JoshWright

Not being someone who has played the last two Disciples titles, I didn't exactly know
what I was in for. From the outset of the main storyline,you play as a leader class
knight. You proceed to travel about the lands of the kingdom, fighting pre-staged
encounters, and random battles. You have a set hex movement rate, and an income to
keep track of as well. You will have random encounters, some of which are quite a
bit farther advanced than you. This game delivers some choices as to approach, but
once you've built up your levels and defensive capability, there won't be a whole lot that can
challenge you, meaning the only real strategy needed is to be well prepared.



The spell and combat systems move semi-fluidly, with little prep work needed between
rounds. The upgradable stronghold is how your units progress through their levels,
with new buildings unlocking the next plateau for that unit in particular. The
resources are acquired by holding and maintaining power nodes scattered across the
map. I really liked the way that my gold and mana was all handled for me, that I
didn't have to dedicate a unit to focus on mining or mana gathering. The game is
absolutely beautiful, and while the map is stunning to look at, at times proves a bit
too visually confusing, as finding roads and pathways is kind of a hunt and peck
operation. Seeing so much visual spit and polish, it disappoints me that the scope of
this game gets boiled down to very simplistic elements. For me, the value and
enjoyment of games like this is that they bring some of the tabletop experience to
the PC. Rather than weaving an immersive game that pulled me in, Disciples 3 bogged me
down in menus and not really explaining itself all that well. In the end, a good
strategy title has to avoid getting confusing, because you can’t accurately plan an
attack without being aware of exactly what is happening on the map in front of you.
In most cases, I didn't really care whom I was throwing my units at, just that it
was enough to be total overkill.



The human storyline has you defending against both the legions of the undead and the
elves. While the undead like to just handle things up front and personal like, the
elves hit you from afar with magic. The magic system operates similar to the D&D idea
of learning spells and having a spell book that you have to acquire certain mana
types for. While very useful for you, the computer gets very, very annoying as the
elves magic spam you every other turn or so. It seriously annoys me that you can only
cast one spell a round and the spells that you've learned disappear at the end of
every chapter. The equipment system didn’t seem to do a whole lot for me either, so
while it made my main character look cool, it really didn't change my stats all that
much.



Honestly, I was bothered by the fact that while I had 12 slots for my whole party, I
never actually needed more than 9 to really seal the deal. Also, be careful
with auto-battle. Even when you are dramatically over-powered, you can still lose
because the computer doesn't play for you very well, and tends to focus on one,
direct attack ignoring any of your special abilities. Also, you have the option to
leave behind garrisons to defend captured strongholds, but this proves to be pretty
useless as the units you leave acquire no exp, and often just sit there until an
overpowered strike squad comes along to decimate your underpowered newbs. The
guardians that protect power nodes are really over powered, never, under any
circumstances auto battle those things, you will be very dead very quick. While the
challenge level stays the same, there isn't much variance here. You fight the same
units over, and over, and over again.




If your someone who has played this series before, I'm sure that there is enough here
to keep your attention to the game, and to keep you playing. For someone who just
picked it up though, it seems like a major step in reverse. It takes all the best
parts of the old school turn based RPG and boils it down to process and procedure,
which kills my interest real quick. The loot system is kind of an excuse to give you
money and not much else. It may be visually stunning, but the game itself is in dire
need of a total re-roll. Disciples 3 - Renaissance feels less like a period of
intellectual discovery and enlightenment, and more of a return to a bleak dark age
past.

It gets a 6 out of 10.

Josh Wright
Contributing Writer


This game is available on GamersGate