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And so, another long awaited game appears. This year, in May, Deep Silver along with JoWood, launched the sequel to the famous Spellforce: Order of Dawn. The differences between the two are great, and that in a good way. Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars brings us a new campaign, new gameplay and more important, better graphics.

The differences.

Like I said, Spellforce 2 features more than better graphics. One of its other feature is the "Click’n'Fight" and Quick-Action-Buttons, which allow the player to take instant action in any battle to tip the scales in his favour. Now, the player can customize the skills of the other heroes from his gang, unlike in Spellforce: Order of Dawn where the player could only summon predefined rune warriors using runes.

In Spellforce 2, the great factions that existed in Spellforce 1 have been altered. Now, these form three big alliances, The Realm, The Clans and The Pact. Each of these are consisted of three races, humans, elves and dwarfs form The Realm, orcs, barbarians and trolls form The Clan and the dark elves, gargoyles and the shadows form The Pact.

In campaign mode, the player will have a chance to experience the strong and weak points of each and every faction.

Gameplay.

The game has three difficulty options, easy, medium and hard. Being new to the world of Spellforce 2, I decided to take the easy road, only to refinish the game on a harder difficulty with a different set of characters.

On easy mode, the enemy can be defeated using only the aid of the heroes near you, and of course, the avatar, an invaluable member of your army. Not only can he or she take heavy damage, if you shall take the path of the warrior, but he can also cause massive damage in the ranks of the enemy.

Seeing that the game permits the player to become either a warrior or mage, every time one plays the campaign, a new unique feeling is felt. Each of these primary classes has its own secondary class. As a fighter, you can later become a good ranger, sniping your enemies from afar with your bow or crossbow. Also, you may become a fast hitting, fast moving rogue, or a tank with a sword.

As a mage, you can take the unholy path of a necromancer, summoning skeletons to do your bidding, or even an elemental mage who can raze entire armies with a flick of his staff. Other skills may lead you to a heavy-duty healer for your other heroes and army. Even so, you may transform some other heroes into anything you need in a fight, a good healer, mage, warrior, or archer.

Note that some heroes like Bor, Lya, Shae and Mordecay have a calling and as such, they choose 12 skills automatically, as soon as they are available. Jared is the only one, except yourself, who can be fully customized, based on the players wishes.

The interface.

Well, much has changed since Spellforce: Order of Dawn, in terms of interface. More elements help us navigate and play the game more easily. First of all, we get a new button that shows us the world of Eo, divided into several islands. In this window we can also see the activated teleporters on the current map and teleport to any of these from anywhere on the map. Note that only the avatar can teleport, the other heroes need to be called to his new position.

Another useful thing is the minimap. Not only does it show us if the enemy is attacking, but it provides a mean to quickly move around the map. Next to it, if a builder or building is selected, we can see a list with different buildings or units that can be build or train. In the opposite corner, a mini representation of the selected unit or building is shown.

Unlike Spellforce 1, under the heroes’ portraits, we can see quick action buttons, like Heal for example or Wrath of Heaven, depending on the unit selected. As such, by selecting an enemy, only offensive spells or skills are shown, and if we select a friendly unit, only defensive skills like Heal or War Cry are shown.

Besides these features, when we enter the inventory, we can go to the skill tree, spell-book, or inventory. In the inventory, we can equip any weapon or armor, depending on requirements, or we can compare different items with those that are on equipped.

The skill tree lets us invest points in different skills that make the avatar or any hero more powerful. In the spell-book, we can set what spells or skills the character will use during fights. While the avatar is limited to about eight of these, the others can only memorize three, so think twice before going for that Lightning spell instead of a Healing one. Note that these two parts of the inventory can be automated, but it is recommended that the player manages them.