User:SoWhy/drafts/SpellForce 3: Fallen God

SpellForce 3: Fallen God is a 2020 stand-alone expansion pack for SpellForce 3 developed by Grimlore Games and published by THQ Nordic. It was released for Microsoft Windows on 3 November 2020 as the second expansion to SpellForce 3 after SpellForce 3: Soul Harvest. While it uses the same game engine and assets as SpellForce 3, Fallen God does not require the player to have purchased or installed the main game to play it.

Fallen God adds the troll race to the game than handles differently that previous races. Trolls previously appeared as units for the orc race in the main game.

Gameplay
Players can again customize the appearance of their character, Akrog Bone-Crusher, as well as their companions, Zazka Small-Tusk and Grungwar Grayfur. Each hero has a fixed skill tree tailored to his personality and role while players can choose a second skill tree. Additionally, a fourth companion, Noag Moon-Blood, will only have a default skill tree as well as a hidden second skill tree. Skills for Noag will become available based on how the player interacts with him and other non-player characters during the game. A more ruthless approach for example will open up aggressive skills while peaceful behavior will lead to support skills becoming unlocked. Before that, the skills are hidden in the skill tree, so players cannot anticipate what actions might unlock which skills. Unlike in the main game, players are not able to choose different companions for each map.

Each hero has a different special ability that allows the player to explore more of the world and solve puzzles. Akrog can summon time windows that lets him see past events and manipulate the present; Zazka can burrow through small holes to reach otherwise inaccessible areas; Noag can use his might to crush objects blocking the player's path; and Grungwar can use shrines found in some maps to grant nearby units special benefits.

While heroes can use equipment and weapons found on game maps to increase their active and passive abilities in a role-playing video game manner like in the main game, they cannot use many weapons and other pieces of equipment designed for humans and other smaller races. Instead, players can either sell these items or use specialized non-player characters to break them down into components that can then be used to create new troll equipment.

The expansion adds the new troll race to the game. In the main game, trolls appeared as units for the orc race which Fallen God explains with orcs taking trolls as slaves to fight for them. Trolls build bases like the other races in the main game and the first expansion but they only have two basic units. More advanced units are unlocked by sending those units into specialized buildings that convert them to melee fighters, ranged warriors or magic users. Units are upgraded by sending the unit into the camp multiple times. This means that players cannot produce advanced reinforcements on the fly but have to keep units in their base to upgrade them. Trolls use new resources like scraps and offerings. Scraps can be found lying around in heaps but can also be generated by specialized scrapper units while offerings are created in special buildings. Like in the first expansion, Soul Harvest, there are no longer carts that transfer resources between conquered sectors.

During the main campaign, the trolls will set up a main camp in an abandoned temple. Players can provide resources to this camp by filling a cart on other maps they are on. Resources in the main camp can then be used to unlock upgrades that affect all future bases built. The resources can also be used to access areas of the temple map where special equipment is hidden away as well as more time windows can be found that explain the story further.

The campaign adds approximately 20 hours of single-player gameplay. The campaign can be played with two or three players in co-op mode.

Setting and characters
Fallen God takes place on the continent of Urgath approximately fifty years after the events of SpellForce 3. Urgath is separated by an ocean from the Fiara where the previous games were set in. After the War of the Six between the three "light" races (humans, elves and dwarves) and the three "dark" races (dark elves, orcs and trolls), the latter fled to Urgath to settle there. Partially still unexplored, Urgath attracts fortune seekers from Fiara as well as hunters that kill trolls for their tusks. Players take the role of Akrog Bone-Crusher, the new chieftain of the Moonkin trolls after his father was killed by elven hunters.

Plot
After their sire dies, Akrog Bone-Crusher has to complete a ritual in order to become the next chieftain but they are interrupted by elven hunters and forced to flee. They meet with a night elf stranger who promises them salvation by freeing the Fial Darg, the demigod who led the dark races to Urgath after the War of the Six and who was imprisoned in a nearby temple by the now-fallen Hybernian Empire. After dealing with orc slavers who enslaved a local troll tribe, Akrog and his companions enter the temple that serves as the Fial Darg's prison. The discover its torso but learn that its body has been split in five parts with the other parts in different temples across Urgath. Akrog agrees to travel to each temple via gates found in the main temple and to retrieve the body parts in order to resurrect the demigod.

After retrieving the first part, Akrog is given tasks from his tribe to strengthen their numbers while the stranger asks him to find "echoes" around Urgath in order to unlock the other gates. They successfully retrieve the second part of the Fial Darg but the stranger and some of Akrog's warriors disappear, forcing him to search for them. They discover that Nerbok One-Eye, a rival of Akrog, has made a pact with the orc slavers to serve them in return for their tribe's survival. Akrog and his warriors defeat Nerbok and the orc slavers that arrived to enslave them but learn that more are on their way, having struck an alliance with human tusk-hunters. They hurry to find the necessary components to access the other temples but on their quest they lose more important members of their tribe. Akrog decides to send the weak and old away to be safe from the battle.

Akrog and his companions retrieve the final parts of the Fial Darg but when they return they find out that the slavers and hunters have found the rest of the tribe and are headed there. They attempt to resurrect the demigod with the stranger's magic but it fails, the body having become too weak to hold its spirit. The Fial Darg reveals through telepathy that he needs a new vessel to hold his spirit which can only be Noag, Akrog's brother who holds the last bit of essence from their father. Depending on how the player developed Noag during the campaign, there are two possible endings:

If Noag learned to rely on himself, he will refuse the Fial Darg. Grungwar then betrays Akrog and tries to take control of the Fial Darg but the Fial Darg possesses him instead. They agree to join forces to escape the jungle but the stranger leads them to a place where he can try to trap the Fial Darg's spirit. The attempt fails and they have to fight the Fial Darg before the stranger can successfully trap him. Without the Fial Darg's help, they are unable to stop the hunters and slavers from reaching and killing their tribe, forcing them to flee and seek a new life with the Bogtusk tribe of trolls.

If Noag was instead taught to value the tribe, he will agree to sacrifice himself. The Fial Darg possesses his body and they march to perform the necessary ritual in order to save their tribe. The ritual is successful and they summon the Fial Darg at the cost of Noag's life. He helps them destroy the hunters but when he tries to leave, the stranger traps him. Akrog leads his tribe to the south to built a new permanent camp to last.

In both endings, the stranger reveals himself to be Raith Skaddar, one of the Circle Mages, who had come to Urgath with the intention of trapping the Fial Darg.

Development
Fallen God was first revealed in June 2020.

Originally, the story was supposed to feature multiple endings based on the player's choices, but the final version of the game only includes two endings.

According to the developer, Munich-based Grimlore Games, Fallen God is the last planned add-on for SpellForce 3 although further patches and features are planned for the main game and its expansions.

Reception
Fallen God received "generally favorable" reviews from critics according to review aggregator Metacritic.