SpellForce 3

 PC
User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 187 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 126 out of 187
  2. Mixed: 32 out of 187
  3. Negative: 29 out of 187
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  1. Maedskillz
    Dec 30, 2018
    6
    I was big fan of spellforce trilogy so i was very hyped for spellforce 3, but to be honest game was dissapointment to me, i finished game after 20 hours (on steam gametime) with very little side quests, 6 is for RPG part of the game and slellforce feeling, RTS part is terrible, battles are one big chaos and game is pretty simple so it doesnt really matter what units you use or whatI was big fan of spellforce trilogy so i was very hyped for spellforce 3, but to be honest game was dissapointment to me, i finished game after 20 hours (on steam gametime) with very little side quests, 6 is for RPG part of the game and slellforce feeling, RTS part is terrible, battles are one big chaos and game is pretty simple so it doesnt really matter what units you use or what abilities, just make big army and attack if you losse make big army again and attack till you beat everyone. Only 3 skills per character including aura is very little too. Graphics are okay, story is not mind blowing but it was okay too. I hope that with new expansion and new playable races they will be abble to make RTS part more enjoyble.… Expand
  2. Haveaseatson
    Dec 18, 2017
    3
    This game will lure you in with it's pretty graphics and generally great sound track, if you stick along for the ride you will however eventually be beaten in to submission through the absolutely unforgiveable amount of game breaking bugs, bland game play, and awful balancing.

    The RTS and RPG components are both weak, shallow, husks of what they claim to be, for example, almost every    This game will lure you in with it's pretty graphics and generally great sound track, if you stick along for the ride you will however eventually be beaten in to submission through the absolutely unforgiveable amount of game breaking bugs, bland game play, and awful balancing.

    The RTS and RPG components are both weak, shallow, husks of what they claim to be, for example, almost every time you are given a base and attempt to settle in for a round of RTS fun you will quickly realize that the quickest and easiest path to victory is to simply select your 4 heroes and run to the enemy base and kill everything and their town, you can do this because of the terrible balancing, heroes can demolish entire armies with easy while trainable units are very weak, are expensive, and die easily, and are basically just a giant chore to build and command.

    The RPG side of things are equally as bad, at first you will have fun collecting loot and building your heroes up but eventually you will find that almost all items are the same and you are just running around doing pointless busy work with no pay off, the skill trees are simple and short and skills are boring.

    The way the story is presented is boring and I found myself just mashing the space bar to skip the endless yawn-fest dialogue bombardment.

    The game is a massive disappointment and you can easily see that It could have been a masterpiece if the mechanics were fleshed out with a bit more thought, and the game was actually play tested prior to release to get rid of all the bugs.    … Expand
  3. Wols
    Jan 29, 2018
    5
    Had bought Spellforce III specifically to play with two other friends, as stated by THQ that this game would be a multiplayer faceted game.

    Once we got through the porting issue with the router to reduce the absurd lag and ping times, we were then subjected to non-stop load and wait time screens. Everytime we entered a new level or area, we were all sent back to the lobby whilst we    Had bought Spellforce III specifically to play with two other friends, as stated by THQ that this game would be a multiplayer faceted game.

    Once we got through the porting issue with the router to reduce the absurd lag and ping times, we were then subjected to non-stop load and wait time screens. Everytime we entered a new level or area, we were all sent back to the lobby whilst we waiting for, again more load screens.

    Once we were actually able to get into the game, again the movement, selection and combat of each character required precision in communication due to only 1 player being able to have a character selected to do anything. And that was even if you had three characters to choose from. For those who have played the game; you will know that there are only two characters to utilize after the introduction for some time.

    Unlike say Divinity II: Original Sin; this RTS/RPG is at times appalling designed for multiplayer. Key bindings are absolutely terrible (in either option you choose) and require sometime to suit what would be deemed appropriate format/setup.

    Storyline is actually appealing, however for a multiplayer game (which is what we had bought the game for) it's just terrible. I would recommend to stay away from this one, unless wanting to play solo.    … Expand
  4. Shikyo
    Dec 12, 2017
    10
    After reading a lot of user reviews here, I can't help but wonder how many of the people writing bad critics actually played the game longer than just the intro before the character creation.
    Personally, I got reminded of Spellforce 1 a lot, I was a bit disappointed of the lack of playable races and the fact that yet again you have to play a human (the character creation itself was well    After reading a lot of user reviews here, I can't help but wonder how many of the people writing bad critics actually played the game longer than just the intro before the character creation.
    Personally, I got reminded of Spellforce 1 a lot, I was a bit disappointed of the lack of playable races and the fact that yet again you have to play a human (the character creation itself was well done, I loved the implementation of different body types). I heard about expansions and them planning to add the other races so that's why this point is irrelevant to my rating.
    I can only praise the storytelling and writing, it feels authentic, darker than its predecessors, the characters are extremly well written and made the RPG part of the game yet again the most important one with the strategy aspect remaining a little flawed compared to pure RTS games. Actually, the implementation of real RPG companions like in good old Neverwinter, DOS, PoE etc was done way better than I expected - I was surprised to find myself enjoying to play with a team rather than controlling a single character as I preferred in Spellforce 1. I was also surprised and happy to see a base in the game and then such a beautifully designed one.
    RPG part deserves a 10/10 from my side.

    Now, the "bugs" everyone seems to be talking about so much. I am well aware that everyone has different ones and a different experience but I'm gonna be honest, after about 25 hours of gameplay I have encountered only one single bug which was an NPC in Greyfell being constantly stuck between my two characters due to body block, so technically not even a bug (and I managed to get rid of him without reloading). Again, it's different for everyone but I can't say I shared this bad experience of others and even if, DOS2 had a LOT more bugs after its release and yet no one was rating the game so much by them so I don't understand why it's the case here, please be a bit more fair or at least wait a few weeks, the game was just released.

    Now, the RTS part... While staying true to the Spellforce 1 experience, I found it lacked improvement in comparison to that. I often got frustrated because apparently the best strategy is still to strike as fast as possible with little to no planning or building and I felt like the more you build, the less chances to win you actually have (doesn't sound very immersive, does it?) because you obviously can't do so many things at the same time and there's the catch: A simple "pause" option would solve that problem so you can order your workers to build and assign them to their tasks and order/reposition and plan your troop movements meanwhile. I understand this feeling of a "rush" was intented and supposed to feel more realistic because in real war you can't just pause to plan but then again it's usually not a single person doing it and the game mechanics itself are limiting.

    Then, the controls... I still cannot get used to them and as soon as I play something else I will have to get used to them every time again, making things "different" doesn't always mean "better", that's definitely a major flaw and even when rebinding keys, the interface itself is confusing and switching from 3 skills to the next is overly complicated, a simple skillbar would have served this purpose way better. Holding Alt to use skills also felt inconvenient and in larger battles it's incredibly hard to select the right unit. What I liked is the option of slowmotion during holding Alt and not just pause, after a while it's actually getting more fun to play like that but I wonder if this couldn't have been done in a simpler way as well.

    To sum it all up, I have to say this is a very well done game in my opinion and certainly comparable to other and bigger game releases this year, namely DOS2. The start in Spellforce 3 is slow but once you get to a certain point, the game is absolutelty enjoyable and the complicated controls and flaws in the RTS system don't break this picture for me.    … Expand
  5. Mattaj
    Dec 9, 2017
    5
    If you are looking for a Spellforce game, you will not find it here. Almost none of the good things from Spellforce 1 and 2 was kept, skills became more limited, controls are one of the worst. The things that improved were probably only graphics and AI.
    The things that you probably enjoyed in the past games are either changed for worse or removed.
    After playing the beta I was having    If you are looking for a Spellforce game, you will not find it here. Almost none of the good things from Spellforce 1 and 2 was kept, skills became more limited, controls are one of the worst. The things that improved were probably only graphics and AI.
    The things that you probably enjoyed in the past games are either changed for worse or removed.
    After playing the beta I was having second thoughts about the preorder but I thought, remember, it is only a beta, it will improve. After playing for hours, I have decided to come back to Spellforce 1 to remove bad taste after Spellforce 3 if you can even call it that. They should create a separate name for this thing.
    Of course, if you like strategy games, you may enjoy this game but as I am one of the hardcore fans, I feel cheated by the people behind this game and my experience is mostly negative. After couple patches (which will hopefully fix the controls), I may come back to the game but I have many other games which are better and I still did not have time to finish them.    … Expand
  6. Aceor
    Nov 18, 2019
    8
    Never played first or second one but man what a great story, graphics beautiful and love the rts/rpg element. For the bugs haven't seen many and devs fix asap whit updates.
  7. Scritty
    Dec 8, 2017
    10
    There are a few bugs for sure and multiplayer is not particularly well implemented (yet) There is also confusion over character customization - which is not revealed until after the first two missions. This lack of transparency has lead to some angry reviews from many who think the customization does not exist (that's how important being able to personalise an experience is these days).There are a few bugs for sure and multiplayer is not particularly well implemented (yet) There is also confusion over character customization - which is not revealed until after the first two missions. This lack of transparency has lead to some angry reviews from many who think the customization does not exist (that's how important being able to personalise an experience is these days). The initial missions are not taxing and don't showcase the game as well as they might either. But...

    Once you get through that - the game is very very good indeed. I don't play multiplayer but have some sympathy for those who want to use it, but as a single player experience the game really is A1 quality. Just play through the first couple of missions - they are there for noobs and the game opens up nicely after that    … Expand
  8. Lordgrey
    Dec 12, 2017
    3
    Its too bugged, too simplified, too casual, camera is ugly, just a few heroes spells and have no any individuality in game races. Any way you still can play it and have some fun, but it didnt worth 50$, it more compare to 15-20$ indie project
  9. razordaman
    Jan 1, 2020
    1
    The game is awful. You can barely control you characters and everything seems to be going at light speed. This isn't a good RTS or RPG games. The graphics look good but the rest is garbage
  10. Myselfandyou
    Jul 20, 2018
    5
    This could be an amazing game. But some aspects leave it only in the doors being just another semi-rts title expecting too much from the players.

    Graphics are amazing. Sound is amazing. The work on the story and dialogues is amazing too. Now. What i do not like - Endless loading screens. Seriously??? i mean, even for loading the world map you need to wait a loading screen that in    This could be an amazing game. But some aspects leave it only in the doors being just another semi-rts title expecting too much from the players.

    Graphics are amazing. Sound is amazing. The work on the story and dialogues is amazing too.

    Now. What i do not like

    - Endless loading screens. Seriously??? i mean, even for loading the world map you need to wait a
    loading screen that in some cases, will take over more than a minute to load. Unacceptable in 2018.

    - RTS? this game is not a strategic game. I mean, the AI cheats you constantly building units with non stop relying in unlimited resources lol.

    - Bugs. Serioulsy, i did stop playing this game because of bugs. Specifically one of em that will prevent me to advance throgh the main story line.

    - Missions with missleading instructions. Sometimes you dont even know what to do , or better yet, how to do it. Sometimes you will get killed for osme reason because you failed to achieve an objetive that apparently, wasnt mentioned in the mission instructions. And things like that.

    And some other things. But the most annoying thing about this game is the loading screens, and bugs, a shame because this could be one of the greatest, but again, you cant complain about piracy if you keep releasing unpolished and rushed games.    … Expand
  11. jonnyvix
    May 29, 2021
    0
    The game is as good as poorly explained in all its mechanics. You often end up clueless just because you mis-clicked a 16x16 pixel rock somewhere. If you're willing to put the time, there's a gem somewhere buried in the dirt. If not, well, it's on gamepass.
  12. guinevere2
    Dec 9, 2017
    2
    Beautiful on the outside, ugly inside. This game has terrible controls, Imagine playing Pillars of Eternity or Baldur's Gate but controlling not 6 but 60 units with no possibility of pause at all to issue commands. Total chaos and zerg are the only strategy here, no chance for any tactical approach whatsoever. On top of that the beautiful graphic is totally misplaced - very often treesBeautiful on the outside, ugly inside. This game has terrible controls, Imagine playing Pillars of Eternity or Baldur's Gate but controlling not 6 but 60 units with no possibility of pause at all to issue commands. Total chaos and zerg are the only strategy here, no chance for any tactical approach whatsoever. On top of that the beautiful graphic is totally misplaced - very often trees and building simply obscure the units and heroes, and the details of the units and environment are not visible outside close zoom anyway. Also heroes are premade and one cannot customize them the way it was possible in previous games. Disappointment of the year for me, just next to DOW III.… Expand
  13. raadoo
    Dec 10, 2017
    6
    i think i spent about 20 hours in the game, the save game says it's 12,5 h, but i had to replay some things. so... the game is ok. the story seems ok, i want to continue playing, rpg "part" is well done, but.. the rts is really not well thought out. first of all, the controls suck, no active pause with so many units to control while you have to target your abilities is just nuts, placingi think i spent about 20 hours in the game, the save game says it's 12,5 h, but i had to replay some things. so... the game is ok. the story seems ok, i want to continue playing, rpg "part" is well done, but.. the rts is really not well thought out. first of all, the controls suck, no active pause with so many units to control while you have to target your abilities is just nuts, placing buildings, controlling workers and everything else requires way too much map scrolling and clicking. secondly, there is no time to grow and prepare, everything happens very fast, with more sectors under control it's practically impossible to keep track of everything and react, yet it seems the only way to go is to expand quickly. and i guess i could forgive all of this, even the fact, that i had to replay one part of the story, because an event did not trigger and it was impossible to finish a quest, or that a fishing hut next to a river full of fish is idle and does not produce food, but when suddenly my base just blows up, while i'm not even attacked and i have no idea what the hell is going on it's a bit too much. i've been replaying this rts mission for half a day, and when i finally thought i developed a sound strategy... my base just blows up with no explanation. is there a time limit? did the other faction develop a nuke? what the hell? i'm not even sure if it's a bug or if it's intended. also, the tutorial does not really explain much in terms of the rts part and you have to learn by trial and error, clicking and checking... so... needs some bug fixing, but i guess it won't help the rts part much, because it seems just badly designed in terms of gameplay and ui. it's a pity, because the rpg part is quite fun, and i would like to continue playing. so it's 8 for the rpg part, but bugs, ui problems and rts part make it a 6.… Expand
  14. kaomax
    Dec 8, 2017
    10
    If you are a League of Legends players looking for an easy game where you just use 4 keys and cry over others moms, this game isn't for you.

    + Finally a real RTS full of well thought complexity that makes the gameplay rich and interesting. + Graphics are quite good compared to any other RTS on the market since 10 years. + no dumb 1000 vs 1000 units like Starcraft + challenging game    If you are a League of Legends players looking for an easy game where you just use 4 keys and cry over others moms, this game isn't for you.

    + Finally a real RTS full of well thought complexity that makes the gameplay rich and interesting.
    + Graphics are quite good compared to any other RTS on the market since 10 years.
    + no dumb 1000 vs 1000 units like Starcraft
    + challenging game that will make you use your brain
    + incredible tolkien level story-telling
    + support this game so it became the reference RTS of this generation    … Expand
  15. KingsmanAgent
    Dec 7, 2017
    10
    Amazing game, nothing like Wacraft 3 or Age of Empires level of amazing but still insanely good.

    A consistent RTS with some little RPG bult in, it offers awesome soundtracks and gorgeous graphics. Top notch quality right here
  16. Syrona
    Dec 8, 2017
    7
    This game is MEEEEEEHHH... It's not bad, but really for 50$ it's not worth it. The interface is really really bad and the graphics are average. Didn't really find anything making me want to continue past the 2 hours mark for Steam refund.
  17. marc5477
    Dec 12, 2017
    6
    Slightly above average and has potential but is incredibly boring in single player and absolutely packed with bugs. Quests not advancing, quests getting interrupted by NPC banter, loot not generating, etc. The quests not advancing is definitely game breaking though to their credit they did patch the one I had (refugees quest) so I was able to advance eventually.

    I will also give them    Slightly above average and has potential but is incredibly boring in single player and absolutely packed with bugs. Quests not advancing, quests getting interrupted by NPC banter, loot not generating, etc. The quests not advancing is definitely game breaking though to their credit they did patch the one I had (refugees quest) so I was able to advance eventually.

    I will also give them credit for good story telling and character development early in the game (I stopped about 20 hours in due to boredom) but this was not enough to keep me interested.

    The real downer to this game is its not good at anything. Combat has no strategy to speak of and RTS elements feel shallow compared to a full feature RTS. RPG elements are equally uninteresting and although there are several skill trees, many skills/spells are similar across several trees. For example, every mage tree (and archery tree whatever it was called) has some sort of missile attack and they all look the same and most have the same effect (interrupt or similar) and similar damage plus or minus 10%-20%. The RPG trees are also boring. There is nothing here that we havent seen 100x over in every generic RPG ever created. There are a few combo attacks that require bleeding or stun to work but thats about as deep as the RPG combat gets. There is nothing to set it apart. No unique classes, no unique builds, no interesting gear and certainly not much strategy in combat.

    Again this is not a bad game but I just cant enjoy the combat and I hate all the slow running around. Give it a shot if you want, but keep your expectations low.    … Expand
  18. Evelynn
    Dec 19, 2017
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Too many bugs, + they did fix some but not all and not before I completed the game. I was a big fan of Spellforce 2 and Spellforce Dragon Storm. This game goes no where near those games as far as playability or storyline, even though they are old games with old school graphics. I had waited years for this game and am disappointed. The camera gave me the ----- until I worked out Ctrl and mm moved it. The graphics are good but the characters are very small on the map and you can't zoom in close enough. I also prefer 3rd person view for the rpg segments which you don't have. Spellforce 2 and Dragon Storm had a much broader storyline. I loved (in those games) that you took on a new race and broadened your understanding of those races by playing in different territory and yet it all flowed on and underpinned through it was the main storyline. Spellforce 3 does not have that, you get a bit of a play with other races but mostly human and the storyline with the other race was fractured no flow through. Did my head in that one of the characters voice was the actor from The Witcher. Also guys abominations and circle mage, straight out of Dragon Age, you should come up with your own ideas not steal from other games.… Expand
  19. Yosa
    Dec 14, 2017
    2
    The developers spent there time devoted to scenery and little beyond that, there is a story an RTS element and an RPG aspect but all are fleshed out in a bland and tedious(sometimes asinine) manner.

    Story- is your general dialog driven slog with no interesting angles to explore, no relevant dialog options and no tie ins to dialog checks for different outcomes that you may see in other    The developers spent there time devoted to scenery and little beyond that, there is a story an RTS element and an RPG aspect but all are fleshed out in a bland and tedious(sometimes asinine) manner.

    Story- is your general dialog driven slog with no interesting angles to explore, no relevant dialog options and no tie ins to dialog checks for different outcomes that you may see in other games, it is linear and poorly done; the characters are lifeless and npcs are only thereto drive the next piece of dialog forward rather than provide any depth to the game.

    RTS- This is just ridiculous in every way.
    - AI does its normal infinite resources spam units at your base style rush that it acquires at a remarkably fast pace, tying you to your defense points rather being able to focus on base and expansion.
    -Base Building, HQ starts in a predefined spot giving you little choice of where it is best to set up, the build areas are blocked at every angle by a mess of map assets, roads and other unusable terrain making choice of placement impossible. There is a limited worker system in place instead of letting you build a work force, artificially forcing you to juggle which resources to focus on; your supplies are not centralized and when an outpost is lacking it prompts worker carts to start supply runs pulling from one outpost and moving around the chain of linked outpost, its tedious and time consuming and does not balance at all with the AI ability to forgo all that and just spam rush your base. Defense towers are not very defensible and again are manned by your workers making them limited, if you can place them properly at all.

    RPG- I really despise the way character building is done in this game, it is very limited and seems like a half baked job. There are skill sets, stats and gear as is with many RPG types.
    You will have little choice in the skill sets you acquire on you main, other heroes come predefined,
    of those skills many seem redundant or useless , most are combat oriented and will provide no lateral game play, timers on timed skills are pitifully thought out; instead of a tool bar and hotkeys, each hero will get only 3 slots to put skills onto for use, this includes persistent aura skills(but not passive skills), the whole skill system misses the mark and is a let down.
    Stats are required to equip better gear and are responsible for enhancing the damage of different stat based weapons,except intelligence, all intelligence does is enhance certain spells. Stats cap at 10(not including gear). Con increases life, Will increases focus, that's about it.
    Gear is absurdly bland, you will find countless stashes and acquire dozens of weapons and armor in the first few maps only to see they are much the same things. Because most of your weapon damage is tied to stats it makes much of what you find irrelevant, it will also for the most part make shops irrelevant. As for rare gear and items, they provide better bonuses but are largely as irrelevant.

    Bugs- There are many campaign and game breaking bugs among the slew of minor ones.one the annoyed me but didn't wreck the game to that point. I had done a quest sequence out of order, after I had beaten the map, I went to another area to perform a quest that was gotten during the map, upon returning to the previous map, the world map was locked because the present map was in RTS mode; locking the world map in RTS mode is a bad mechanic as it is.
    The game breaker for me was returning to the refuge camp and been given a quest to free the villagers, which were located inside the enemy town, the town had locked gates at all entrances which I could not attack because they were flagged as friendly and there is no force attack option, quest incompleteable, game over.
    There are a myriad of other game breaking bugs and quest problems on the forums to add to my experience that seem like they should have passed testing, if there was proper beta testing and not that early access bug reporting that so many companies do now.

    This game has some bad game mechanics and equally bad design choices, I found myself using my hero party to beat the maps before I trigger the RTS parts because I hated the AI and base placement limitations, there is no real gear progression, the character progression is limited and the skill and stat systems are shallow. In all I consider the story and game play a slog and am largely disappointed, could have done with out the breakable quests as well.    … Expand
  20. Askkosh
    Dec 7, 2017
    3
    Spellforce III : the Spell-weak game.
    This game is a Spellforce lookalike. Do you consider naming Spellforce a game when a hero can only use 3 spells ? When each school of magic is about a couple of spells ?
    RTS and RPG: a little bit of each, enough to write RTS/RPg on their advertising. Where are are the Spellforce I skill trees ? Where are the Spellforce II resources ? It's like    Spellforce III : the Spell-weak game.
    This game is a Spellforce lookalike. Do you consider naming Spellforce a game when a hero can only use 3 spells ? When each school of magic is about a couple of spells ?
    RTS and RPG: a little bit of each, enough to write RTS/RPg on their advertising. Where are are the Spellforce I skill trees ? Where are the Spellforce II resources ?
    It's like putting the worst of two games to make another one. A clever idea : put the BEST in the next...
    Waiting for Spellforce IV.    … Expand
  21. Franky_Franky
    Dec 27, 2017
    10
    Das Spiel unterhält mich, bin bis jetzt sehr zufrieden.
    Habe schon über 30 Std. damit verbracht, und hatte keinen einzigen Absturz, oder sonstige schwerwiegende Fehler.
    Grafik ist ok, der Ton ist der Hammer auch die Deutsche Vertonung ist Super.
    Die negative Bewertungen kann ich nicht nachvollziehen.
  22. Serafion
    Dec 26, 2017
    9
    I encountered only 2 bugs in the game, one was repaired by repeating the mission and thankfully it was fairly early in the mission and the second was entering some unimportant cave where I could not move. So it seems I have been quite lucky in comparison to others.
    Anyway, about qualities of the game. The story is great, maybe even better than in the previous Spellforce games, because it    I encountered only 2 bugs in the game, one was repaired by repeating the mission and thankfully it was fairly early in the mission and the second was entering some unimportant cave where I could not move. So it seems I have been quite lucky in comparison to others.
    Anyway, about qualities of the game. The story is great, maybe even better than in the previous Spellforce games, because it feels more personal and immersive... like your character was really there and an integral part of the story. Or maybe that's just what I like. So, the RPG part of the game is great, especially when you have multiple choices how to deal with different problems and you can react however you want to role-play your character. The RTS aspect is a little weaker, though. At first, I was sceptical about the art style of the game, which changed and lost the sex appeal and colourfulness of the previous games, but in the end, the graphics look really great, with animated leaves on trees, shadows of clouds, the locations are varied and interesting and have great atmosphere. Oh, and the soundtrack is one of the best I heard in some time. There are more things that could be said, but this is just a small Metacritic review.    … Expand
  23. deathweeper
    Dec 17, 2017
    8
    I like this game but it still has a few glaring problems that keep it from being as good as it deserves to be. The campaign starts of really well I felt that the story was amazing, the missions lackluster but it was still fun. However here is the problem (except for all the bugs) yo you start of a mission and you think great i am making progress it was nice and now i will just wipe out theI like this game but it still has a few glaring problems that keep it from being as good as it deserves to be. The campaign starts of really well I felt that the story was amazing, the missions lackluster but it was still fun. However here is the problem (except for all the bugs) yo you start of a mission and you think great i am making progress it was nice and now i will just wipe out the enemy base, but o wait not enough resources i gotta conquer more territory, gotta collect build and that one last simple objective now suddenly takes an extra two to four hours to deal with. This game deserves a bit of a lower score but I really like rts and rpg games so I gave it a higher one. Overall if you love the last game or similar ones you will like this one but otherwise this will not win you over, good story but otherwise rinse, repeat and grind.… Expand
  24. CesarV
    Dec 2, 2020
    0
    A huge disappointment compared to spellforce 1 and 2.

    It's a shame they couldn't simply copy the old games, and chose instead to make a broken version of dawn of war.

    Why can't these devs have their own ideas and chose instead to steal ideas from others? Even the trolls expansion is a blatant copy from battle realms.
  25. KalrocVN
    Jan 14, 2018
    10
    The best way I can describe this game is a character and narrative driven fantasy RPG along the lines of Baldur's Gate I/II and Dragon Age Origins with a few RTS-based "narrative quests".

    That means that most of gameplay will feel like Baldur's Gate with you controlling a party, then the story will require that you play a map that layers RTS elements on top of normal gameplay (e.g.,    The best way I can describe this game is a character and narrative driven fantasy RPG along the lines of Baldur's Gate I/II and Dragon Age Origins with a few RTS-based "narrative quests".

    That means that most of gameplay will feel like Baldur's Gate with you controlling a party, then the story will require that you play a map that layers RTS elements on top of normal gameplay (e.g., building construction, resource gathering, unit recruiting similar to Warcraft/Starcraft). So overall the game feels like a party-based RPG. I do enjoy the RTS sections as a something fresh and particularly epic after party-based adventuring.

    Note that the first chapter is more of an RTS tutorial and prologue that merely sets up the main story and characters - the first lead character that you control is NOT the protagonist.

    The writing, characters, voice acting, art direction, and music are all excellent. This is what Pillars of Eternity should have looked and felt like. If you are an RPG lover like me, this is the best game to come along in years.    … Expand
  26. AthanasiosT
    Apr 8, 2020
    3
    If you haven't played Spellforce I or II, it's an ok game. If you have previous Spellforce experience, stay away from it. Where to begin? The graphics are good, but the units are often hidden by trees or grass. The treasure chests are too small. The camera awkward to control. The angle of view too steep. The AI is sometimes stupid (I have seen soldiers standing, while a building next toIf you haven't played Spellforce I or II, it's an ok game. If you have previous Spellforce experience, stay away from it. Where to begin? The graphics are good, but the units are often hidden by trees or grass. The treasure chests are too small. The camera awkward to control. The angle of view too steep. The AI is sometimes stupid (I have seen soldiers standing, while a building next to them was under attack). It requires too much micromanagement. The RPG element is downgraded (too short ability trees). Building placement is problematic (I've been trying to turn and place a barracks in a field for far too long). Occasional bug threw me out of game. Too long loading time. Etc,etc. Really disappointed by it… Expand
  27. Piter_Ballack
    Mar 3, 2020
    10
    Impresionantemente bueno el juego. Perfecta combinación entre RTS y RPG. La campaña es muy entretenida y larga, enfocada mas en RPG (70-30).
    Mientras que por otra parte el multipplayer y skirmish es al reves (70 RTS y 30 RPG), lo que lo hace un juegazo para ambos modos.
    La gráfica es increible, probablemente sea lo mejor actualmente en el genero (RTS), y la banda sonora uufff, realmente    Impresionantemente bueno el juego. Perfecta combinación entre RTS y RPG. La campaña es muy entretenida y larga, enfocada mas en RPG (70-30).
    Mientras que por otra parte el multipplayer y skirmish es al reves (70 RTS y 30 RPG), lo que lo hace un juegazo para ambos modos.
    La gráfica es increible, probablemente sea lo mejor actualmente en el genero (RTS), y la banda sonora uufff, realmente de calidad.
    Sin dudas deben jugarlo!    … Expand
  28. belsel
    Jun 6, 2019
    9
    This game is underrated. Ok, its not as good as Original Sin and it has several things I dont like, but it provides +50 hours of play, a good story, a fair progression system and it is very enjoyable. I recommend it but I want to comment the negative aspects of the game:
    -The story loses interest towards the middle of the game.
    -Once you discover all the maps, they send you missions in    This game is underrated. Ok, its not as good as Original Sin and it has several things I dont like, but it provides +50 hours of play, a good story, a fair progression system and it is very enjoyable. I recommend it but I want to comment the negative aspects of the game:
    -The story loses interest towards the middle of the game.
    -Once you discover all the maps, they send you missions in the same scenarios and it's not fun to go back to kicking a map that you already had discovered (you have to rediscover the map and activate all the teleports). In addition, these missions are not very interesting either. In its place, made in lack unique missions that had to do with the personal history of each protagonist, as it is done in other games like Dragon Age or Original Sin.
    -Lack a variety of items. You can get very powerful weapons in 30% of the game, and then you get stuck until you get some artifacts.
    -The RTS style Warcraft / Starcraft and build is fine at first, but after the novelty you realize that it is very superficial. The game would have won a lot if you only had to play with the 4 heroes and nothing else.
    -As I said, the main story is interesting, but in the middle and end they deviate and lengthen the end unnecessarily with some tedious missions.
    -There are some bugs, I had to restart some missions and I could not finish the game because the final mission had a bug and it seemed so boring and tedious that I did not feel like repeating it.
    -The load times are very long, and my computer is powerful. 10-15% of the game you are waiting for.
    -There are a lot of improvements for the armies, and quite expensive, which are totally unnecessary. As your heroes are so powerful, you will not even use your armies.

    These negative aspects are not as serious as they seem, simply, the game has a significant room for improvement. Despite this, it has a lot of fun content, and it is very well narrated: you will want to read and listen to the dialogues. As RTS bad, but as RPG, very good. I give it an 8-9, but to compensate for bad grades I put a 9. We want more games like this and better. Do not let these sagas die. However, I think that its price should not be higher than $ 35-45, or maybe less. I forgot, the best part of the game is to have Geralt's voice back, haha.    … Expand
  29. Daermon
    Mar 12, 2019
    8
    Good RPG-RTS hybrid. Voiceacting ok, gameplay and graphich is very good.
    And the story not ended, expansion comming. :)
  30. Koyaniskaci
    Dec 5, 2019
    10
    Great game. But please do Russian voice translation! And we really miss the 3d camera from the back of the hero, as it was in the past parts.
  31. Prometheus1241
    Apr 4, 2020
    7
    Quite underestimated game, but i recommend it to everyone who likes RPG, CRPG and RTS. I heard that DLC is better than the main game, and if that is true, then it will definitely become one of my favourite games.
    P.S. Don't look at the yellow marker of metacrtitics-7 is good for a game!
  32. Mandulum
    Feb 18, 2022
    8
    I really enjoyed this one, with one annoying exception. In the RTS portions, unit have two modes: useless (aka, stand in place) or "pursue to the ends of the earth". If you're not paying close attention you can lose all your units because the enemy WILL kite them into the middle of their base.

    Date Completed: 2022-02-18 Playtime: 33h Enjoyment: 8/10 Recommendation: I really liked the    I really enjoyed this one, with one annoying exception. In the RTS portions, unit have two modes: useless (aka, stand in place) or "pursue to the ends of the earth". If you're not paying close attention you can lose all your units because the enemy WILL kite them into the middle of their base.

    Date Completed: 2022-02-18
    Playtime: 33h
    Enjoyment: 8/10
    Recommendation: I really liked the RTS/RPG combination    … Expand
  33. nspr89
    Oct 22, 2022
    10
    An awesome game, a beatifull 200 hours story. It's alomost like Dragon age and Pillars, Divinity but a little bit futilier. 9,5/10
  34. Goby
    Apr 20, 2021
    6
    Great storytelling and graphics are welcome, but they are much less impactful without a solid gameplay foundation.

    This game has many sections of fascinating storytelling, but they are usually followed by extremely hectic RTS segments which completely break the pacing and mood. In these RTS segments you have to manage armies and settlements at the same time, but your gameplay    Great storytelling and graphics are welcome, but they are much less impactful without a solid gameplay foundation.

    This game has many sections of fascinating storytelling, but they are usually followed by extremely hectic RTS segments which completely break the pacing and mood.

    In these RTS segments you have to manage armies and settlements at the same time, but your gameplay experiece is made as difficult as possible by way of ridiculous mechanics. The game feels like something of a throwback to Age of Empires 2 on harder difficulties.

    There is honestly no room for a breather in the RTS segments. Any strategy you practise is usually devised through trial-and-error. Normally failing and learning from your mistakes is a good thing, but not in this game. There is simply no way for you to know the right approach from the get-go and you will likely fail until you know what exactly you need to be focusing on to beat some particular segment.

    In these RTS segments, the game will constantly throw you off by alerting you of events like "being attacked" when there is just one enemy dude running into an army of your men or one of your outposts. In such cases you end up wasting precious seconds checking out the situtation, then wasting some more trying to figure out where exactly your camera is now, where your nearest soldiers are and where you need to go next to do whatever. Every aspect of the RTS gameplay feels very unorganized and barely controllable. It actually feels infuriating when you think you're doing all you possibly can and at the same time there are plenty more things the AI is doing while you f*ck around with those decoy units they send out to divert your attention all the time.

    Not to mention all your efforts with character development go to waste when you simply do not have time to micromanage their skills during combat.

    The game would receive an 8/10 if I had a better control and overview of what is happening during the RTS segments.    … Expand
  35. Zuntullah
    May 5, 2022
    0
    This is one of the worst RTS games I have ever played, and I am nearly 40 years old.

    It is plain frustrating getting rushed from 3 different directions every 2 minutes non-stop, while you are trying to expand your base. Defense buildings don't work, your normal units are very squish and die right away. Somehow enemy main building regenerates faster than a troll, so taking it down    This is one of the worst RTS games I have ever played, and I am nearly 40 years old.

    It is plain frustrating getting rushed from 3 different directions every 2 minutes non-stop, while you are trying to expand your base.

    Defense buildings don't work, your normal units are very squish and die right away. Somehow enemy main building regenerates faster than a troll, so taking it down also takes quite a bit of time.

    These is no saving this game, hopefully the dev studio does not come up with any other RTS games in future, because they definitely suck at it.    … Expand
  36. pixelrate
    Jun 21, 2023
    9
    great game. the camera control can be a bit enoying thats why i did not give it 10. but awesome game already looking forward to go into multi player in this game...
  37. Farlon
    Nov 18, 2022
    10
    Probably my favourite campaign out of all Spellforce games after they released the "Reforced" patch, as it fixed many issues with the gameplay and UI. The story was engaging for the most part, the gameplay was decent, and it had that Spellforce 1 feel, but the best part was the replayability.
    There are tons of little things you discover on each playthrough, they might not change anything    Probably my favourite campaign out of all Spellforce games after they released the "Reforced" patch, as it fixed many issues with the gameplay and UI. The story was engaging for the most part, the gameplay was decent, and it had that Spellforce 1 feel, but the best part was the replayability.
    There are tons of little things you discover on each playthrough, they might not change anything in the long run but they don't have to. For example, different companions might unlock different dialogues or quest routes, doing a quest might unlock support on another mission, etc.
    The game also has decent mod support, you can make custom maps, factions, items, spells, campaigns, and probably more.
    I can recommend this game for any RPG or RTS fan.    … Expand
  38. Portos
    Jun 21, 2020
    10
    Отличное сочетании стратегии и ролевого элемента , правда есть баги , но море сюжета .
  39. Misterdiony
    May 17, 2021
    8
    Man, Spellforce 3 was a tough one. As a lover of most entries in the Spellforce franchise, I was truly hyped to get more. What we got on release date was a slap in the face though. If you werent present on release date, lucky you! A completely buggy game was released that even made it unplayable for people who paid full price for it. The intense backlash forced it to act quickly, andMan, Spellforce 3 was a tough one. As a lover of most entries in the Spellforce franchise, I was truly hyped to get more. What we got on release date was a slap in the face though. If you werent present on release date, lucky you! A completely buggy game was released that even made it unplayable for people who paid full price for it. The intense backlash forced it to act quickly, and luckily after some time the game got polished up to a nice gem.

    Stepping back from story telling, after all the fixes the game was a pleasant adventure and a worthy entry in the Spellforce universe. Graphics were stunning and the story was greatly told with a nice twist that I did not expect. I just hope they learn from their mistakes in terms of Bugfixing!    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

70
#70 Most Discussed PC Game of 2017
44
#44 Most Shared PC Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
73

Mixed or average reviews - based on 37 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 37
  2. Mixed: 21 out of 37
  3. Negative: 0 out of 37
  1. GameStar
    May 27, 2018
    77
    Successful mix of RTS and RPG on the path of recovery - but still not completely without bugs.
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  2. GameGrin
    May 7, 2018
    75
    Spellforce 3 is an ambitious game that manages to blend fun RTS segments with traditional isometric dungeon exploration in a neat RPG package.
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  3. GameOver.gr
    Mar 17, 2018
    75
    Spellforce 3 mixes two beloved genres, RPGs and RTSs, and even though it does not excel in either gameplay branch it succeeds in delivering a solid, fresh and unique experience. Through a solid story and world building it gives the opportunity for our hero to actually take part in battles in contrast with traditional RPGs, where he is only a spectator.
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