SpellForce 3: Soul Harvest

Players can again customize gender and appearance of their character, General Aerev. Unlike in the main game, players are restricted to choosing from two out of nine skill trees, with demonology and druidism having been added in Soul Harvest.[1][2] Additionally, each combination of skill trees has a synergy skill that combines elements of both trees.[1] Players can also create mercenaries, individually chosen characters that can be chosen in the single-player campaign to accompany Aerev instead of the companions provided by the game.[3] The main campaign adds 15 to 20 hours of gameplay and can be played by up to three players together.[1][3] While the host will play as Aerev, joining players can choose to join as one of the mercenaries they created.

The interface has been overhauled. While the main game displayed the available skills below the character portraits in the upper left corner, Soul Harvest has a skill bar that can be placed at the top or the bottom and to which players can add the skills at their choosing.[1] The information about available resources now resides at the lower right corner. Soul Harvest retains the skill-wheel that allows players to choose the skill to use when clicking on an enemy but limits the displayed skills to those that have been added to the skill bar.[3]

While players can still choose a race to control when entering a map with real-time strategy elements, two of the races from the main game have been replaced. Dwarves replaced elves as the main defensive race which heavily focuses on stone as a building resource.[3] Dark elves replaced orcs as the main offensive faction with a focus on many small units to overwhelm the enemy. Each race has new requirements for resources, with dwarves needing moonsilver and dark elves requiring echo, a resource harvested from the souls of dead units.[3] Additionally, dwarves can build tunnels to connect different sectors, allowing easy transfer of units from one part of the map to another.[4] Each faction also has its own titan, a large unique unit with superior attributes. Soul Harvest also adds flying units to all races, including elves and orcs from the main game.[5] Soul Harvest retains the mechanic of having to conquer sectors to expand the player's territory but resources are now automatically shared between neighboring sectors and no longer have to be transported by carriages.[1] This also forces players to have a continuous territory to share resources. The factions from the main game are still playable in multiplayer and skirmish games.[1] The multiplayer system was expanded with a ranked system.[6]

Soul Harvest includes an improved map editor that allows players to create their own maps for multiplayer or skirmish matches based on the changes introduced in the expansion.[1]

Soul Harvest was first announced via a trailer that the developer added to SpellForce 3 in December 2018.[5] The expansion was released on 28 May 2019. While the expansion does not require SpellForce 3 to run, publisher THQ Nordic granted all owners of the main game 40% off the expansion on Steam.[7]

Soul Harvest received "generally favorable reviews" from critics according to review aggregator Metacritic.[9]

The graphics of Soul Harvest were generally lauded by reviewers who noted the attention to details.[6][10] Le Soir however criticized that the graphics did not allow players to easily identify their own units, making large fights hard to manage.[2]

Reviewers liked the audio of the game, with both the voice acting and the soundtrack being lauded, although some dialogues have been described as long-winded and boring.[2][3][6][10] Critics also found the story interesting and compelling, despite the noted common premise of a hero that fell from grace and is granted a second chance.[2][6]

The ability to customize the character was generally received favorably,[2] although some reviewers bemoaned the limited amount of cosmetic customization options.[6] The mix of role-playing and real-time strategy elements was again highlighted as the source of the series' strength.[2]

Multiple critics, such as PC Games and GameStar, prefaced their reviews with assurances that Soul Harvest did not suffer from the same amount of bugs that crippled the main game.[1][3] The lack of bugs compared to the main game was noted positively by most critics.[2][4][6] German game magazine GameStar called Soul Harvest "compensation" for the buggy main game, noting that it only has few problems compared with the release of SpellForce 3.[3] Eurogamer.de called Soul Harvest "the better SpellForce 3".[4]

PCMag Greece liked the fact that units have multiple abilities that allow even lower level units to be relevant into the late game.[6] However, the faster pace required from players was noted negatively.[6]