SpellForce 3 Fallen God Survival, trolls and a fallen god

The story campaign can be played in co-op, and it works well: one of you steers the tribe's decisions while both of you fight through the battles. You each build your own heroes, so splitting the work comes naturally: one holds the line with a brute, the other flanks with magic. Between battles you explore Urgath together, and each hero has their own way of interacting with the world, like breaking through walls or digging through tunnels, so what you can reach depends on who is standing there. It is a long campaign, around 20 hours, which makes a steady partner worth having. Beyond the campaign there is ranked PvP and four factions to master if the rivalry mood strikes.

You play as trolls, and not as a human commander with troll troops: you are the trolls. The Moonkin have been driven from their home, hunted for their tusks and weakened by disease, and the writing takes their plight seriously. The voice acting is strong, the dialogue runs deep, and the characters have pasts that slowly come to light. One of them is shaped by the answers you give in conversation, changing which skills and abilities that hero can use. Your decisions matter too: the campaign has multiple endings, and which one you get depends on what you choose. It is a dark story, and the endings can be bittersweet rather than triumphant.

The trolls are a new faction with their own mechanics. You do not simply train a finished soldier: you start with the simplest fighters and send them off to be trained into stronger ones, so your army grows from raw recruits into veterans. Trolls cannot wield the weapons of other races, but anything you salvage from fallen humans and elves can be broken down and reforged into gear that gives your side an edge. Battles run on a sector-based system: take ground, build within it, and make the most of what each unit does best. The trolls are sturdy, which makes them forgiving to command, though veterans of the series may want to raise the difficulty.