I first played Spellcross several years previously it was a demo on a magazine I had bought and I fell in love with the game from the first time I played it. The best way to describe Spellcross is a post apocalyptic turn based game with orcs thrown into the mix. You play the game as the commander of humanity and you must protect humanity from the invading forces of chaos.
Although this story has been used numerous times what I had found interesting about this game that although you fighting forces likes orcs or similar beasts your own forces are modern.
For example you’ll be using soldiers with machine guns, tanks and helicopters to fight the enemy. Obviously you don't start the game with all the high tech equipment.
You start initially with some soldiers and some money and territory. You can buy additional units but obviously what you can get initially is limited.
The idea of the game is to gain more territory from the forces of evil and you do this by invading the opposition. You then go into the tactical phase of the game which is turn based combat. Your objective is to use your own forces to eliminate the enemies. Some missions are very tough but I gained a great amount of satisfaction when I completed these tough missions. Once you
have defeated the enemy the land becomes your. The graphics of tactical screen I fought were well done but the unit graphics could be improved but it does not affect the gameplay.
The strategy side of the game is simple the more land you own the more resources you gain. These resources you can then spend on research or additional units. This was the aspect of the game I most enjoyed. I have always been a fan of XCOM games and research side of this game reminded me of these great games. As you progress through you can research more topics. At first it might be better armour for your troops but as you progress the better topics you get. You find you look after your favourite units and upgrade them as the game goes on.
The strategy side is also turn based so each turn you would gain resources and you can choose to attack the enemies land or protect your own. However to keep you on toes the resources you get for captured land is less each turn so you have to keep gaining more. Although you may think this gets boring the more I played the more addictive I found it.
Unfortunate this game was never released in the UK and if there were not demo I played I would never know the game existed and so the game is relatively unknown but if you like turn based games and ever enjoyed any of the XCOM games I highly recommend giving Spellcross a play.
