SpellForce: The Order of Dawn

 PC
User Score
8.3

Generally favorable reviews- based on 122 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 96 out of 122
  2. Mixed: 16 out of 122
  3. Negative: 10 out of 122
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  1. AlexP.
    Mar 24, 2006
    9
    Has given me weeks if not months of fun. The combination of RTS and RPG is the best seen so far and the beautifully programmed sceneries and story make for perfect gaming hours.
  2. StevenG.
    Jan 13, 2004
    8
    This game has some minor flaws with the control mechanism, mainly when you have lots of troops under your control. Assigning actions at this time is not easy, and the player heros are not great at getting involved in the combat themselves. But... letys not get away from the fact this game is very good. It matches RPG and AOE-esque gaming very well. The story is detailed and the lands This game has some minor flaws with the control mechanism, mainly when you have lots of troops under your control. Assigning actions at this time is not easy, and the player heros are not great at getting involved in the combat themselves. But... letys not get away from the fact this game is very good. It matches RPG and AOE-esque gaming very well. The story is detailed and the lands involved huge. The graphics are also superb. In all this game is a good blend of Dungeon Seige and Age of Mythology without trying to do too much.… Expand
  3. Lukamator
    Jan 3, 2014
    10
    its one of the best games i had ever played.this game is the perfect example for the time where the games were made with love.its 2014 now but this game is so good that you can buy it even now
  4. XPowerBlazeX
    Apr 24, 2016
    10
    Spellforce: The Order of Dawn is one of the greatest games I have ever played! And that is saying something because I have played some awesome games! Such as Elder Scrolls, XCOM, Fallout, Super Mario 64, Dawn of War, Civilization II and Black and White!

    This game has such immersive and fun game play, you will be glued to your computer for hours and hours before you glance at your clock    Spellforce: The Order of Dawn is one of the greatest games I have ever played! And that is saying something because I have played some awesome games! Such as Elder Scrolls, XCOM, Fallout, Super Mario 64, Dawn of War, Civilization II and Black and White!

    This game has such immersive and fun game play, you will be glued to your computer for hours and hours before you glance at your clock and notice it's 6AM!
    It gets everything right here! The units, the races, the story, the characters, the missions, the music, the side-quests, EVERYTHING!
    It blends RPG and strategy so well, it never feels out of place or awkward! It's just so well crafted and you can tell the developers really knew what they were doing here!
    Every map you play feels fresh along with a brand new mission you have to accomplish!
    The game design in this game is so good! The map design in this game is one of the best I've seen. The main story is very long! One mission can take hours depending how skilled you are!

    Yes, it does have flaws. But these are minor compared to the amount of fun you are having playing the game!
    This is a German game, so there are translations errors.
    The English voice actors are terrible compared to the foreign ones! But, there are great voices actors here! But, they are limited to the important characters!
    The maps are big compared to how slow the units move, but this is never game breaking.
    The AI isn't the best I've ever seen. It definitely can have it's dumb moments.
    It can also get annoying as controlling many units can get difficult. But, you get used to it.

    This is one of those games where you really have to play the game to understand how awesome it really is! It's difficult to put into words the sheer amount of fun I've had playing this game! But trust me! It really is awesome!

    When you boil down to it, the game play here is very impressive and fun to play for hours and hours! It's very immersive and pulls you into the world! You actually feel like you are the hero saving the people from an evil mage and his dark army! And that is what a game should be about!

    This is only the main game! I have not played the two expansions yet!
    But, I have heard they are just as long, addicting, awesome and impressive as this game was!

    If you are a fan of RPG or strategy then do yourself a massive favor and buy this game!
    Obviously play it after!

    P.S. if the game crashes when you click options, make sure it's using your processor in 3D settings - Program settings.    … Expand
  5. ChristianE.
    Jan 22, 2004
    5
    It is a good game for those with a lot of time and patience. Most bugs are gone by now due to patch 1.05, so now would be the time to buy it. Downrated for: Slow action, missions beeing almost always the same and so on. You can have quite some fun with it, but do not expect too much.
  6. MarkD.
    May 16, 2004
    3
    There are some major technical problems with this game...it crashes a lot. I went so far as to play it on a system with just Windows 2k, NOTHING else running. That helped but it still crashes my system and requires a reboot one an hour or so. JoWood basically has no technical support so you're on your own. FYI I've been playing games since The Bard's Tale ('87) and There are some major technical problems with this game...it crashes a lot. I went so far as to play it on a system with just Windows 2k, NOTHING else running. That helped but it still crashes my system and requires a reboot one an hour or so. JoWood basically has no technical support so you're on your own. FYI I've been playing games since The Bard's Tale ('87) and making a nice living writing software since '75 so I'm no pilgram when it comes to computers. Good luck if you buy it.… Expand
  7. Gunman1986
    Jun 27, 2012
    8
    Very few games have such great immersion as this game, from my personal opinion I can only name the original farcry and deus ex, half life 2 but for an rts and rpg fan this one is the best. It is the type of game that allow you to wholly immerse yourself into the gameplay and storyline in a way that isolates you from the real world and becomes the only reality the matter for the durationVery few games have such great immersion as this game, from my personal opinion I can only name the original farcry and deus ex, half life 2 but for an rts and rpg fan this one is the best. It is the type of game that allow you to wholly immerse yourself into the gameplay and storyline in a way that isolates you from the real world and becomes the only reality the matter for the duration of the game. I had the fortune of having one week holiday when started the campaign, and for four days straight I played this game, stopping only to make dinner and breakfast. This game also allows you to play while you sleep, since you gain experience for every kill on the map you can create a solid defence before going to sleep and then wake up 2-3 levels higher.

    To summarize the reason I give it 8 instead of 10 I will give my opinions on these points about the game.

    The music is very good, excellent ambitient music with good combat music. The graphics are awesome for its time, though the characters looks retarded when their talking and flapping their arms while wielding a huge warhammer/swords, it is the terrain and sky graphic that gives excellent immersion. The sound is very mediocre and you will come to hate the battle notification sound that screams at you because a goblin is walking past your city. The combat sounds are decent but few so they do get tedious. The combat is very good for a warrior, ranger and any class that does not focus wholly on spellcasting. For a pure wizard though you will find your character utterly useless in this game. Clumsy spell targetting system and lack of mana will find you only using your good spells against special monsters. The storyline is very good thanks to the dialogue and voice acting (though some are questionable) and it will keep you interested in progressing nonestop, though I will be honest and say I only understood about 80% of what was going on and why things were the way they were, you hear allot of references to the circle mages but not much substance. The cool and original thing is that you go from controlling all the races, both evil and good while if you gather your Human army and Orc army at the same place they will start attacking each other. The place this game shines is character progression and gear, you get to spend ability points to increase your stats which is something I love and that all modern day rpg lack, you get to drool at epic items and build your character for wielding them. If you do it correctly you will go from low class warrior to an unstoppable champion, though you will never be overpowered. Even though the combat system is clumsy, the actuall battles is beautifull to watch thanks to aggressive AI, watching hundreds of warriors and mighty monsters battle on a grand scale compared to many other RTS games, and for a RPG style game it has the biggest battles I have ever seen. The maps are revisitable and often have new quests which is great for longevity and gives you a non linear approach to a linear storyline, this is one of my favorite aspects of this game. The sad thing is the multiplayer is horrible, as this has the potential to be the best coop game in rts/rpg history if you could do the campaign with friends or have friends control the enemy camp. Another boring aspect is you will be running, and running and searching and talking with many people in the cities you have absolutely no need for which is the most tedious thing in this game, too many interactable npc's that dont give anything.

    So the game is not perfect, but damn its enjoyable and I hope to see future developers learn from this game when creating a more dynamic RTS/RPG crossover. Thanks Jowood.    … Expand
  8. ChrisB.
    Feb 2, 2004
    10
    It´s the best Game I´ve ever played, no more to say!
  9. MaroL.
    Jan 11, 2004
    9
    Very good but not perfect. Has some problems like the lack of autosort buttoon in inventory but maybe they'll make a patch soon. Never mind the lower scores on some reviews, this game is a successful experiment, far more valuable than complete no brainer RTS games that play exactly like Dune 2!
  10. Broyax
    Apr 27, 2020
    0
    Spellforce suit une approche légèrement différente et mêle des éléments et statistiques de jeu de rôle à la stratégie en temps réel classique... mais en vérité lorsqu'on regarde plus attentivement et qu'on expérimente ces systèmes imbriqués les uns dans les autres, Spellforce n'est que complications (au pluriel) et complexité embrouillée...

    L'adage, la devise du développeur n'est ici    Spellforce suit une approche légèrement différente et mêle des éléments et statistiques de jeu de rôle à la stratégie en temps réel classique... mais en vérité lorsqu'on regarde plus attentivement et qu'on expérimente ces systèmes imbriqués les uns dans les autres, Spellforce n'est que complications (au pluriel) et complexité embrouillée...

    L'adage, la devise du développeur n'est ici que de "faire compliqué pour faire compliqué" afin de se différencier de la concurrence (acharnée) en matière de STR... or, ce qui est compliqué, inutilement compliqué ne sert à rien et ne fait finalement qu'ennuyer grandement et rapidement le joueur téméraire perdu dans ce merdier inexpugnable !

    Les héros, les artisans, les runes, l'inventaire, les "monuments", les 7 ressources différentes (!) à collecter, exploiter, farmer (etc, etc) : tout est conçu pour faire "style" et genre "jeu riche et profond" mais cela n'aboutit en vérité qu'à un jeu inutilement lourdingue et barbant. L'interface trop perfectible n'est pas à la hauteur des "ambitions" affichées et n'aide pas à la jouabilité pas jouable d'un tel bordel à gérer en même temps...

    Echec patent donc pour ce STR qui voulait péter plus haut que son cul et a dégringolé brutalement jusque tout en bas !    … Expand
  11. RockerKR
    Jul 16, 2021
    7
    Good game ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
  12. Misterdiony
    May 17, 2021
    8
    One of my childhood classics that I really enjoy looking back to. The mixture of RTS and RPG was something completely new for me back then and I had a lot of fun with it.
  13. DorlGaming
    Jun 12, 2023
    8
    Deffinetly a great game, but very monotone expierience, your characters or army just standing while they need to fight and bad voice acting make this game a little bit boring. Even though it has a nice ost and quality of product itself. 8/10
  14. Babutto
    Feb 2, 2021
    7
    It's a good game from the past. However, for the new users it may be very boring.
    I had the game when I was a teenager. I didn't play it though. I couldn't finish the game either, because the gameplay was too boring.
    Pros.: - Different races and versatility of building, armies. - Story. - Differences of the races really affecting the gameplay. - Music. Sounds. - Difficulty.    It's a good game from the past. However, for the new users it may be very boring.
    I had the game when I was a teenager. I didn't play it though. I couldn't finish the game either, because the gameplay was too boring.

    Pros.:
    - Different races and versatility of building, armies.
    - Story.
    - Differences of the races really affecting the gameplay.
    - Music. Sounds.
    - Difficulty.

    Cons.:
    - Gameplay is boring. You have to do the same thing over and over again on the new map. It's ridiculous.    … Expand
  15. Genek13
    Nov 20, 2019
    5
    When I bought this game back in 2004, I hoped that this game will be something amazing.
    After few hour of gameplay I was bored. This game did't get to me, even with it's story.
    Let's say is an very very average RTS/RPG game.

Awards & Rankings

75
#75 Best PC Game of 2004
61
#61 Most Discussed PC Game of 2004
34
#34 Most Shared PC Game of 2004

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
74

Mixed or average reviews - based on 24 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 24
  3. Negative: 1 out of 24
  1. GameSpot
    79
    It may have a familiar-seeming premise, and it may have a few noticeable shortcomings, but SpellForce's unique combination of role-playing and strategy elements makes it worth a look for fans of either kind of game.
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  2. PC Gamer
    73
    Gets an "A" for design, and a "C-" for execution. Let's hope major patches can revise this game to greatness. [Apr 2004, p.81]
  3. PC Gameworld
    93
    Amazing graphics, and it expands on everything that previous RTS and RPG games have created.
    Read full review
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