Mittwoch, 20. Januar 2016

Disciples II is underrated


In the good old days when when it was customary to pick up a game at the supermarket without checking online reviews first, you were always in for a surprise. In those days, you could only judge a game by its cover or, if it was a current release, check a magazine review, but that was about it. Purchasing games then was a lot more adventurous than it is today. 

Disciples II: The Dark Prophecy was such a spontaneous purchase for me. It had been out for too long to be found in a magazine, and the internet in the rural area from where I come was terrible (playing Counterstrike, just against bots of course, was rendered virtually impossible for entire weekends if there happened to be an update).

The Undead Hordes have some amazingly creepy units. Source.

However, this game did not disappoint me. I was astonished to see such beautiful graphics, which by now have aged fairly well. The artwork especially still feel a lot livelier than many newer dark, realistic games which often blend in one depressive office building into the next stage of postapocalyptic wasteland. Here, the situation is different, because there are strong contrasts: When playing the Empire of Man and planting rods to extend territory and gather resources, the territory gets as joyfully springlike as possible; when playing the Undead, a deathly wasteland spreads across the country. Thus, you feel an actual difference between the 4 different factions (diverse non-playable subfactions, such as the greenskins and the merfolk, add to the fun) and there is little monotony. 
 
Choose wisely

But it is not only the graphics that fascinate me; first of all, a game should be fun. And Disciples II is fun – which I would not have expected, because I am not a huge fan of turn-based strategy games. Heroes of Might and Magic, for example, is an absolute bore in my opinion. 
 
Not so Disciples II: At the beginning of the game, you get to choose a hero. He is the only one who will accompany you on your travels; all the other units in the team of maximum 6 small or 3 big units will be depleted once you start the next mission. Which is just fine, because you have a range of different units which serve different purposes. 
 
For example, when playing the Undead, you will, at some point, need units that do not deal “death” damage, because you fight a necromancer who will summon other undead who are immune to death-based attacks. You will need some units that use their swords and thus deal “weapon” damage. Thus, you have to arrange a new team in each mission, which is challenging. During the turn-based battles, units either stand in the front row or in the back, depending on whether they can only strike adjacent units with their sword or target them with their bow or spells. Each row consists of 3 squares.

Youtuber Micaelus Playing the Undead Campaign

Often, the wisest thing to do is to pick a sorcerer as hero. In the beginning, they don’t seem to be very effective, but by the end, if you choose to improve your heroes' initiative and boost his attack value, you can wipe out an entire enemy team before they get a chance to fight back. But one word of advice: Save your potions for the final boss, as those are surprisingly tough!

More addictive than Pokémon

Another fun thing is to watch the creatures and soldiers in your team grow. It reminded me a lot of Pokémon. Nothing beats watching your team of two ice giants evolve into the mighty Sons of Ymir – with a little magic, you can enhance their armor value, waltz straight into the capital of an enemy faction and kill the entire faction for that mission, which is a huge feat in this game. 
 
Each capital has a guardian which will instantly melt lesser armies. But once you win, it will feel utterly rewarding. Not only will they stop messing with your forces, but they will also leave all their money and spells to you, which make final bosses so much easier to beat.

The Add-Ons, all to be found in the Gold Edition, do not only add missions (although there could have been more) but also a new faction, the Elves. They truly are for veterans, for they may be slightly faster (meaning, the attack earlier) than the other factions, but they also are really, really vulnerable. You will have a hard time playing on “hard”, which, then again, just sounds about right, right?

Pick it up and have sheer endless fun. But don’t buy Disciples III, it's bland, both visually and mechanically.

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