SpellForce: Conquest of Eo Review

SpellForce: Conquest of Eo is the fourth mainline SpellForce game in a series spanning two decades. Traditionally, it’s a franchise known for a solid blend of RPG and RTS mechanics, mixing long-form strategy with character progression and deep lore. Although the broad strokes remain the same, Conquest of Eo does things a little bit differently.

Firstly, it’s less about that RPG life, and much more focused on (perhaps unsurprisingly) conquest. It’s set in the SpellForce universe, of course, so fans of the franchise and its lore will be right at home, but it tells a standalone story that doesn’t feel quite as epic as the games that have come before it.

It’s still centered heavily on resource gathering and management, and you will spend a lot of time exploring the massive world map to find places of interest. Often these will trigger side-quests and short missions where you’ll need to make decisions that affect the world and the story. Some of these are simple affairs like attacking a roving group of goblins or leaving them alone, but others have moral choices that require you to weigh up risks and rewards.

The narrative is adequate for the adventure but at no point does it really do anything that really impresses. You play as an apprentice mage whose master has been murdered (in fact, the combat tutorial plays out this exact event), and you’ve regrouped at his mage Tower to build up an army of minions and avenge his untimely death. The culprits are the Circle, a group of incredibly powerful mages who control the continent with fists of iron.

Periodically these mages will pop up to threaten you or harass you. As you spread your influence across the land by constructing lodges and wiping out the competition, you’ll cross paths with them. Usually, any altercation with them is of higher difficulty than other combat scenarios, though SpellForce: Conquest of Eo has a great suite of options for customising the level of challenge to suit your level of skill.

A lot of it comes down to your choice of affinity. Instead of traditional classes, you can choose from three schools of magic, or customise your own from a number of options. Opting for Necromancer because it seemed cooler, its strengths came from raising minions from fallen foes and toying with the powers of life and death. As in the Diablo series, the Necromancer here isn’t necessarily “evil”… just a bit creepy and macabre.

Because there are no factions to trade with or dally around with boring stuff like diplomacy, most of your resources will be spent on creating units from monsters, bandits, and mercenaries. As with previous SpellForce games, there are hero units to recruit and upgrade, who can bolster your armies considerably thanks to their special attacks and customisable loadouts.

Research takes care of new technologies, units, and (most importantly) spells. You will have to research each new spell for several turns before you unlock it, while there are also traits to unlock such as increases to your resource income. The smart play is to always be researching, as you’ll go through a lot of turns while exploring. Your units have limited range, and so you’ll be ending turns a lot to keep moving.

Turns also control the flow of combat in Conquest of Eo, which is very similar to previous titles but feels much smaller in scale. Fighting transports you to small hex-based arenas where you range your own units against the enemy. It’s as simple as moving them into one another and letting them duke it out while you cast magical spells like some all-powerful overlord.

Perhaps because of the smaller scale, or maybe because your armies feel like disposable minions, the combat lacks the thrill and excitement of previous titles. Luckily, you can auto-resolve many of the fights, and the predictions are usually spot on. If it says you’ll win; you certainly will. However, there are occasions where the game is adamant you’ll lose but you’re able to snatch a tight victory with direct control and clever tactics.

The best bit of SpellForce: Conquest of Eo is exploring the world itself. There’s a ton of lore weaved throughout the narrative and its locations, with flavour text and dialogue fleshing out this era of Eo’s history, and fans of the series will get a kick out conquering this vast land, holding positions of tactical importance and digging into the deep backstory.

If you’ve grown up with SpellForce games and are eagerly awaiting the next sweeping, epic adventure, there’s a chance you might be a bit disappointed with Conquest of Eo. It feels like a bit of a step back for the franchise in terms of scale and mechanics, and although it tells a serviceable story, it lacks the epic feel of the series’ past. For anyone else though, particularly those looking for a new tactical RTS game to get stuck into, it’s a solid experience with plenty to do.