Developed by Akella and Published by bitComposer games a new iteration of the Disciples series essentially Renaissance/Resurrection but with some tweaks. Now watch me get those three names confused endlessly throughout this review. For those new to the series, it’s a turn based strategy that’s quite reminiscent of the heroes of might and magic games. Certainly HOMM players will recognize the combat system and many of the elements involved in character and troop development, however, disciples takes things into down more of an adventurous and graphically exciting path. The game sees you as initially as Lambert a hero of the world of Nevendaar whose godlike figure the Highfather has turned his back on the world and its races.
This leaves a power vacuum that the game’s campaigns are based around. You can choose from a number of light and dark creature races. Specifically the imperials, the undead hoard, the legions of the damned and the Elven Alliance. As play progresses, you build your character and troops by upgrading your castle buildings buying troops and exploring the locations on the map. Unlike HOMM the maps in disciples have a far more realistic feel and read more as a game environment than a map or board. Previous iterations of Three disciples were met with mixed feelings due to some game-play issues around changes made to the format. And the reincarnation edition changes much of this in an effort to become the game fans expected and I think they have done that.
Water travel is back and I really did get involved in the mission stories which is not something I could say about HOMM. They had a nice level of variety in size and importance it was in no way totally linear in fact, I very nearly walked past a gigantic dragon with an interesting quest in my haste to move on to the next board. Your character develops with you through the campaign’s 180+ hours of game-play and you get to keep some of your equipment. However, you are to a certain extent kicked back to the beginning in terms of troops when you enter each new campaign act. This is intentional in the game and in no way an oversight as each new level pits you against different problems and you have to adjust your troops and play style accordingly. For instance, you may have some very tough knights who suddenly become useless because werewolves are immune to slashing damage?.
One aspect of this reworking is the map editor it comes with that will allow the modding community to go mad and that might finally get it some of the recognition it deserves. Side quests and 200 new objects have been added to really flesh out the four campaigns and grass has been added to the combat zones to…. Increase immersion and offset carbon emissions. The game can be surprisingly addictive in the manner of all turn based games as you always want to take another turn and hours can very quickly fly bye. I had expected to just take a quick look for review purposes, but steam reliably informs me I have spent 32 hours playing it. And I am totally fine with that I found it really rewarding and entertaining. If it has some down points id say it’s tutorial is a bit lightweight, but since the game really does want you to learn as you play it’s not a big problem. Initially I found the look of the GUI a bit gothic and overly contrasted but switching the gamma cheered things up a bit.
Again, not really a problem as i can see they were trying to look a bit “heavy metal”. The game does not stay so dark for long and is filled with some wonderful subtle humorous elements, a wizard that sounds rather like an Italian opera singer when he casts spells or the merman that makes unusual hand gestures at you. Character interactions that can be so winsomely sweet and honorable that you almost wince. Another instance was when one of the totems you equip in battle did nothing but choose a random moment to teleport everyone around the arena, thus making an instant mockery of any pretensions towards tactical play on your part. Being a HOMMs fan and not having seen previous iterations of disciples and didn’t have to deal with the problems. I’m left wondering what the problem was this is a really enjoyable turn based hex strategy game. Well worth a four I enjoyed tremendously once I got going. Four
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
You must be logged in to post a comment.