Disciples III: Renaissance
Giants, dragons, unicorns gather, agree to fight on grid…
It’s hard to find a more ridiculous target I.Or your medieval weapons of war than some poor player’s unicorn-filled fancy town. But that’s not an over-the-top scenario for Disciples III. The game rubs the best parts of gothic fantasy with a fine-grit sandpaper, delivering a world of turn-based, strategic game play that includes everyone’s favorite fantasy stereotypes,without many of the limitations of its five-year-old predecessor.
Disciples III is set, once again, in the world of Nevendaar, roughly a century after the events of Disciples II. The usual fantasy-esque turmoil of struggle and conflict runs rampant through out the world until a star (an”angel”) crashes to earth, shaking up the magical status quo.
The game’s three most powerful factions each seek the cratered angel for their own ends. The subsequent three campaigns deliver roughly 70 hours of total gameplay split into six or seven missions per faction: humans, undead and elves. Each campaign grants you a single major-hero character that you carry through levels, growing in power and experience as you build towns, topple dragons, recruit armies and hire other heroes to aid in your quest.
HP-stacked instruments of deathlike Titans and Demons return
This template is familiar to anyone that played Disciples II or Heroes of Might & Magic, but the nitty-gritty details of D3 and D2 couldn’t be any more dis-similar. All of your combat units still gain experience for performing tasks across the overland map and, more commonly, killing everything in sight. They’re also equipped with a Diablo- style skills tree that allows you to customize your characters.
More importantly, your army volunteers can now move, and creatures in Disciples III have finally broken free of their digital bonds and can now run amok on the larger hexagonal battlefield. Akella has built in a few game-changing rewards for doing so: You can make tactical use of environmental cover, chug your party over to predefined “nodes” that grant additional combat bonuses for fighting on them, or have front-line party members absorb enemy attacks to protect your”spongy spell casters” in the back. We love the sound of that tactical nuance.
Clash Of The Titans
Disciples II’s ultra-badass “supercreatures,” HP-stacked instruments of deathlike Titans and Demons, return in greater quantities this time around. Not only has Akella increased the number of units that you can slot into one huge, dominating force, but you can now supplement your army by casting spells during combat or by using a rune to slap a pre-saved spell onto a single unit per battle.
The entire game has also broken out the two-dimensional game play of Disciples II. Every inch of the landscape is rendered with the Sallie gritty, contrast-laden style as before, but with brand-new 3D treatment allows you to view your terraformed battlescape from any angle.
You’ll have to wait just a bit longer for Akella to finish its turn—Disciples III isn’t expected to hit American shelves until the third quarter of 2010. But like any turn-based strategy title, sometimes it’s all kittens and butterflies until a player sends a 20,000-strong army to your front steps. It’s been four years since we last heard a peep from the Disciples series, hut Akella’s vision for Disciples III looks like it’s going to make a significant impact in the world of top-down strategy
Giants, dragons, unicorns gather, agree to fight on grid…
It’s hard to find a more ridiculous target I.Or your medieval weapons of war than some poor player’s unicorn-filled fancy town. But that’s not an over-the-top scenario for Disciples III. The game rubs the best parts of gothic fantasy with a fine-grit sandpaper, delivering a world of turn-based, strategic game play that includes everyone’s favorite fantasy stereotypes,without many of the limitations of its five-year-old predecessor.
Disciples III is set, once again, in the world of Nevendaar, roughly a century after the events of Disciples II. The usual fantasy-esque turmoil of struggle and conflict runs rampant through out the world until a star (an”angel”) crashes to earth, shaking up the magical status quo.
The game’s three most powerful factions each seek the cratered angel for their own ends. The subsequent three campaigns deliver roughly 70 hours of total gameplay split into six or seven missions per faction: humans, undead and elves. Each campaign grants you a single major-hero character that you carry through levels, growing in power and experience as you build towns, topple dragons, recruit armies and hire other heroes to aid in your quest.
HP-stacked instruments of deathlike Titans and Demons return
This template is familiar to anyone that played Disciples II or Heroes of Might & Magic, but the nitty-gritty details of D3 and D2 couldn’t be any more dis-similar. All of your combat units still gain experience for performing tasks across the overland map and, more commonly, killing everything in sight. They’re also equipped with a Diablo- style skills tree that allows you to customize your characters.
More importantly, your army volunteers can now move, and creatures in Disciples III have finally broken free of their digital bonds and can now run amok on the larger hexagonal battlefield. Akella has built in a few game-changing rewards for doing so: You can make tactical use of environmental cover, chug your party over to predefined “nodes” that grant additional combat bonuses for fighting on them, or have front-line party members absorb enemy attacks to protect your”spongy spell casters” in the back. We love the sound of that tactical nuance.
Clash Of The Titans
Disciples II’s ultra-badass “supercreatures,” HP-stacked instruments of deathlike Titans and Demons, return in greater quantities this time around. Not only has Akella increased the number of units that you can slot into one huge, dominating force, but you can now supplement your army by casting spells during combat or by using a rune to slap a pre-saved spell onto a single unit per battle.
The entire game has also broken out the two-dimensional game play of Disciples II. Every inch of the landscape is rendered with the Sallie gritty, contrast-laden style as before, but with brand-new 3D treatment allows you to view your terraformed battlescape from any angle.
You’ll have to wait just a bit longer for Akella to finish its turn—Disciples III isn’t expected to hit American shelves until the third quarter of 2010. But like any turn-based strategy title, sometimes it’s all kittens and butterflies until a player sends a 20,000-strong army to your front steps. It’s been four years since we last heard a peep from the Disciples series, hut Akella’s vision for Disciples III looks like it’s going to make a significant impact in the world of top-down strategy
