Opinion message February 7, 2023, 15:23

Is SpellForce: Conquest of Eo a good game? Let me say this: after ten hours with the review version, I bought my own copy on Steam.

Source photo THQ Nordic

and

February has only just begun, so it’s still a bit early to bet on the black horses of 2023. However, I won’t be surprised if SpellForce: Conquest of Eo turns out to be one of them. The marriage of the series with the strategy genre – a bit of turn-based, a bit of 4X – came out surprisingly well. I expected a good production, meanwhile I got a title from a really top shelf. Imperfect, because Conquest of Eo has its problems – the biggest of which I consider the lack of a Polish language version – but at the same time cleverly designed, addictive, quite cute and inducing the syndrome of one more turn.

Sit back and relax

The latter is more due to the successful combination of various game mechanics than the plot. While the main plot is there and follows it quite well, it’s not gripping enough to make you want to know what’s going to happen next at all costs. Just, we take over our Master’s inheritance, discover the secrets of his research and fight with other magicians who want to get these secrets for themselves. Although I value good stories very much and very often I play just for them, relatively simple, casual plot served by SpellForce: Conquest of Eo it turned out to be everything I needed to have a good time.

Okay, really everything? Not completely. During the adventure, we come across many side quests. The stories behind them are also not too fancy, but they have the advantage that they can be learned in their entirety in several dozen minutes – or how long it will take us to achieve the indicated goal. What’s more, the problems encountered in missions can usually be solved in various ways.

For example, when the villagers of a certain village asked me to recover the gold destined for the local baron, which the bandits had tricked them, after finding the cutthroats, I could fight them quite a hard fight or take advantage of the fact that they are drunk and I am an alchemist – and poison them unnoticed a barrel of beer. I opted for the second option. The problem was solved in no time. I could keep the recovered gold for myself without informing the villagers. But I didn’t.

In general, the variation in the ability to cope with tasks is not too great, but the missions do not turn out to be so complicated that it has to be otherwise. I don’t recall a situation where I would like to behave in a different way than the game allowed me to. Admittedly, the choices were usually limited to combat, a peaceful solution (if the problem involved humans), not interfering at all, and/or clever use of the abilities of the mage we chose at the beginning of the game, but that was enough for me. As I mentioned, the plot of SpellForce: Conquest of Eo is only (or as much as) a good excuse to have fun flourishing in the game’s mechanics.

Exploration is key. Spellforce: Conquest of Eo, THQ Nordic, 2023

4X…

As I mentioned before, we play the role of a mage. What powers he wields depends only on us. The creators have prepared three archetypes – an alchemist, a necromancer and an inventor. We can also create our own wizard. It’s worth experimenting and testing different – let’s call it – character classes, because each of them is played a little differently.

The alchemist I know best is able to create, among other things, explosive potions or grenades useful on the battlefield. He can also use his skills to poison beer – I described it above – or drive insects from a magical place without having to kill them. Playing as a necromancer, we won’t create many useful items in the crafting menu, but we will bring the undead to life (bastards can’t heal themselves, but they can walk underwater – for mortals you have to freeze rivers, otherwise they have to look for a way around). During one of the missions, his skill allowed me to send (again) to the sand a large group of hostile dead men. The Inventor, on the other hand, can strengthen units on the battlefield.

Each type of mage can learn different spells and build different buildings in the tower, which is our main base. Interestingly, after mastering the appropriate spell, this building can be moved to different places. It is worth doing this, as it facilitates access to valuable resources. However, for me – accustomed to gradually expanding the base and increasing the sphere of influence – it was difficult to get used to it.

The crafting system encourages you to combine. Spellforce: Conquest of Eo, THQ Nordic, 2023

…and tactical combat

Most of the elements I’ve mentioned so far – tower management, exploration to complete quests and find resource sources, crafting, discovering and learning spells (similar to researching technologies from Civilization) – takes place in turns on a world map covered with a hexagonal grid. However, when the battle comes, we can let it take place automatically – it’s worth doing if we have a big advantage, because there are a lot of clashes – or we can lead the troops ourselves.

In the latter case, an arena will appear in front of our eyes, reproducing the environment in which our units met the enemy in quite detail. Interestingly, if we fight the same battle twice, the environment will be similar, but not the same. The clashes are not too difficult – by properly positioning the units and using their abilities, you can turn the tide of a seemingly lost battle. At least on “normal”, higher difficulty levels require more tactical jam.

If you have the element of a seasoned strategist in you, fighting in SpellForce: Conquest of Eo will give you a lot of fun. The multitude of tactics that can be adopted, combined with the characteristics of the chosen mage, creates a lot of room for maneuvering. At the same time, we must not forget about the strengths and weaknesses of the units, because knowing them can tip the scales of victory in our favor. Not only that – even before the fight it is possible to strengthen our soldiers or weaken the enemies. Or maybe we will provide our charges with the support of one of our students or a hero we meet? There are really many options.

They make it hard to tear yourself away from Conquest of Eo at times, and after finishing one game, you want to start another one to use your newly acquired knowledge. Well, such a temptation appears even during the campaign. In addition, the developers have increased the replayability of this title by introducing five different lands where you can start playing. All of them are available from the beginning, and each one is more demanding – we meet even more powerful opponents, but it does not affect the main plot – and darker. If you add a separately selectable difficulty level, you can spend dozens of hours with the new SpellForce without getting bored.

“Buy ’em” isn’t the best tactic. Spellforce: Conquest of Eo, THQ Nordic, 2023

The darker side of Eo

I could spend a few more paragraphs on various elements of the game – for example, on the moody, calming music, which privately evokes associations with the first Witcher – but, as I mentioned at the beginning of the review, it is not perfect. I consider the lack of a Polish language version to be the biggest disadvantage. Although in my case it was not necessary, but I realize that many people may be discouraged from this title by its lack. Especially since due to the absence of English dubbing, we have a lot of reading here. Unfortunately, THQ Nordic did not take this into account. It’s a pity. It remains to be hoped that the fans will approach the matter with more commitment.

I was also disturbed by the not very intuitive interface (not to be confused with unreadable). I like to play strategies only with the mouse, and in SpellForce: Conquest of Eo I had to get used to the fact that the button used to close the window is – for some reason – close to the lower left corner of the screen. In addition, not all mechanics have been sufficiently described in the tutorials, which means that some of their elements have to be figured out on your own. I was also annoyed by the rather long loading times. Theoretically, in 4X strategies, this is not surprising, but sometimes I waited longer for the game to load than in the sixth “Civce”. I hope that the developers will improve this element soon after the release.

Other than that, I don’t have much to say about optimizing the game. I tested it on two computers. On a more powerful one, equipped with an Intel Core i5-12400F processor, 32 GB of RAM and a GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card, it worked at “ultra” settings at a constant 60 FPS. On the weaker one – with an Intel Core i5-3350P processor, 8 GB of RAM and a GeForce GTX 1060 card – the frames per second oscillated around forty “ultra”. On the web, however, you can come across opinions of players who complain about the performance of Conquest of Eo. So it’s possible that not every specification works equally well.

Simple English, but why not Polish? Spellforce: Conquest of Eo, THQ Nordic, 2023

The dark horse of 2023?

So as you can see, SpellForce: Conquest of Eo has the potential to become the game’s dark horse of 2023. I don’t know if this will happen – good, but not necessarily outstanding titles released at the beginning of the year are often forgotten when giving awards – but I sincerely wish this studio Owned by Gravity. This developer successfully captured the spirit of the first installments of the series (hardcore fans will probably disagree with me), while moving away from the assumptions of an RTS with RPG elements in favor of a turn-based 4X strategy. His work looks good, sounds even better, and above all – draws you in for hours.

The simplicity of some elements of SpellForce: Conquest of Eo is well reflected by the reasonable price of this production. For a little over PLN 100, we get quite an adventure set in a rich fantasy world, which, thanks to the high replayability, gets boring very slowly and can be enough for a long time. This made me, after ten hours spent with the review version, copy the “save”, buy my own copy on Steam and keep playing, eventually spending three more laps of the clock on the game. I can feel it in my bones that this number will quickly double, maybe even triple.

My opinion about SpellForce: Conquest of Eo

PROS:

1. a multitude of tactics and problem solving possibilities;
2. three mage archetypes that play completely differently;
3. immersive, rewarding exploration;
4. good difficulty level balance;
5. interesting mechanics of moving the mage’s tower (base);
6. audiovisual setting pleasing to the eyes and ears;
7. nice optimization (apart from long loading times);
8. decent price;
9. the story is going well…

MINUSES:

1. …nevertheless, she’s not thrilling (I don’t mind, but you might);
2. no Polish language version and no English dubbing;
3. not very intuitive interface;
4. long loading times.

RATING: 8/10