A hybrid of RPG and RTS which might have make it right
The story of the game was not that exciting as it can be considered a classic story of a RPG. Although the rune system and its history is quite interesting.
You are a rune warrior called to save the world in desperate time. A very powerful mage wants and can destroy the already messed up world of Spellforce which is divided in islands due to a great war which brought disaster. The islands are linked with portals with which you travel.
More over there are bindstones which you can activate and create a vast network in which you can teleport (very very useful).
The RTS feature:
You can summon workers and build up a base wherever you find a monument that lets do so. Plus you can call heroes from monuments that will join your cause. There are 6 factions in the game each one designed very different from the others.
The RPG feature:
It is classic that you are a character which gains levels through experience. The only wrong about this feature is that there are limited options on your character selection. Moreover I did not liked the fact that in most of the game your character was useless as you always encounter enemies higher level than you so you needed to avoid them or built an army
The graphics and the sound of the game are nice. (Concidering graphics of 2004 and that I play them in 2007 without complainning for anything they must have been awesome back then) The only thing that I did not like in Spellforce is the gameplay. (It is very good but there are a few complaints for that.) I found that the easiest way to play the game is to look with the RTS camera style not the third person view as I could manage my army this way. But in RTS mode the main character (your character) is not aggressive, he does not attack automaticaly unless he is hit hand to hand. This does not apply to your units however which are always in th aggresive stance. The lack of changing a units stance is a very big drawback for the game. It is not that bad but it is bad. There are some other stuff I did not liked in the game as there are vast distances that you and your units need to travel making the game boring sometimes and that you cannot load without going to main menu. The game is quite difficult after a while or at least needs patience to get overt it. In the late chapters of the game the plot is quite common for a role playing game and I realised that the game repeats it self a lot making quite bad.
In the end Spellforce is a good game that can be happily be played from RTS players and RPG players. I recommend it to try it