SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars review

It's hard to argue with a game that gives you so much to do without dropping the ball somewhere. Where other games peak prematurely and abruptly zero you out to mask run-of-the-mill design, SpellForce 2 expertly paces itself like an Olympic distance runner. If you're not leveling skills quick enough, try shuffling hundreds of items to tweak stats like damage-per-second, speed, range, health, armor and mana. Frustrated with some aspect of the main quest? Try each map's generous helping of sides, or just pop back to an earlier area to scout for waiting quest-givers or explore an unmapped area for extra swag to sell and buy something better. And when hunting monsters in your tiny squad of heroes gets old, how about building a base with one of SpellForce 2 's elaborate three factions - the human Realms, orcish Clans or demonic Pact - and kicking out a massive army of Treants, Titans, or Death Knights to swarm your opponents?