Customer Reviews

Spellforce Platinum

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This review is for the North Amercian version of Spellforce Platinum. Not for the game itself. I have Spellforce Gold and also the expansion Shadow of the Pheonix and both are great games. Would give them 4 stars, only 4 as the dialog is pretty lame and could have been better, but otherwise very nice game.

The Platinum Edition for the US does not work. It says you have a temp key expired and stops the game right there. You cannot play, period. Has to do with copyright protection, as usual. They put out a "fix", they call it a "small fix", which is a new exe file and you are supposed to replace your exe with this new one.

Guess what? It does not work. In fact the game crashed my husbands computer so badly he is having to reformat. My daughter wrote me that she cannot play it either, didn't crash her computer, just the fix does not work and won't let you play.

DO NOT BUY THIS PLATINUM EDITION! Even as cheap as it is, its not worth even a dollar if you can't get past the key problem. If you want to play Spellforce then pay the extra and get the Gold Edition which has 2 of them, and then the expansion. Probably $20 for each, but they play fine and nothing about keys in there. Out of the box, onto your computer and playing.

So far at their forum no one seems to be coming up with a workable fix, the other editions in Europe are fine, seems to just be the NA version and apparently we aren't a priority for getting the game around the temp key expired issue.

Hopes this keeps someone from buying the Platinum. If you do buy it be warned, do NOT install the patch that is out there, its for the GOLD Edition only, the Platinum has all the current patches, all you need is their fix. Which again, does not work.

I agree with the folks here that it is insanely frustrating getting a game and not being able to play.

(...)

The patch contains an executable which you will use to replace the one already installed in the game's folder. Here's where most people have problems. You HAVE to extract the file from the patch. Unfortunately, most people save the patch, open it, then copy the .exe file right there. If the file looks like a blue-edged square window, it has not been extracted - it's still a compressed file. You have to click on extract, then the file will look like a spellforce picture icon. That's what you need to copy and replace. After walking MANY people through this process (after finally getting it myself, hehe), it works like a charm.

Once you finally go through the hassle of getting the game to work, it really is a ton of fun. A great mix between RTS and RPG. I like the fact that not every single area is always "build up, destroy, build up destroy." There are a lot of areas that play more like Sacred, than an RTS. Some people may not like that, but since I'm not a big RTS, it breaks things up just enough to make for a very fun game.

Hope this helps :)

Well, I must say that I didnt expect that the game would be so great. But it is. Its the best Real Time Strategy game I have ever played.
Battle For Middle-earth and Warcraft 3 are bad games compared to SpellForce.

But SpellForce isnt an ordinary RTS game. It offers some RPG features. For example you can create & skill your main character and you can also loot items and gain experience points.

If you play it for the first time you will see that the graphics are awesome. There is no other RTS game with the visual power as SpellForce has. Then there is the sound. Its brilliant. The sound creates a great fantasy atmosphere. The controls offer some innovations. There is the so-called Click & Fight system where you can control your units easily.
The Platinum Edition contains also the 2 Addons and at all it offers an average playtime of 150 hours.

In a few words: SpellForce is a must have for every RTS and RPG gamer out there.

I really enjoy this game. My friends and I link up on the lan and do some multi player co-op battles and have a blast. Few bugs that are little annoying but workable.

If you buy this game soon as you install, you wil lget a 1217 error cd key is bad yada yada..

goto aspy media/support/spellforce top clicky.. 1217 error cd key invalid error on the page click download the patch.. overwrite the bad exe with a less buggy one and play. note this patch is about 13 megs and on a dial-up gonna take you sometime.

Gl hope this helps, for 20 bucks this game should keep you highly entertained for days, If you like age empires, and games of that sort this is for you.

When I bought this game in 2004 I wasnt very impressed. It was called The Order of Dawn - the graphics, the sound and the controls were fantastic but the mission design was boring. I wanted to try the addons but they were never released in the US. So I already forgot about this game. Then I saw this Platinum Edition of SpellForce. 20 Dollars isnt that much and so I bought it. I started with the Phoenix campaign and I had great fun. It has now smooth gameplay and exciting missions. I think this game is a must for every Real-Time-Strategy and Role-Play-Game fan.

A friend of mine who bought it as well expired start problems but the support is very helpful and so the start problems were fixed with a small fix.

I am really looking forward to SpellForce 2 and hope it becomes more popular here in the US.

I like this game- a lot. There aren't many RPG/RTS mixes that pull it off, but this one, or I should say these ones, did. The bundle includes the original SpellForce and its two sequels. I've only played the first one so far, along with a "Free Game" mode, which is basically the game minus the restrictions of the storyline. You play as a hero/heroine that is fully customizable. The hero/heroine is a Rune Servant, which means you use these runic artifacts to summon heroes and units at special Hero or race-specific Monuments. You also become more powerful over time, like in an RPG. There isn't a set class, like mage or fighter, but there are skills you can choose, and the rest you can choose as you level up. Whether you focus on one type, like strictly heavily armored, two-handed weapon fighter, or diversify, like the aforesaid fighter, except add, say, necromantic magic, is up to you. The game only ever calls you the Avatar, not a class-specific title. Sometimes you wander the land doing quests, with one or more Heroes as back-up, whether that be an archer, a healer, or any other skill type. Generally the Heroes seem to be focused on one kind of skill. Other times, you have to establish a base in order to control an army to cut through enemy lines, so that you can get to the next objective. The only problem I have with the game is that the voice-acting is a little off in some places and uncomfortably awkward in others. But if you can overlook that, the game is very well done.

Though I was daunted a little by the reviews stating problem with installing the game I went for it and I don't regret. I bought the Platinum Edition and it installs all right. The good thing about the platinum edition is that you get three games at the same time.
Would not say it's one of the very bests available in its category but it's interesting and fun. About graphics, though the details are not great, still I liked the 3-D view, specially the view through the eyes of the main character(Hero).
Story is so so. Dialogs are specially bad. But the fact that you have to follow certain clues and talk to people and find out useful information is good idea. A sort of combination of RPG and RTS.
I like the units and the way they fight. Also picking up artifacts or weapons is good.
Overall it's a nice game. And the platinum edition is specially good as you get lots of hours of gameplay.

I've never played real time strategy games before because I primarily play RPG's. This game combines the best elements of both and I've enjoyed playing it immensly. I look forward to playing part 2 after completing it a couple more times with different characters.

I love RPG's. This game does a good job of mixing RPG with real-time strategy. It is large in scope and has a TON of items to beef your characters up with.

You WILL need to get a patch to run it, but after that, it runs fine (at least, that was my experience). It WAS (and always is) disappointing to get the game only to have it not load or even start up at all.

The down sides: the voice acting is Baaaaad. I can't remember hearing people sound so board...and not funny-bad either. The missions can get pretty repetative. there are some logic errors with the game that are annoying at times, like the fact that your avatar will not shoot his arrow unless you manually tell him to every time...this kills the speed of leveling up.

Overall, it's a decent game that could have pretty easily been great if they had paid attention to some details.

A very fun and enjoyable game once you get it installed. Nice plot-line with different modes of strategy/tactices needed on different maps to win. All in all, rated excellent.

Installation on the other hand, as mentioned above, can be a real bear. Due to the copy protection, any hidden hook process (i.e. Anti Virus/anti spyware... ick!). I almost had to start with a fresh install of MS Windows to get the game installed and running.