While we don’t really know what we can expect from Titan Quest 2 in terms of gameplay or story, the trailer does give off the indication that the title will once more take players through its interpretations of classical mythology. The story of Titan Quest 2 will revolve around stopping the Goddess of Retribution, Nemesis.

Titan Quest 2 is being developed by Grimlore Games, which has worked on SpellForce 3 and its various versions, including SpellForce 3: Fallen God. Titan Quest 2 is being developed at the studio under the development name Project Minerva, which is described on the official website as a top-down ARPG set in an antique, picturesque, handcrafted open-world

Publisher THQ Nordic has been working on bringing the Titan Quest franchise into the modern mindshare through the release of expansions like Atlantis and Ragnarok.

"SpellForce features an interesting mix of real time strategy and fantasy RPG elements to make what proves to be a peculiar yet mostly well-handled concoction."

Oddly enough, despite the series embarking on this winning strategy for 20 some odd years, it has yet to really face a worthy competitor in its genre by most standards. That doesn’t mean the series has been resting on its laurels though, as each and every entry has moved the needle forward in some way, shape, or form. Enter Reforced, a remaster and reworked port of 2017’s SpellForce 3 that feels thorough and comprehensive. There are some inevitable growing pains that arise from cramming such a PC-centric experience onto a console with the comparatively limited freedom that a controller can facilitate compared to a keyboard and mouse, but even still it does a pretty good job of delivering about as console-friendly an experience as could be expected given the constraints of the situation.

SpellForce is a game that needs little to no introduction to fans of the series or either of the genre’s it most predominantly lives in. As a hybrid of sorts, it leans into the most recognizable elements of RTS games and classic RPGs, and functionally it works well in SpellForce 3 most of the time. It can give you a bit of whiplash, though, as you go from controlling your party during resource gathering, managing your abilities, and engaging in small skirmishes all the way over to large-scale real time strategy war scenarios where you are defending your camp from an enemy onslaught or attacking a large army with well-planned multi-pronged approach.

It manages to juggle both sides of the experience well, but at the same time it never quite feels like it blends those two hemispheres together well enough to encourage a consistent mindset from the player. Just as you’re getting into a rhythm in one way, SpellForce 3 has a way of abruptly uprooting your flow and forcing you to slip into another one. Depending on the player, this might feel more like a consistent injection of variety than a rude disruption, but to me, it more often than not felt like the latter.

"As a hybrid of sorts, it leans into the most recognizable elements of RTS games and classic RPGs, and functionally it works well in SpellForce 3 most of the time."

More importantly though, it does justice to both gameplay philosophies well enough despite perhaps sacrificing a bit of depth in both areas in order to pull them together in this way. There aren’t a ton of abilities to master, nor are there very many ways to use them like in most RPGs of today. Similarly, there aren’t a lot of subroutines to assign to party members or much of a way to side-step the monotony of repetition and busywork that other, more singularly focused RTS games have iterated upon. So while the blend of its ideas are balanced well, each side of the experience does pay a price for that.

To its credit, SpellForce 3 has been reworked in some significant ways to make it more palatable for the console space. Tweaks and rebalances to the game’s loot, quests, and how skill trees are managed will all feel much more familiar to console players in Reforced than they would have in the original version. It’s also nice to know that the game’s two DLC expansions are also made available in one big purchase separately or together in the complete edition if you want to go that route. You also have several ways to enjoy the game from the main campaign, to skirmishes and journeys, which let you play through custom scenarios that you create a character for and choose the map and objective for. This is also going to allow online co-op by the way. And of course, you can jump into other games, assuming the networking features are up, which for me, they were not. I was able to jump into my own custom games though.

All in all, the PS5 does a good job of running the game. I rarely ran into any visual hitches and other than being unable to use any of the network features, everything seems to be functioning as it should. With how complex situations can get with battles unfolding, workers building and demolishing structures, and training soldiers while story elements are unfolding, I was a bit surprised to see even the mighty PS5 keep everything running smoothly throughout my time with the game. Not that I was particularly worried about the PS5 not being able to do so, but with the detailed graphics of SpellForce 3, at least when compared to other similar games, it’s good to know the PS5 isn’t having much – if any – trouble with it.

"While the PS5 version that I reviewed here certainly does a good job delivering the multi-faceted nature of SpellForce 3 on a computational level, I did find myself befuddled and overwhelmed a bit too often trying to manage it all with joysticks and the limited selection of buttons of modern controllers."

While the PS5 version that I reviewed here certainly does a good job delivering the multi-faceted nature of SpellForce 3 on a computational level, I did find myself befuddled and overwhelmed a bit too often trying to manage it all with joysticks and the limited selection of buttons of modern controllers. That’s not an indictment of the game or this version of it, mind you, as I can’t think of any better way to arrange everything on the controller, but it is quite a handful to keep control of, literally and figuratively.

Both shoulder buttons and triggers are taken up with selection wheels, and simply looking around the level is arduous on the DualSense compared to the simplicity of flicking a mouse around. This isn’t helped by the game’s rather small text and cramped UI, but again, this is sort of the price of admission as far as I can tell. Reorganizing a game like this for a console experience probably felt like an endless, unwinnable game of Tetris for the developer. That said, if unwieldy interfaces and menus that make you squint to understand are third rails for you, then I strongly urge you to tread lightly with SpellForce 3 Reforced.

Unfortunately, I can’t come up with very much praise for the game’s sound design. Some of the music does succeed in establishing a familiar dark fantasy mood, but outside of that most of what you’ll hear are cookie-cutter sound effects that you could almost certainly find in any number of low-budget RPGs, and voice acting almost always existing somewhere between mediocre and outright dull. Nothing sounds bad or out of place, but as somebody who is always ready to give credit to a well-executed sound design, I was a little shocked at how consistently unremarkable it all is in SpellForce 3 Reforced.

"SpellForce 3 Reforced is likely to succeed to those it’s aimed at, and maybe even go a bit further as its basic elements are somewhat friendly compared to other RTS games in the console space."

SpellForce 3 Reforced is likely to succeed to those it’s aimed at, and maybe even go a bit further as its basic elements are somewhat friendly compared to other RTS games in the console space. The crowded interface and bewildering controls don’t really feel justified considering the game’s comparable lack of general depth, but depending on how much the story sucks you in or how quickly you get addicted to the admittedly well-crafted systems, that may or may not bother you long-term. There are better RTSs and better RPGs out there on console right now than SpellForce 3, but not a whole lot. And almost none that take this particular path across both. All-in-all, it’s an admirable effort in most ways. Reforced has plenty of content, and does its best to present it in a digestible way. How much it clicks with you will largely depend on your personal ability to acclimate to the few areas where it does get in its own way.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

The medieval setting of Spellforce 3 isn’t particularly unique unfortunately, and many comparisons could easily be made to other games (such as The Witcher 3). The war-torn land of Eo, recovering from a brutal Mage War is now beset by mysterious plagues. Though the setting is pretty old hat, it does the job well enough with giving context to the actions and the story.

"I would have preferred a little more bravery in the story for a game so bravely playing with mixing genres, but it at least got out of the way when it counted."

You control a central protagonist named Tahar, a player customized avatar who’s the offspring of the mad villain who kicked off the Mage Wars. Through the course of the game you’ll grow in strength, recruiting and raising armies, forging alliances across the world to achieve your goals of stopping a looming threat. There’s that tired discrimination plot line around persecuting Magic users, which falls apart under any real scrutiny as always, but in the moment it pushes things along. I would have preferred a little more bravery in the story for a game so bravely playing with mixing genres, but it at least got out of the way when it counted.

Though firmly rooted in some western RPG tropes with the story, the strength of the title is how well it blends together the RPG game mechanics with larger RTS elements. If you’ve ever send out a patrol of archers to locate an enemy empire, you’re going to slip into the gameplay of Spellforce 3 with relatively little problem, and even if you haven’t then fairly competent tutorials and map systems help keep you on track.

Where as some games would change completely between their two parts, you’re always going to be controlling the game from the same overhead, isometric perspective whether you have 4 heroes in a dungeon or 40 units storming a battlefield, fingers dancing all over the keyboard to fire off hero skills or use hotkeys in base management. Quests can seamlessly transition from your small party of heroes doing dungeons and slaying dragons and naturally progress into a situation where you’ll have to build a base, defend it and raise an army to take on a larger task.

"The RPG and RTS elements blend together almost seamlessly, bringing together those quieter moments of a tight group of heroes in a dungeon and those sprawling battlefield clashes cohesively. "

You maintain control through the entire process, commanding where your heroes go and which tasks to accomplish in whichever order. You can send out a detachment while your heroes guard the home base or you can split your main adventuring party into a number of smaller units and have those heroes back up your forces, flitting between them with hotkeys as you would in an intense StarCraft match even as they focus on different objectives across the map from each other. The RPG and RTS elements blend together almost seamlessly, bringing together those quieter moments of a tight group of heroes in a dungeon and those sprawling battlefield clashes cohesively.

It’s not all flawless, the camera controls are awkwardly mapped to Page Up and Page Down by default, though you can try to set them to something more convenient it’s not as simple as it could be had they taken a system from a similar game like Total War. The grand vistas the game has you explore are engrossing but can sometimes get in the way of the gameplay, forcing you to work with the fiddly camera systems or hiding small alcoves of loot because you looked at it from the wrong angle. Luckily the strength of the PC platform is allowing players to re-key a lot of this to their liking but the camera systems will, regardless of how they’re keyed, feel a bit clunky thanks to the level design. The sense of scale and use of colour in Spellforce 3 is amazing, with the environments you visit feeling grand and massive on a level we haven’t seen in a long time, making full use of how far back the camera is pulled to bring the history the story is trying to show off to the forefront, and helping give you that connection that tired tropes don’t.

"Between the push to build and the many quest objectives, you’re never short for something to do in Spellforce 3 and it’s all reasonably easy to take in after an hour or so."

The armies are comprised of very basic, one attack units like Archers, Arsonists, Scouts, Infantry, etc, and are mostly single use instead of the flexible units usually seen in the RTS genre, but the dichotomy is there to put a spotlight on the main heroes. Your party is generally far more durable, and can support with magic, combat skills and healing depending on how you’ve chosen to grow their skill tree after levelling them up. You can use your hero characters to inject a slightly deeper layer of tactics through a simple hold of the Alt key as you click, popping up a radial menu where you can choose to fire off abilities from your full party simultaneously, using the effects they provide to turn the battle in your favour as well.

During larger engagements, while the game does have deployment options that are highly reminiscent of Total War, where you can command your infantry to form a line while archers remain behind, the game fails to really use this mechanic on most difficulties. Resource gathering is key to building your forces wisely, and you’ll need to make use of that army to capture and control different territories to raise your maximum unit cap and have the resources nearby to sustain them. Between the push to build and the many quest objectives, you’re never short for something to do in Spellforce 3 and it’s all reasonably easy to take in after an hour or so.

It’s a trope of wrap everything up as Spellforce 3 “is greater than the sum of its parts” but then again, Spellforce 3 itself is at its weakest when it leans on the tropes of the western fantasy setting and some mainstays of the genres it’s mashing up. But the game is also at its best when it is seamlessly moving between the best of both genres and giving the player the agency to tackle its quests in some unique ways and on some grand maps. Get over the small learning curve and Spellforce 3 has many interesting ideas to show.

This game was reviewed on the PC.

Spellforce 3 is a prequel to the other titles in the series, story wise.

• 1. Development
• 2. Story
• 3. Gameplay
• 4. Characters

Development

Spellforce 3 was first revealed at GamesCom 2014 with some footage, but no further information was revealed at that time. Details would later come out on the official SpellForce forum, including the game being set around 500 years before the events of the first game, with large continents instead of islands and no portals.

The strategy elements were deliberately more complex in this game, even more than Spellforce 1, with areas to control and materials that need to be carted between different stations to refine, such as Ore from the mine to the Smelter to become iron, which would go onto the Blacksmith to become weapons, which would then be handed out at the Barracks.

Humans, Elves and Orcs will all be playable, with each race’s army consisting of 4 basic unit types that match up against each other differently. Special units would also flesh out a playstyle for each race, such as an Elven Magician. Where you placed these units would also matter. Battlefields offer different advantages and you would need to strategically place each to make the most of the units and secure victory.

Story

In the year 518, before the event known as the convocation, it is a dark time for the land. Four royal houses rebelled against the crown of Nortander, as a renegade mage wanted them to, and the rebellion was quashed by the Queen with assistance for a house still loyal to the crown. The battles were not without their tolls however, decimating the land and public order in many regions. On top of this, the Queen sustained serious injuries in the final battle of the War, laying inert in a coma ever since. She leaves the supreme commander of the Royal Forces in charge of state affairs until she awakens or dies, which would see her niece succeed her.

The Lord Marshal is not shy about using force to try to bring stability back to the land, even using Magic, usually outlawed except in extreme situations. Players control a custom avatar who thought their father was one of the Mages who started the war, they have remained loyal to the Royal Family as part of its royal army. Where you go from here, and whether you remain loyal to the Queen is up to you.

Gameplay

Spellforce 3 is presented in an isometric top-down perspective reminiscent of Diablo, with the player controlling their avatar and a small army with which to take on quests, explore the world and defend themselves. You can command these forces like an RTS, setting them up to accomplish different objectives and command territory separately, managing a home base while exploring with a few recon squads. Battles can be smaller and more intimate or scale up to hundreds of units while keeping a focus on the core avatar and his party, according to the developers. SpellForce 3 is set to include a 30-plus hour campaign, not including grinding the player will probably do to get better gear.

Characters

There is a world of characters in Spellforce 3 that make it what it is, but most of them are minor players. In an effort to both spare the minute detail and preserve spoilers for those who would want to play for themselves, the focus here is largely on the player created avatar, Tahar.

Tahar is the son/daughter of the evil mage who kicked off the devastating Mage Wars which had a devastating effect upon the land of Eo. After being rescued by a team of heroes known as the Wolf Guard from your war mongering father, you will grow to join their ranks, though as this is an RPG, your exact role and skills are largely your own choice. During the time between Tahar’s rescue and the events of the game, the Mage Wars occur and come to an end, resulting in the banning of magic and persecution of its users. While this is happening, a deadly plague is sweeping through the land, and the events of the game are kicked off by Tahar and the Wolf Guard being deployed to investigate and make an attempt to stop it by whatever means are necessary.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.