SpellForce a deft mix of RTS, RPG, and empathy | Why I Love
Why I Love is a series of guest editorials on GamesIndustry.biz intended to showcase the ways in which game developers appreciate each other's work. This entry was contributed by Li Shu, producer of the Lightracer series at SmartMelon.
Video games, at their best, can produce stunning stories that make us question our values, reflect on our lives, and better empathize with one another. While that's also true of non-interactive media, games are unique in how they respond to player input. Many games don't offer a ton of narrative variation, but some do, and these experiences often stick with me the longest. This has been true of many games I've played over the years, but nothing has inspired a sense of wonder and intrigue as much as the SpellForce series.
Part of this comes down to these games' scope. They are absolutely, wildly, gobsmackingly ambitious. They're part RPG about guiding a specific character through an evolving adventure, and part real-time strategy game where you take a broader view in building towns and commanding armies. Just from a gameplay perspective, that's a lot to take on. And yet, that's only the tip of the iceberg for me.
What really excites me about SpellForce is its worldbuilding. Its cast is split between humans, orcs, dark elves, and trolls, each with their unique, unconventional social formations. For example, orc society is centered around the idea of "competition." They have completely different values from humans and other races, so they frequently make decisions that may initially seem difficult for us to understand, but are reasonable within the context of their culture. Similarly, the dark elves are ruled by an organization called "commune", which maintains that they operate in a
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