SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars

SpellForce
SpellForce: The Order of Dawn	2003
SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars	2006
SpellForce 2: Faith in Destiny	2012
SpellForce 2: Demons of the Past	2014
SpellForce 3	2017
SpellForce 3: Soul Harvest	2019
SpellForce 3: Fallen God	2020
SpellForce 3: Versus Edition	2020
SpellForce: Conquest of Eo	2023

SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view RPG and RTS game in the SpellForce series.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		TAGES DRM. StarForce DRM for European release^[1]
Amazon.com		Anniversary Edition
GamersGate		Anniversary Edition
		Anniversary Edition
GOG.com		Anniversary Edition
Green Man Gaming		Anniversary Edition
Humble Store		Anniversary Edition
Steam		Anniversary Edition. The original Gold Edition is available as a beta branch, requiring a key from this thread for multiplayer.
GOG.com (unavailable)		Shadow Wars. Unavailable to new Anniversary Edition players.
GOG.com (unavailable)		Dragon Storm. Unavailable to new Anniversary Edition players.

Version differences

The Gold Edition includes the base game and the Dragon Storm expansion.

The Anniversary Edition is an updated digital-only variant of the Gold Edition which includes native widescreen resolution support, bug fixes, additions to the free game mode, visual tweaks, and multiplayer improvements.^[2]

Demo

A free demo version of Shadow Wars is available on Archive.org.

Monetization

Type	Notes
Expansion pack	The expansion pack includes a new faction with its own campaign, as well as item sets, maps, and game modes.
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Dragon Storm	Included with the Gold and Anniversary Editions.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\SpellForce2\
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/39550/pfx/^{[Note 1]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\SpellForce2\save\
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/39550/pfx/^{[Note 1]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents* folder in OneDrive on all computers.*
Steam Cloud

Video

Graphics settings (Anniversary Edition)

Graphics feature	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Native support in Anniversary Edition. See Widescreen resolution for vanilla game. However, FMVs and some HUD elements like portraits are stretched compared to 4:3 resolutions.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen		Native support in Anniversary Edition. However, FMVs and some HUD elements like portraits are stretched compared to 4:3 resolutions.
4K Ultra HD		UI does not scale with resolution and is extremely small in 4K.
Field of view (FOV)	See Widescreen resolution.
Windowed	Use SpellForce 2 Windower. Alternative method for the Anniversary edition on Steam: add -windowed to the game's launch options
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)	Up to 16x
Anti-aliasing (AA)	FXAA and SSAA (125, 150, 175, 200)
High-fidelity upscaling	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS	No FPS cap. Camera movement skips (light stutter) at frame-rates which are not integer multiples of 60, so it's recommended to limit FPS to 120 with external tools or graphics driver.
High dynamic range display (HDR)	See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Color blind mode	Deuteranope, protanope and tritanope. Added in Anniversary Edition.

Widescreen resolution

Edit config.xml^[3]

Go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\SpellForce2
Edit config.xml.
Change screenheight= and screenwidth to match the desired resolution, then save the changes.
Set config.xml to read-only to prevent the game overwriting the changes.
Open the in-game console by pressing Ctrl+] and type:
- UI:SetCameraFOV(0.94) for 16:10
- UI:SetCameraFOV(1.027) for 16:9

Notes

This will make the game Hor+, but the cutscenes will remain Vert-.

Input

Game settings (Anniversary Edition)

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Mouse sensitivity		For scrolling and rotating, but no general sensitivity.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse input in menus
Keyboard and mouse prompts
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Audio

Audio settings (Anniversary Edition)

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Czech				Fan translation; Shadow Wars, Dragon Storm, Gold Edition
French
German
Italian
Polish
Russian
Spanish

Issues unresolved

Mouse movements cause huge FPS drops

With almost every mouse movement, framerate can instantly cut in half and on next second back to normal, causing extremely uncomfortable stuttering.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play		6
Online play		6	The official Quazal service has been shut down. Attempting to create an account in the multiplayer menu will freeze the game.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
vorpX		G3D User created game profile, see vorpx forum profile introduction. Note:This profile may not work with Demons of the past.

Issues fixed

Game does not launch

Delete config.xml^[4]
Delete `%USERPROFILE%\Documents\SpellForce2\config.xml` and try again. All settings will have to be re-applied.

Other information

Restore the original visuals in the Anniversary Edition

Anniversary Edition added many small texture and effects improvements, which not only may not be to the taste of some players, but also introduce several graphical and lore issues.

Remove the new textures and effects^[5]

Go into the <path-to-game>\addon1 and remove/rename gfx folder.
Go into the <path-to-game>\base\gfx and remove/rename every file in that folder with an exception of default_normal.tga, which can be found inside of common folder.
Go into the %USERPROFILE%\Documents\SpellForce2 and open config.xml with a text editor.
Find and change optionenableblur. optionenablesharpen, optionenablenoise and optionenablecolorgrading from 1 to 0 and save the modified file.

Notes

If any graphical errors are encountered, check whether the file default_normal.tga located in <path-to-game>\base\gfx\common still exists.

If parameters listed above don't exist in the config.xml file, then simply add them after <vismain.

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	SpeedTree
Audio	Miles Sound System
Cutscenes	Bink Video
Multiplayer	Quazal

System requirements

Shadow Wars

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 4 1.5 GHz	Intel Pentium 4 2.5 GHz
System memory (RAM)	512 MB	1 GB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	5 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti 128 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible	Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT 256 MB of VRAM
Sound (audio device)	DirectX 9.0c compatible

Anniversary Edition

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP SP3, Vista SP2	7, 8, 10
Processor (CPU)	2.4 GHz Dual Core	3.2 GHz Dual Core
System memory (RAM)	1 GB	2 GB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	9 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 8800 ATI Radeon HD 3870 512 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible Shader model 3.0 support	Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 AMD Radeon HD 6850 2 GB of VRAM
Sound (audio device)	DirectX 9.0c compatible

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1
Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
- File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.
- Games with Steam Cloud support may also store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/39550/.
- Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.
- The app ID (39550) may differ in some cases.
- Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
- See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

References

↑ Starforce? - SpellForce - Official Board - last accessed on May 2023
↑ Steam Community :: Group Announcements :: SpellForce 2 - Anniversary Edition - last accessed on 2017-04-14
↑ SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars - last accessed on 2017-04-14
↑ Steam Community - last accessed on May 2023
↑ Guide: Make SpellForce 2 Anniversary Editions visuals closer to the original version :: GOG Forum - last accessed on 2025-06-20

[Proton_path_note-3] 1.0 ^1.1 Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.
Games with Steam Cloud support may also store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/39550/.
Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.
The app ID (39550) may differ in some cases.
Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

[2] File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.

[3] Games with Steam Cloud support may also store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/39550/.

[4] Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.

[5] The app ID (39550) may differ in some cases.

[6] Treat backslashes as forward slashes.

[7] See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

[1] Starforce? - SpellForce - Official Board - last accessed on May 2023

[2] Steam Community :: Group Announcements :: SpellForce 2 - Anniversary Edition - last accessed on 2017-04-14

[4] SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars - last accessed on 2017-04-14

[5] Steam Community - last accessed on May 2023

[6] Guide: Make SpellForce 2 Anniversary Editions visuals closer to the original version :: GOG Forum - last accessed on 2025-06-20

[1]

[2]

[Note 1]

[3]

[4]

[5]

Developers

	Phenomic
Anniversary Edition	THQ Nordic
Publishers
2006-2011	JoWood Productions
2011-2016	Nordic Games
2016-present	THQ Nordic
Release dates
Windows	April 20, 2006
Reception
Metacritic	80
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view
Controls	Multiple select, Point and select
Genres	RPG, RTS
Themes	Fantasy
Series	SpellForce