Spellforce is a Hybrid game series between RPG and RTS. There are elements of both genres in and both are done fairly well. Set in a fantasy world of Eo, Spellforce games will give you a decent dose of your fantasy needs. Every game is fairly lenghty and to finish all campaigns you will need to invest nice chunk of time. It is a fun game series with interesting gameplay and many races for players to experience. Games can be compared to Warcraft 3 with more races to play with and way deeper hero leveling system and itemization.
First game was released in 2003. and being a fan of RTS and RPG games, I immediately took notice of that hybrid RTS/RPG feature. Game begins in the world of Eo few years after Convocation, powerful ritual used by corrupt mages in their quest for immortality that almost destroyed the world of Eo, what is left are the small islands scattered on the elemental sea. You come in as a rune warrior serving Order of the Dawn trying to restore the world. Game with fairly complex story that would take too long to explain in this format, all I can say as fantasy games go this is one of the more interesting worlds to explore. From gameplay perspective there are six playable races that include Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Orcs, Trolls and Night Elves. You can build towns for all of those races and level up your Rune Warrior to be Mage, Archer or Warrior.
Second game of the Spellforce series was released in 2006. followed by few expansion packs. In Spellforce 2 story continues as a new hero Shaikan raises to power with dragon blood of a powerful dragon Ur that gives him dragonlike abilities. His goal is to fix the strife between races and uncover more sinister evil that is waiting to emerge. Three new factions are added in this game, Gargoyles, Shadows and Barbarians that increased the number of playable races to nine. One of the main draws of this series is that army diversity and persistent heroes that add flavor to the fights. Spellforce 3 is in the works set to release this year, it could be a great addition to this series.
