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. 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
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. 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.
  7. 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
  8. 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
  9. 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!
  10. 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

Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

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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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