Nordic Games has released their newest stand alone expansion for the Spellforce 2 saga: Demons of the Past. Demons of the Past is officially the fourth game in the Spellforce 2 saga, continuing the story from the original Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars. The good news is that Demons of the Past, like Faith in Destiny which I reviewed last year, is a stand alone expansion. This means you can jump right into the saga with this game and do not need to purchase the previous three releases. However, if you do this, you will experience the same disconnect with the over arching story line that I felt when I started with Faith in Destiny. You will feel like you are coming into a great movie about three quarters of the way through, and will need to bug your neighbors as to what the hell is going on.
Story
Demons of the Past picks up where Faith in Destiny essentially left you off, with the world of Eo in peril and you, an Elder Shaikan, trying to prevent The Nameless from completing the destruction of the planet. As the Elder Shaikan, it is up to you to deal with this peril and defeat Zazhut, the main villain of this expansion. In order to defeat Zazhut, you will require the help of the Gods, but they are not so eager to help you. Before setting out to finally end this evil once and for all, you will have to convince the Gods to help you in your hour of need.
The people at Nordic Games wrote a sprawling epic in the world of Spellforce 2 that is both gripping and enjoyable to play. However, this is lost depending on where the player jumps into the series at. Sure, you can grasp the single campaign of each release and gather information as to how this story fits in with the rest, but you will be lost for a significant time in the beginning. Truth be told, I couldn’t remember much of the story line from Faith in Destiny, and had to relearn what was going on when I started Demons of the Past. If you are new to the story, be prepared to try to get past that feeling in order to be able to fully appreciate and understand the story.
If you are not new to the world of Spellforce 2, then welcome to the end game of this campaign. Like past expansions of Spellforce 2, you begin by recreating your avatar, or by selecting a whole new one. As I remember from Faith in Destiny, the same faces seem to appear in the character creation menu, so you can faithfully recreate your avatar from past games.
Game Play
The Spellforce 2 series is a combination of real time strategy and role playing game. You will be able to recruit specific members to your party in the beginning of the game, choosing between mage, healer, fighter, or ranged fighters. As your party members level up, you will be able to choose what talents and spells they will train in, in addition to allocating equipment that is found along the way. The RPG elements of Demons of the Past aren’t some sort of cut down version that you see in most RTS games, but a full RPG experience. It was very satisfying to choose my main party in the beginning on how I plan on playing the game, then continuing to personalize the characters to my play style.
The RTS half of Demons of the Past is seen whenever you are out of character screens, for instance during combat or world movement. The classic RTS style controls are found in Demons of the Past; the drag and collect feature for gathering troops, right clicking on enemies to attack, or clicking on the small portraits of your party members to utilize their spells or powers. Resource management is just as important in Demons of the Past as it is in other RTS games, and you will need to manage your troops, money, and materials in order to succeed.
The Spellforce 2 series did a fantastic job in combining the elements of an RTS with an RPG, and making it a fun game to play. The real critique with the series is that Nordic Games did this just well enough for Spellforce 2 to be a solid game, but did not bring enough innovation to the genre for Spellforce 2 to become a great game. Everything game play related works well and is bug free. The RTS sections of the game feels just like any good RTS game from that genre, and the RPG elements really allows you to tailor your party to how you play and the item system brings in that thrill of discovery any time you see loot sparkles.
Demons of the Past has about 50 main quests with about 40 side quests available to experience, bringing the experience to around 25 hours of game play. That is a significant amount of play time for this game. Demons of the Past also brings in a new survival mode and a boss fight mode that can be played separate of the main campaign, in addition to the traditional RTS multiplayer. With Demons of the Past, players will also be able to play as almost all races in the Spellforce 2 world, including the Pact, Shaikan and Undead.
Aesthetics
This is the big downfall for the Spellforce 2 series – specifically, Demons of the Past. The game looks like it is about ten years old, rather then just being released last week. The graphics of the avatars have a blocky look to them, as if they are unfinished in the process of being rendered. The avatars also seem to be much less detailed then other games on the market. The closest game I can make comparisons to is Warcraft III, which came out in 2002. However, Warcraft III had a great aesthetic to it, leaning towards the animated rather then realistic. While I am usually the first to say that games don’t need to have the most up to date graphics to be great, the game does need to look like it is a recent release. If I walked by Demons of the Past as it is being played, I would swear that someone was playing a retro titled game, not a new release.
The voice acting for Demons of the Past helps save what would rather be a disappointing aesthetic experience. The actors deliver their lines adequately without being too over the top. The musical score is good and ramps up with the situation, but is fairly forgettable once you stop playing the game.
Final Thoughts
Spellforce 2: Demons of the Past is a must buy for anyone that has played the Spellforce 2 saga and loved it. You will get more of the same with Demons of the Past and will enjoy the continuing story line. For the rest of you, the best I can say is that it is a good and solid game, but I would recommend beginning the series with Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars, which is the first installment. If you like that game, then by all means continue the story and work your way through all of the expansions. You will receive absolutely no benefit from picking up Demons of the Past first, rather then Shadow Wars.
[easyreview title=”Spellforce 2: Demons of the Past Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3″ ]
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