Spellforce: Conquest of Eo Review

Spellforce: Conquest of Eo is a turn-based strategy game set in the world of Spellforce. The game puts you in the shoes of a powerful mage who must take control of their master’s tower and become the most powerful wizard in the realm of Eo. SpellForce: Conquest of Eo is a turn-based strategy game set in the fantastical world of SpellForce. The player takes on the role of a master wizard’s heir, inheriting their tower and exploring the realm of Eo.

AT A GLANCE
GENRE: RPG, Turn-based strategy, 4X
DEVELOPER: Owned by Gravity
PUBLISHER: THQ Nordic
RELEASE DATE: 3 Feb 2023
FINAL SCORE: 8/10

The game is set in the realm of Eo and the events of the game take place about a hundred years after Spellforce 3, and the player begins as an apprentice wizard rebuilding their master’s tower. At the beginning of the game, you find your master’s tower in ruins and must rebuild it, study spells, and recruit armies to expand your domain, recruit apprentices, and uncover the secrets of the Allfire, the ultimate source of magical power. Along the way, the player must face powerful foes and other mages who oppose their rise to power.

As a wizard rising in power, you must study spells, summon minions, create your army, and fight in turn-based battles. Like any 4X game, the goal is to expand the player’s domain, gather resources, and ultimately win the game.

The character creation is limited to choosing between three specializations, each with its own powers and effects on the story. and each with its own strengths and weaknesses. As an Alchemist, you can craft and use powerful potions, as an Artificer you can produce powerful glyphs for your army, and as a Necromancer, you can create powerful undead minions.

The story revolves around the missing master and your quest to uncover the secrets of the tower and the realm of Eo. The game also features procedurally generated campaigns, with over 600 unique adventures to explore. While theoretically, the experience is supposed to be fresh and exciting, most of my campaigns tended to be a bit generic and lacked the amount of depth one normally expects from the Spellforce games. Players can also make use of the living interactive grimoire, which reveals new secrets and spells as they progress through the game.

While the story is not as profoundly nuanced as other Spellforce games, it still provides a solid premise and interesting quest chains to follow.

The world of Eo is filled with magic and adventure. You must explore this world, seeking out resources, artifacts, and magical locations, to strengthen your tower and become the most powerful mage in the realm. However, as you slowly start uncovering more about the world and what led to your master’s demise, you will also have to face the other wizards in the Circle of Magi, who will stand in your way and you must either face them in battle, or find a way to appease them to advance your own power.

In terms of gameplay, Conquest of Eo offers a variety of challenging battles and opportunities for strategic decision-making. You must carefully choose how to allocate your resources and how to build and manage your tower and army. The game offers a wealth of spells and minions to choose from and provides a challenging and enjoyable experience for fans of turn-based strategy games.

To expand the player’s domain, they must control sources of Allfire, fill their grimoire with new spells, craft magical artifacts, and upgrade their tower. The player can harness over 60 spells and more than 100 different troops, including goblins, griffons, and other fantastical creatures.

Controlling the flow of Allfire is vital to victory, as it can directly affect your resources. It can be transformed into three vital elements: Proficiency, which is used to upgrade the Tower and increase its capabilities, including the number of rooms and apprentices available; Mana which is your mystical energy reserve required to cast spells and complete missions. It can also be transformed into gold through research of a specific rite and Research, your progress towards unlocking a selected research spell, ranging from summoning additional minions to fortifying your forces and undermining foes. Careful balancing of these 3 resource gains is crucial to winning and expanding your domain successfully.

As the player expands their domain, they can befriend cities, hunt for arcane artifacts, and absorb the power of mythical locations. The tower, which serves as the player’s base of operations, can be upgraded with new rooms, ranging from a Necromancer’s crypt to the mystical crystal chamber. The tower is also capable of levitating and traveling across the lands, allowing players to explore new territories and face new challenges. Players can encounter a variety of enemies, including Purity fanatics, hostile granite dwarves, bloodthirsty orcs, and more. The player may also have to face other wizards’ armies, either defeating them in battle or resolving things diplomatically.

You can recruit heroes and apprentices to your cause. While Heroes are powerful units that can lend you an edge in battle, your apprentices are far more important pieces in your roster of units that are crucial to growing your resources. You see, your apprentices have the power to establish lodges around the world, allowing the surrounding area to become your domain and provide resources. However, the loss of an apprentice means the loss of their corresponding lodge and the resources it provides. This can be a devastating setback, so players must protect their apprentices carefully.

Something I really like about Conquest of Eo is the aggressiveness of the AI. Fans of this genre are well aware that most 4X games suffer from a lack of proactive AI, allowing players to slowly build up their empires and overwhelm their enemies with doom stacks. That’s not the case here, unlike traditional games where players can slowly expand their territories with a sense of security, this game requires players to constantly move and adapt to the limited resources in each area.

Regardless of your actions, tensions will escalate with Circle mages over time, causing a gradual decline in relations. Before long, this disinterest will boil over into full-blown hostility. It is best to prepare for war by building up a formidable army, outfitting it with the best equipment, and leveling up its troops. This way, you’ll be ready for any conflict that may arise.