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“A decade has
passed since the first great wars: the final prophecy continues
to unfold. Deep within the crevices of the sacred lands, the
chosen one has emerged, fated to bring salvation to some and
destruction to others. Braced with renewed faith and newfound
conviction, each race must once again take up sword for the sake
of their people and the glory of their god.”
So the storyline goes the “Disciples II: Dark Prophecy”.
Not having played the original disciples, the opening cinematic
clip is a great, exciting introduction to the game that sets both
the mood and establishes the plot.
The gameplay itself is turn-based strategy, somewhat similar to
the heroes of might and magic games. When beginning a quest,
gamers must choose between one of four
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races to command: the empire,
the mountain clan, the undead hordes or the legion of the damned. After choosing
a race, the specific goals of the quest are delineated and play starts at a
stronghold castle.
From the beginning stronghold castle, players must choose an army leader.
A leader may excel at either combat or sorcery. After choosing a leader,
the rest of the militia is assembled. At the beginning of a quest, the
leader has limited experience and may choose only two companions to start with.
If a sorcery leader was chosen, it is best to stock the militia with melee
troops and vice-versa.
As a leader gains experience through winning battles, more troops may be
added to the militia. Also, the troops in the militia earn experience though
these winning battles and are promoted into more effective fighting units.
For example, a basic fighting dwarf (damage 30) is promoted to a dwarf warrior
(damage 55) who is then promoted to a dwarf veteran (damage 80). A great feature
of this game is that if one of your troops, or even a leader is killed in combat,
they can be revived at the home castle, for a price in gold, with the experience
still intact.
Graphics in "Disciples II: Dark Prophecy" are extremely well done, and do an
excellent job of conveying a mystical landscape. The main game view is an overhead
map view, showing castles, rivers, terrain, gold mines, wandering enemies, mana deposits, etc.
Game view switches to a close-up battle screen when two opposing forces meet.
Individual character graphics are perhaps the strongest features of Disciples II.
Swords flash in the light, armor glistens, fires crackle and all movements are
silky smooth. All characters are represented with the classic sword and sorcery
arch-types: dwarfs have long beards and hammers, wizards have long flowing robes,
demons have pointy tails and wings, giants have loincloths and clubs, etc.
The combat structure is a pure turn-based system. Upon entering battle, the troop
from either force with the most experience / highest level has the “initiative” and
attacks first. As this is a turn-based strategy combat system, it is a great luxury
to take as much time as needed to decide on the perfect attack. Specific combat options
include cast spell, attack, defend, wait (?), or retreat. attacks continue until
one side is defeated, and the winning force gains experience based on the difficulty
of troops vanquished.
Games are set up with “quests”. A quest may consist of capturing 3 enemy towns or
finding an ancient artifact. During these quests, neutral towns may be captured,
from which a player can launch multiple armies with individual leaders. One extremely
frustrating feature of Disciples II: Dark Prophecy is that at the successful completion
of a quest, only one leader may be carried forth into the next quest. Any other leaders
with significant experience are simply unavailable for future use in the game.
Another major knock against the game is the extremely poor instruction manual.
This “manual” glosses over many key subjects in mere sentences, is set in a ridiculously
small, almost unreadable font, and - get this - does not explain what any of the spells
do for the 4 races. All told, there are over 125 spells available, and the only way to
find out what they do is to cast the spell, observe and hope. For example, I once cast
a low level spell called "living armor". I assumed this spell would grant defensive
protection to my troops, but in actuality it created a walking suit of armor to fight
alongside my militia. Who knew?
After figuring out the basic gameplay of Disciples II (with little help from the instructions)
and admiring the graphic, playing this game can be a bit repetitive. One problem is that
fighting characters don’t move on the battle screen, so the whole fighting interaction
is static. Another annoyance is that during battles, the an enemy troop will inevitably be left
with one remaining hit point, thus allowing another full attack against your squad. example:
you attack a knight with a hill giant. The knight has 120 hit points and the hill giant maximum
attack is 150 damage points. 9 times out of 10, the hill giant will do 119 hit points of damage,
which means a whole other attack round is need to kill the knight. This happens over and over and
over.
Disciples II: Dark Prophecy is not a game that will instill great passion in the gaming community.
It has its strong points, its weak points, does some things well, and falls short in some areas.
As there are limited selections in the turn-based strategy genre, it is worth a look, but ultimately
not a long look.
Sliceboy's Rating:
3 out of 5 Planets
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