Customer Reviews

Disciples III Renaissance

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

July 15, 2010
This review is to let everyone know that Kalypso Media released this game before it was finished. The DVD that you will get with the US version WILL NOT RUN ON ANY COMPUTER. Clicking on the icon will give a "cannot find original disc" error. The company said that they are working on a patch to fix the problem but they have not released it or commented further. I bought mine from Gamestop and I have been reading the Kalypso Forums. There are more bugs in this game than I have ever seen in any other. There are currently 12 pages of bugs and errors on the Kalypso, DIII problem forum. Do yourself a favor and wait until the kinks are worked out in this one before ordering.
If you haven't yet played Disciples II, I would recommend that. It is why I purchased Disciples III.
If you are skeptical of this review you can check out the Kalypso, Disciples III Forum and see for yourself. It is full of angry members wondering when they will be able to play the $40 game that is collecting dust on their computer desks. Amazon should remove this product until Kalypso yields a playable version.

July 30, 2010
A couple of weeks later...
Well, it is a couple of weeks after the release of the game and the patch is out. Don't get excited. The patch is also full of bugs. After installing it I was able to play for a short time until my game crashed. It locked my computer up and did some very bad things to my system. I had to restart in safe mode and uninstall the game to get my computer to run again. If that wasn't bad enough, the game now requires you to register online and give your information to a third party. You will be sent a code by email and you will be required to log on via the internet. Online verification is required every time you play. I would not buy this game under any circumstances at this time. I am sorry to say that this game is a complete bust. The situation is looking so bad that there is talk of a class action lawsuit on the forum against the company that released the game. Save your money for Elemental: War of Magic. Good luck gamers.

Game does not work when loaded from internet, as per many of the review sites.
And the copy i bought from the store installs, but does not run.
You get an original disk error not installed message.
From the internet review sites this is common with all the store bought versions.
Do not buy this product until you hear that new versions have shipped.

IF ANYTHING, LISTEN TO THE GUY BEFORE ME. I WAS LUCKY ENOUGH TO GET A COMPLETE REFUND WITH THE SELLER, BUT HE WASN'T SO LUCKY. please note that the man with the five star rating bought the game download, not this, so it doesn't apply to this practical version. go and buy a UK hard copy: it actually works.

My copy had the disc detection problem but was fixed by a patch Kalypso support sent. You may have to email support as the patch on game sites won't fix the disc detection error. You have to get it via support email. MY rating is for gameplay not technical issues.

I know a few that played Heroes that never liked the Disciple series. The chief complaint was not enough control over a battle. Which meant that as soon as a battle began, one could tell the outcome. I always found though that the people that came to that conclusion, hadn't played long enough to know how to set up the battles. In D2 the thief was awesome for changing battle orders. Bringing the powerful back row to the front where melee units could dispose of it. So D2 was about changing battle orders, using poison and magic to soften up tougher units. Scouting was key to survival. The strategy wasn't so much in the battle as it was in setting up the battle. Saving potions for the strongest bosses.

Well Disciples 3 has changed the Thief from a specialty unit into another melee leader type. Rod planters from D2 are also gone and are replaced with stationary border guardians. This alone does make this game more like heroes. In both D2 and D3 it is critical to spot the enemy before they attack you. The difference is instead of softening up the enemy with thiefs, there are now charge ups similar to as in heroes. Where you click on a church or a tavern and get +15 str or +10 vitality.

I'll get into more differences between D2 and D3 near the end. But now more about D3 in general. Balance is hit and miss. Hard level for some missions is fairly easy and for certain other missions, it is frustratingly difficult. The one hit I give this game, is it goes between easy to frustrating and doesn't always find the middle ground. The AI doesn't get harder on hard level. It just sends in higher level units early on. So I have had my level 1 leader, with 3 level 1 units facing a level 9 leader with 4 units ranging from level 4 to 7. Sticking strictly to melee and ranged attacks would be quick death. So what happens is one has to stock up on runes, which are the equivalent to what scrolls were in D2. Runes are nothing more than spells that can be cast during battle. The way to survive this lopsided battle is to summon Golems, Living Armor, Hellhounds, etc. The battle then becomes more about summoning then combat. I find strict combat more enjoyable. Having to rely on summoning to this extent takes the uniqueness out of the different unit classes. In D2, only the leader could use a scroll to summon. Now any unit can use a rune. In fact, even the units you summon can summon. So the more you summon, the more turns you get in a battle. Casting runes during battle can turn a impossible battle into a yawner. Fortunately early on in a mission, resources limit how many runes you can obtain. Some are available for purchase in town and some can be made by a leader in town. Having a leader make them uses mana instead of gold. Before you can make a rune, you first have to research it.

At the outset of these early hard level battles, your healer heals 37 damage to one unit while an enemy archer is doing 87 damage plus critical hit. So when its your healers turn, do you use its healing skill to heal 37 damage. No, you either summon a golem or use a ruin that restores 250 life. All your units become casters when your over matched. This is why I find it more fun to play in even battles. Like I said earlier though, the battles tend to be very difficult or very easy. Only a few are balanced.

I do like the turn based play and the hex system. The bonus hexes for magic, melee and ranged attacks can turn the difference in a close battle. The graphics are awesome. The music is nice and yea the narration and voices suck. At least you can turn off the unit voices in combat, then it will just play there dying agony.

Some nit picks I have. Some leaders are so small that you can't get a good close up of them in the world map or on the battle map. In particular, the Elf Mage leader and Elf thief. The world map looks awesome. I only wish you could tilt the camera down to see more at character level. It is so top down. Like looking at everything from the top of a building.

The battles are often less visually impressive than in D2. Its mainly because the units are spread out over the map and you have to zoom out to see what is going on. One thing about D2 is the unit animations were visually stunning, even by today's standards. That was in part because the battlefield was small. But it just has to be this way with a larger hex system.

About the AI. It will occasionally go out of its way to finish off your weaker units if it can do it in 1 blow. It does have a tendency to divide up its attack evenly. Once you summon a golem or whatever, the AI tends to focus on that. If all the AI has left is a healer and the healer retreats, you gain no exp for the battle. So when things are near the end. Take out the healer before say the last archer.

Some units are way overpowered but the stat files are readily accessible for anyone to mod them using notepad. Just be sure to make back ups and remove the txt extension from the files you save.

I played both disciples I and II.

Disciples III COULD be a decent game, but there are still too many features that just don't work right.

They implemented movement in the arena. this makes the game play a lot like Heroes of might and magic, but that's never a bad thing. However, in order to spice it up, they added something called "cover." The idea is, if you move to attack someone and you cross the path of another enemy, the enemy may choose to attack you and interrupt your original attack. This would be fine, except you can bypass it by moving WITHOUT attacking, then attacking. So it's worthless. Also, in the arena, the icons for abilities keep disappearing for no reason. They claimed to have fixed this in the last patch but it's still an issue.

EVERYBODY HAS ELEMENTAL RESISTANCE!
Every unit in the game has decent resistance to most elements. Peasants can be hit w/ giant rocks and they will take minimal damage because of their earth resistance. Good luck using fire on a spearman, too. It's like they wear asbestos armor.

NO SPELL VARIETY
Each tier of spell research is almost exactly like the previous tier, only with higher variables. And the graphics are the same for higher levels of the same spell.
Also, you can't do anything during a spell's animation, and some of them take a long time to cast.

ONLY THREE RACES
no dwarves. the undead will be added in a coming expansion

MORONIC AI
The AI is dumb. Really dumb. They never finish off enemies, leaving dangerous troops left with only a few hitpoints. It'll also use abilities that serve no purpose at the time of use. On the world map, the AI'll seem to wander aimlessly, and during campaigns, THEY'LL COMPLETE YOUR OBJECTIVES FOR YOU. Very frustrating.
Turning the AI up to hard mode only seems to give them tougher troops, and other players claim the AI cheats on harder modes, while still acting stupid.

Overall:

gameplay: long. you get your money's worth there, though it may seem monotonous to some

graphics: pretty good, though attacks aren't as spectacular as they were in disciples II. Some units got shafted graphics-wise (mainly the gargoyle, gargoyle upgrades just change colors). Some bugs, also. Moving leaders will have their horse move before them, for example, then they appear atop their horse when it's reached its destination.

It has been eight years since the previous installment of the DISCIPLES franchise. Although this new gospel is, most probably, bound to be branded apocryphal and anticanonical (if not outright heretic), it still offers hours of a good old Turn-Based RolePlaying/Strategy Gaming.

The graphics have been improved significantly, the gameplay has been streamlined but there are no major deviations from the beaten path. Experience points can now be attributed to either the hero or its units. Buildings and units focus more on quality rather than quantity. The ability tree of the hero can now branch into three specialties (Warlord, Archmage & Guild Master). And, contrary to what we had been used to, only three factions are available (Empire, Legion of the Damned & Elves). In step with the industry's greed, I am guessing the rest of the game will be sold as...DLCs.

Finally, I will refrain from spoiling it for anyone but the story twists do not always leave a pleasant aftertaste. RPG purists prepare to be exposed to some ...ethical variations.

If a TB-RPG gamer, I would suggest Kings Bounty: The Legend instead. However, completionists and hardcore DISCIPLES fans cannot miss on this third installment.

I've been waiting for ever for the next edition of Disciples, but this one is an extreme disappointment!

First - NO MAPS! You are stuck playing the campaing (which limits your unit development/upgrades) and there is just one map you can choose to play, that's it. This may be fine for new players, but those of us who spent countless hours playing Disciples 2 will be bored in a few minutes. Who knows if we'd ever get any more maps for Disciples 3.

Second - the game has completely failed to follow on the classic gameplay. It has nothing to do with the previous Disciples, now it plays exactly like Heroes 5. I love the Heroes saga, but I was also looking forward to more of the Disciples 2 type gameplay.

Bottom line - if you loved Disciples 2, the third will disappoint.

Like everyone else who posted about the error with the game not finding the disc and not running, I encountered the same thing when I purchased it from a local store. Fortunately, I was able to get a refund. What's funny, is that I was finally able to get the game to run after I returned it. You don't require the disc for the installed game to run once you get the patch.

Having the game run, however, isn't a good thing. This game sucks! I played the previous Disciples games, and enjoyed them, but I'm entirely bored with Disciples III. Save your money, don't bother with this horrible game.

Disciples 3 Renaissance has gotten some bad rep here but for myself I have not experienced any of the problems others have experienced. I am playing the British version of the game, without the patch being applied. So for, I have just finished Chapter two of the Empire Campaign and it has worked just fine without any major glitches.

Graphics. Great, with a lot of atmosphere. It looks as if a lot of time was spent working on the visuals. Everything is well detailed, magic attacks are fantastic, and the looks of your units changes depending on whats equipped. No problems here.

Sound. I'll be honest. Turn off unit voices during battles. They are lame and boring. The noises made by your units during battle and spell casting also could have been done better. Still, it is serviceable, and won't annoy players. Music is okay, not great. I play with it on low, with atmospheric sounds turned to high.

Gameplay. First off, you CAN recruit your second most powerful leader as a veteran unit as you progress in the Campaign. You also keep purchased items. I found the gameplay to be exactly like Disciples 2 except for the battles and while some players have expressed a dislike for the new Hex style battlefield, I have found it to be far more advanced than the simpler battles of Disciples 2. The ability to move my units to better positions and to occupy power up nodes placed randomly has saved me from defeat more times than I can remember. It's a good battle system and works fine. Nothing wrong with the gameplay.

Overall. I think this is a great strategy game. It sucks you in and keeps you playing. Perhaps not the deepest of strategy games, yet the overall experience is quite fun and a worthy purchase. I would recommend buying the British version though.

Disciples III: Renaissance (Akella/.dat, 2010)

First off, let me say that my review of this game wouldn't be nearly as harsh were it not Disciples III: Renaissance. You see, Disciples: Sacred Lands was a phenomenal game, back in the day. And then Disciples II: Dark Prophecy came along and blew it right out of the water, becoming one of my ten favorite games of all time (Lords of Magic, Knights and Merchants, Darklands, Morrowind, Demise: Rise of the Ku'Tan, Oblivion, Doom II, Lode Runner, and Shamus, for what it's worth). I've played through every campaign in Dark Prophecy at least twice a year since it came out. I've been waiting for Renaissance for, what, five years now? I can't even remember when they first announced it. All I know is that it seems as if there hasn't been a time in my gaming life when I wasn't waiting for Disciples III. And then came July 13, 2010.

On the upside, Renaissance is very pretty, and it makes me long for something I long for quite often when sequels come out: for the studios to go back and retool the earlier games in the series to use the new engines and art. Wouldn't Daggerfall be awesome on the Oblivion engine (or Arena, which actually let you traverse the entire continent)? Imagine playing all those great SSI gold box games on the engine that powered the Baldur's Gate games. The original Doom on the Doom III engine. You get the idea. Being able to play Sacred Lands and Dark Prophecy on the Renaissance engine would be... awesome. No two ways about it.

Unfortunately, that's the only way I'll ever play anything else on the Renaissance engine. I can kind of see why they made some of the changes they did, and the way it's set up is actually pretty novel; as opposed to having your choice of the races to play through the various campaigns, you progress from the Empire to the Legions to the Elves in one overarching story, and I like the idea of it. But my god, the execution is a shambles. One of the most common complaints about Dark Prophecy was that mages were just ridiculously overpowerful, and yeah, that was true. But did the solution to that problem have to be being forced to stick to one main character in each storyline? And okay, Dwarves really did kinda suck in Dark Prophecy, but did you have to get rid of them (AND the undead!) as playable races altogether? (For those willing to stick with this, I've heard rumors that both will show up in expansions down the line as playable races, the way the Elves did in the last DP expansion.) I mean, you spent years putting this together, tweaking playability might have made more sense--and alienated a lot less of the existing fanbase--than the scorched-earth policy we ended up getting.

Then there's the levelling system for your hero. The levelling system in the original games wasn't great, I give it that (and it got worse with the first two expansion packs, since you couldn't choose feats beyond L15, and I can't remember ever finishing with a character who was less than L20), but it was miles better than what we have. It originally looks as if it's a lot more customizable until you've played through it a time or two and realize that you're actually going to end up, assuming you get every extra skill point the game gives you, with four or five unchecked options by the time you hit the end of the game. Which means not only are you playing the same character every time, but you're getting exactly the same powerups along the way. (And given some are absolutely necessary for survival, you'll probably take much the same paths to get to them.) I'm guessing the word "replayability" did not enter into game-design brainstorming sessions too often when this game was being worked on, at least in its final form.

That's too bad, because the replayability of Sacred Lands (assuming you can get it to run under modern operating systems, which is sometimes a chore) and Dark Prophecy are a huge part of what made--and still make--them so great. Renaissance, on the other hand, just seems a colossal failure to me, and by far the biggest disappointment of my gaming life. *