SpellForce 3

Really excellent game. Unfortunately 2017 was jammed pack with critically acclaimed RPG's that this one fell under the radar, and releasing in December also didn't help it to make it into any years end lists. While I haven't played the previous Spellforce installments, the game does stay true to what the series is know for and that's being a mixture of RPG and RTS. This is really what you get, half of the time you will be with your party exploring maps, something close to Isometric RPGs like Baldur's Gate or Pillars of Eternity, and at other times you will be controlling a base where you will build structures and an army that's reminiscent of Age of Empires or Warcraft.

Walking into this I did expect to enjoy the gameplay, but it still left me quite impressed on how enjoyable it was. The skill tree of the characters is a little limited, but there's plenty of variations in the builds you can go for and you eventually get to get 10 different heroes to choose in your party (which is limited to 4 per mission). The engine is pretty strong and the game has some absolutely gorgeous landscapes and views, especially in the big cities, there's really lots to see when it comes to the graphics. What I did not expect is to get an amazing storyline, it's really one of the best RPG stories I've experienced in a while and you really get into the lore of the game. Every line of dialogue is fully voiced, and there is a shit ton of dialogue in this game, it seems that they have put so much effort into it that's a little sad to see it go under the radar like that. You have to choice to really get into the heroes backstories if you talk with them, which I usually end of doing to extract the most possible out of the story.

The game is said to be 30 hours long, but it took me 50 hours to finish it as I did pretty much all of the side quests (Steam actually timed me around 80 hours, but that includes lots of afk from life responsibilities). It's really full of content and you are in for a long ride, the more I played it the more I wanted to see how the story went on and I really get attached to my main party. The game does have a few bugs, the game got stuck in a few of the cut-scenes that you need to reload a previous save (thankfully auto-save is frequent) and some of the side quests won't trigger at times but I ended up being able to do them. Granted I wish the game was bug free, especially after 39 patches but overall it felt of a pretty good quality and I have little to complain about. Highly recommended to RPG fans that also enjoy RTS, I feel you need to be a fan of both to fully get into the game. I'm definitely looking forward to the upcoming expansion Soul Harvest, I feel that this engine has lots more to offer.