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Sunday, January 31, 2010

Disciples 3 - A Review - 31st Jan

It's been awhile since I last written a game review. I think it has been almost 2 months already. In fact, I've also finished and not-finished some games already on probably would be nice to have some reviews which I planned to post soon. Anyways, I've just recently played Disciples 3: Renaissance lately and here's my two cents on the game.


Well, first of all, I didn't bother about the story. Why? Let me illustrate why.
I started the game with the tutorial section, supposedly teaches on how to play. Seeing that I've got experience in Disciples 2, I skipped all the tutorial messages as I was fairly sure that I could manage without them. As expected, I breezed through for a while.Suddenly I realize, what happen to all the game mechanics that most players have grown to love? Graphics-wise, I talk about that later in the article, but in terms of combat-wise, it was one my main gripes at the moment. I'm not too sure as to why the developers would change a system that differentiates itself from the similar "Heroes" series.

Now, here I have is a screen-shot of one of the combat scenes:-



In combat, you can now move your units to hexagonal spaces, which means, you can move units around behind enemies etc. Now, I don't really find this to be fun. If I would, I could have played the Heroes series.

Before this combat, my hopes were still high, trying to adapt to the strange new 3d view, revamped graphics, new system of gathering resources etc. While the combat is running, my interest in this game straight went down to zero and down the drain. My first thoughts were that I'm going back to Disciples 2. It's not that it's unplayable but the overall design has changed and degraded into a "Heroes" type clone instead of being in its own class. When the Heroes series degraded from the high-quality of Heroes 3 to Heroes 4 and the much much lower Heroes 5, I've switched to Disciples 2 and stuck to it since, but it looks like the series is also on another trip to the dark-store room.

Graphically, I'm not impressed either, the Gothic feel of the previous game has been reduced by quite a large amount. Disciples 2 made the lords and warriors look utterly "uber" even when they're actually at a low level. But in Disciples 3, the game just made a low-level warrior just puny and weak and from some images on various websites, a high-level one isn't any better. And I was wondering, what actually happened to all the "cool" looking attacks? Here's a comparison picture for both games for the hero.

Let me ask: Who looks and feels more a Hero?

 
Disciples 3 - Hero

 
Disciples 2 - Hero (The one on the Pegasus like Horse)

Well, I think I just straight give this game an overall score:- 3/10. Some points scored are awarded to the fact that the devs are able to maintain some moods of the game and not totally make it a new series. But well, I really don't like what they have done with the rest of the in-game systems.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

- agree with the original poster, in that the direction away from the originals .. lost its uniqueness amongst the genre.

- the research trees are the same, which is something i thought would have been better focus for a part three. instead, its the same as Disciples II.

- sometimes the map(s) feels cluttered and there is no set path to take your heroes along.

- i have only played a few levels, both Empire and Demon. but the game feels so static, compared to Disciples II, where enemy heroes were sneaking around the map, now in Disciples III, there is nothing but the occasional enemy troop coming out of the map edge to attack some random node. (maybe i haven't played into it enough)

- i also agree with the combat part of the game, in Discples III combat is real drawn out and slows the gameplay right down. (it wasn't needed)

- Disciples III is basically Disciples II with revamped graphics. Again, for a part 3 i would've prefered to see a whole new Unit Research tree, than a new combat system. 4/10

Ultima said...

@Anonymous comment above:-

Hey, thanks for dropping by!

Anyways, yes, the maps also feels very static. I believe a whole new research tree, units would have made it a better game than the poorly designed combat system they have now.

Wished they had given much thought to the gameplay and kept the Gothic feel of the originals.

Is it me or game developers have begun to lose their creativity? Games are becoming worse these days.

Unknown said...

Seriously...what is up with the lack of creativity... The gaming market has grown bigger, so we get tons of generic games, unlike the few masterpieces we used to get before. Blood, Sex and fancy lighting effects sell I suppose and the tradeoff is the ART is lost.
I was a huge fan of the Disciples II artwork and style. That game bled awesome. I would hate to play a sequel which did not keep to that level of cool.

Ultima said...

@sidiot

Straight the point!
Agreed. Disciples II had the artwork and style, that 'Gothic' feel that no other game has. The mood and environment felt darker and deeper. Now it has turned into a cheap fantasy turn-based strategy game that any other titles are....