depending on what is selected - if an enemy is selected, players can dictate which characters attack it, and what skills/spells are used on it. Allies that join the character level up as well, but usually remain a few levels behind the lead character; in addition, they may only be recruited by acquiring a runestone they are bound to and equipping it, with the player able to switch to other allies when needed. The game's real-time strategy elements occur when the player must use armies to accomplish objectives. Commanding the armies of the six-controllable races – humans, dwarves, elves, orcs, trolls and dark elves – requires owning a rune for their base's workers, as well as controlling that race's monument on a map. Base construction and unit recruiting requires gathering resources with worker units, as well as making upgrades to access new buildings and stronger units.
The game features an extensive campaign mode that covers a series of interlinked game maps, which become accessible as players make progress in the story. During the campaign, players can engage in two types of quests: Main Quests, which progress the story, provide access to new units and structures, provide new runes for use, and unlock new maps to explore; and Side Quests, which provide optional means of earning experience and other rewards. Quests are begun by finding an NPC in a game-map, and may sometimes require visiting another game map to complete is objectives. Alongside this, the players can also engage in Freeplay mode - which allows players to freely do what they want without quests on any map - as well as compete in multiplayer battles with other players.
Plot
Setting
SpellForce: The Order of Dawn takes place on Eo – a high-fantasy world inhabited by severals races, including humans, elves, drawves and orcs. Prior to the events of the story, Eo originally consisted of continents, islands and oceans, all formed by the god Aonir, which was slowly plagued by a major war between a group of thirteen powerful mages, known as "The Circle", who lusted for power; these mages formed armies, led by the strongest warriors and mages that imprisoned by their souls to become immortal beings known as Runewarriors. At the height of the war, one of the Circle invoked the Convocation – a ritual believed to grant immense power over the elementals that Aonir used to form Eo.
However, the Convocation proved too powerful – its activation freed the elementals, killing most of the Circle and their armies. Their resulting freedom effectively shattered Eo, breaking up its continents into a multitude of large islands that are now held together by structures known as Aonir's Tower, with an elemental sea replacing the oceans and preventing travel by ship. In the aftermath of the destructive event, one Circle mage, Ronin Tahir, worked to prevent the islands being isolated from each other by forming a portal network.
The game's single-player campaign takes place 8 years after the invoking of the Convocation, and focuses on the plight of a Runewarrior, whom Rohan freed from their imprisonment. The game's story covers a network of islands which originally formed the northern half of the continent of Fiara, and focuses on their efforts to stop the culprit behind the Convocation, known only as "The Dark One", from repeating events again.
Synopsis
During the final days of the war between the Circle mages, the mage Rohen attempts to stop another member of the Circle, known as the Dark One, from invoking the Convocation ritual. Despite his efforts, the Dark One completes the ritual, only to cause Eo to be shatted by the elementals that were used to form the world. 8 years later, after forming a portal network to keep the remaining landmasses of Eo connected, Rohen receives a powerful runestone from a former Circle servant, which he uses to summon forth a powerful Runewarrior. Freeing them from their enslavement to this fate, he instructs them to head for the town of Greyfell to receive further instructions. Shortly after Rohen leaves to investigate reports on strange creatures that were recently sighted in the region, the Runewarrior runs into an ambush by The Dark One, who they evade, but not before learning that Rohen is being led into a trap.
To prevent this, the Runewarrior forms an alliance with an outfit called The Order of Dawn, who request their aid in combatting armies of mercenaries and orcs who have invaded several islands in the region. After several battles, the Runewarrior catches up to Rohen in the Frostland Marchs, and warns them of the Dark One's trap. Surprised by this, the mage gives them the Book of Convocation, detailing its ritual, and informs them to find a powerful artifact for the Circle mage Hokan who can assist them. Shortly after this, Rohen is killed by the Dark One, who informs the Runewarrior that an age of war is coming, before blocking the route to his base with an army of black steel creatures referred to as the Iron Ones. Seeking out the artifact, the Runewarrior finds that Hokan, a necromancer, created the Irons Ones to deal with a rival's armies of demons. Upon learning the Dark One now controls them, he reveals that the only thing that can stop a Circle member is an artifact called the Phoenix Stone.
With this information, the Runewarrior seeks out and finds the artifact, only to learn the Order sacrificed several of its members to defeat the Iron Ones and their barricade. With little time left, the Runewarrior pursues after the Dark One, but in the process loses both the Book of Convocation and the Phoenix Stone in an ambush. Eventually, they confront the Dark One and supposedly defeats them, until the mage imprisons them. At this point the Runewarrior discovers the Dark One is actually a younger version of Rohen, who reveals that after the Convocation failed, he survived the cataclysm of the elementals and travelled through time to find what he needed in the future. Revealing that the Book and Stone were his target, he thanks the Runewarrior for their 'assistance', and proceed to go back to the past and attempt the Convocation again, in the hopes of doing it successfully.
However, in the ending cutscenes, it is revealed that the younger Rohen slowly learnt that the Convocation was a lie, only granting destruction. Remorseful, he eventually changed to become the Rohen who would try to prevent this, but in effect be caught in a time-loop that would allow events to repeat themselves, effectively ending the Circle's madness for good.
Reception
In the German market, SpellForce sold above 100,000 units by early 2004.[7]
Andrew Park from GameSpot said in his review of the game: ‘SpellForce's unique combination of role-playing and strategy elements makes it worth a look for fans of either kind of game.’ However he said about the voice-over ‘some of it is decent, though the rest is fairly bad.’ The game scores a 7.4 based on 24 reviews by GameSpot for Metacritic.[5] GameSpot later named it the best computer game of February 2004.[8]
In the review of Dan Adams of IGN the gameplay and graphics of the game were praised. However he said about the voice acting that it was some of the worst he had heard in a while. He gave the game an overall score of 8.2 out of 10.[6]
Alex Tsotsos from GameSpy said about the game that as a single-player game, SpellForce shines. However he said the game lacked ‘the plotline choices that mark the best RPGs.’ He also criticized the enemy AI and gave the game a score of 3 out of 5 stars.[4]
Awards
SpellForce and its expansion packs have been awarded with several awards at the Deutscher Entwicklerpreis:[9][10]
| Year
|
Placing
|
Category
|
Title
|
| 2004
|
1st
|
Best soundtrack and in-game sound
|
SpellForce - Breath of Winter
|
| Best cutscenes
|
| 2nd
|
Best cutscenes
|
SpellForce - The Order of Dawn
|
| Best interface
|
SpellForce - Breath of Winter
|
| Best graphics
|
| 3rd
|
Best mid-price game
|
| 2005
|
2nd
|
Best level and game design
|
SpellForce - Shadow of the Phoenix
|
| Best role-playing/adventure game
|
| 3rd
|
Best soundtrack and in-game sound
|
| Best story/lore
|
Expansions
Breath of Winter
The first expansion, Breath of Winter, was released on June 25, 2004, and focused on a new story that takes place after the events of The Order of Dawn. In this expansions, players assume the role of a Runewarrior who is summoned by the leaders of a group of refugees to provide them assistance. However, events soon descend into chaos when the group find themselves working alongside a race of ice-elves to prevent a powerful entity reviving two dark gods that could plunge Eo into darkness. Alongside the new campaign and the enemies it introduces, the expansion brought several improvements to the original gameplay, including new items and spells for use in all game modes.
Shadow of the Phoenix
The second expansion, Shadow of the Phoenix, was released on November 12, 2004, and focused on a story that takes place after the events of Breath of Winter. In this story, players assume the role of a Runewarrior who is summoned to help stop the madness of the necromancer Hokan, who has come back to life thanks to the events in The Order of Dawn. They soon find themselves on a quest to stop Hokan achieving unimaginable power that could make them a god, finding themselves dealing the resurrected souls of the mages of Circle in the process. The expansion features a more difficult campaign aimed for characters who are above level 28 - while players can choose to play as pre-defined avatars, they may also import those created for The Order of Dawn or Breath of Winter, but only if they are above the minimum level requirement for the expansion. In addition to this, the expansion also introduced two new types of units for the playable races, new maps for Freeplay and multiplayer modes, and allows players to choose whether to use the original PvP game rules, or those of Shadow of the Phoenix, though they may not engage players using the other set as a result.
