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SpellForce simple rocks

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 15
Date: November 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

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.

Platinum Edition Does Not Work!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 47 / 56
Date: December 08, 2005
Author: Amazon User

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.

SpellForce Platinum is fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: December 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

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.

Aspyr; 0 for 2 !!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 34 / 46
Date: December 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User

First I buy ... Stubbs, Zombie Rebel Without a Pulse.
Well, it uses STARFORCE. So, I gave it to charity

Now Spellforce Platinum doesn't work.
Contacted Aspyr customer support, asked if the Platinum edition contained all patches, the rep said: sorry to say; no.
I asked when the new patch will be ready, rep said: he doesn't know.

I didn't know Spellforce used STARFORCE.
Luckily I didn't try to install it due to the "key" bug.
STARFORCE related problems are well known.

If anyone still wants to buy this game, you might want to check the Spellforce Forum(TECH).
There are 5-10 threads related to problems with the "key bug".
Some got it to work, some never did and others had big problems.

I guess you will have 2 bullets to dodge if you install the Platinum edition.

Thanks Aspyr.

Boycott Aspyr

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 15 / 24
Date: December 12, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Until Aspyr stops using Starforce drivers which have caused this game and Stubbs the Zombie (which I both bought) not to work on my computer and cost me around $80 total, I am boycotting their company. Starforce is an invasive copy protection system which denies you the ability to use certain LEGITIMATE functions of your computer and often causes games not to work for no apparent reason. The drivers also grant themselve administrator level access making them a very tempting target for virus programs. I had to all but reformat my computer from the damage Stubbs did to it.

You have to install the CORRECT patch for US

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 19 / 20
Date: December 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

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 :)

No Starforce, but does not work.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: March 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have a pretty decent computer (Athlon64/3000+, Radeon X550), but this game does not work at all. Even after I download and install the patch from Aspyr (though there is no excuse for the game to not at least load straight out of the box), spellforce.exe just sits there and sucks up 99% of the CPU until I kill the process. Aspyr support is unable to help.

That said, despite other reviews here, this game does NOT install Starforce. But maybe that's why my version won't work...

This game does not use Starforce

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: March 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game does NOT use Starforce. I received the game as a gift and after reading this review was worried since I refuse to use anything related to Starforce. This game uses SecuROM (which I verified with the publisher). On some machines apparently the game does not detect the disk when trying to play, which is corrected by a small downloadble fix. No technical issues for me when I played it.

Now for the actual game: It's definately a refreshing change from the normal. The game is fairly unique and there are lots of different features. There is a fair bit of action and there is tons of content. The Platinum edition inclues the original game and the 2 expansions, and I have yet to complete the first game after quite a few hours invested. The expansion packs apparently adds all kinds of new features, so I can't wait to get that far.

The only problems I can see is that the multiplayer community is pretty non-existant and I couldn't seem to get a game going online, although there is an included server brower. Also the voice acting can be pretty sketchy, and it's actually funny sometimes. However the game itself is pretty solid and you definately can't beat the price. I do recommend this game!

How to get it to work

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: March 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

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.

Great game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: March 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Worth the money, get lots of hours out of it, yet is closr to warcraft/civilization style game

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