Fantasy 6 Pack (Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood / Disciples II: Dark Prophecy / Disciples II: Servants of the Dark / Disciples II: Guardian of the Light / Dragon Throne: Battle of Red Cliff / Prince of Qin)

by Strategy First

Product Features

• Robin Hood - The Legend Of Sherwood
• Disciples II - Dark Prophecy
• Disciples II - Servants Of The Dark
• Disciples II - Guardiand Of The Light
• Dragon Throne - Battle Of Red Cliff

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000C86Q5
• Item Weight: 12 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: September 30, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #40,481 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Fantasy 6-Pack is your ticket to new worlds, where the old legends are real, swords and sorcery rule the day, and your destiny is to be a hero! Games include: Prince Of Qin

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars 5/5 for the games, -1 for the presentation, December 21, 2011

By 

LimblessQuasar - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Fantasy 6 Pack (Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood / Disciples II: Dark Prophecy / Disciples II: Servants of the Dark / Disciples II: Guardian of the Light / Dragon Throne: Battle of Red Cliff / Prince of Qin) (CD-ROM)

So first, let me start off by saying Strategy First is and always will be a budget publisher. They've made a living as a company, off of dozens of cheap, sub-par games. Of course, they've also released some true, widely-respected gems like Jagged Alliance 2, Sacred, and the Patrician series. I find this necessary to note, as their games are often passed over as lacking current-day graphics, sounds, or presentation. But what budget titles DO have those things? None that I can think of. I'm just noting this because most of their current games look like early Xbox 360 titles, and this is a collection of earlier titles. Definitely not for the PC gamer that needs the "best" of everything.

Anyways, this collection is of 6 games, Prince of Qin, Dragon Throne, Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood, Disciples II: Dark Prophecy and two of its expansions; Guardians of Light, and Servants of the Dark. Everything installed perfectly fine on my Windows 7 64-bit system, though I did have to fool the system's internal security by letting the disc get revved up to prepare installation, then eject it from the drive (for 2 of the games I had to do this - not at all a big deal). If you've done a whole lot of gaming on new computers, this probably shouldn't surprise you. My one complaint about the package is the lack of presentation. Like I said, the games themselves have always lacked a "wow" factor, but the cardboard casing here is nothing exciting. There are no physical manuals. The discs are all in sleeves, and have very generic looking work - the discs "art" is actually just a re-paste of the cardboard casing in this instance. It's not a big deal, and does not hamper my enjoyment of the games, but it was underwhelming. Oh and finally, it's missing the other two stand-alones for Disciples II, those being Gallean's Return and Rise of the Elves. The whole package can be had in the Disciples II Gold Edition, which at this moment is right around $10, not a bad value in my opinion.

Before you run off, two more things; (1 I'll gladly help with any installation or play issues you might have, just comment here, (2 if you're interested, below I offer quick, feature-heavy reviews of each game, if you're wondering.

Prince of Qin is a fantastic little PC-style hack n slash title (Meaning this is like Diablo, not God of War). I feel the game is unfairly treated due to its lack of what most PC gamers will instantly notice, its presentation and similarities to Diablo II. Once past the fact that it "looks, sounds, and plays worse than Diablo II," it's an extremely enjoyable game that will give you some treats if you're patient enough. Basically, it's the standard Diablo-style camera perspective and fighting style, with some twists. Namely, it employs a party system, and offers a variety of followers that you can choose upon meeting. Swapping out party members is not difficult and often interesting due to the possibilities it offers. Of course, there are a wide variety of leveling options, which the game handles through a system of skills and attributes; when one of your party members level up, you can upgrade their constitution, charm, strength (among a few others) and then gain a point to unlock a skill, such as the ability to summon a Tiger, create a Flame Wall, or do a spinning attack. There are also 5 classes offered, so the variations are fairly interesting. My favorite part of the game, which I still feel has not been surpassed, is the crafting system. Very simplistic and tedious in design, but very, very satisfying when it works out correctly. There's also a massive amount of content and a decent multiplayer mode that offers something fresh once you're done. I'd say one playthrough on the normal difficulty is about 50 hours, possibly a hundred if you're wanting to do all the extra quests and such, or playing on the excruciating hard mode.

Dragon Throne is a difficult game to explain. There are some Youtube videos around to help you get started, if you need, and keep in mind I haven't played the game in about 6 months, so my wording might be off, though all the details are good. If you thought you knew RTS games, or that they were all the same, you were pretty much wrong. Dragon Throne puts you in command of a castle-city, giving you a few peasants, a Work Camp, and a Palace to start with. Your Work Camp lets you build more peasants, your Palace lets you advance your civilization. Peasants can build various buildings, and of course you end up making large armies and controlling resources like Iron, Wood, and Crops. "So how is this any different than other RTS games?" Well, first and foremost, Trebuchets are entirely broken, and move faster than horses. But other than that silly tidbit, the game is more Stronghold in terms of combat, than say, Age of Empires. Your city-castle is actually a small area in a larger map (I'll refer to it as the Overworld). Once you've explored all your area and are wondering where the enemies are, just send your troops to one of the exit points and bam! You're in a much larger overall map where you can run your army around, finding the other city-castles and destroying them. Combat, like I said, is more Stronghold-style, it's about strategy, about choosing where on the walls to attack (since scaling walls and destroying gates is a pretty fundamental part of the game), and using your troops and siege weapons wisely. There's a lot more to the game, but that's a pretty quick rundown. Keep in mind, this is NOT for the weak-willed. In random game matches, the AI will gang up on you, and you have to slowly sway them with sweet words and good coin, in the campaign, you will often be vastly outnumbered and having to run around killing multiple armies double your size. It's a tough-as-nails RTS that makes me wonder if the game was originally intended for the 16-bit era. Finally, it has a number of small issues that dig away at gameplay - pathfinding problems, illogical AI, and strange balancing among them. Still very fun, but not for the perfectionist who points out every flaw.

Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood is...A game I have never played. Has a Robin Hood game EVER been good? I'll surely try it out, though.

Finally, Disciples II: Dark Prophecy is another one of those "you don't quite know..." genre-muddling games. But unlike Dragon Throne, it's a TBS (Turn-based Strategy) game, and employs elements of the Master of Magic/Age of Wonders type games, as well as those found in something like Final Fantasy (odd, right?). The typical game starts its player off with a leader (which can gain exp/levels, and be exported for later scenarios, or even the campaign in some cases), a city, and a small force of troops. City management is very simple, as it involves only upgrading a few technologies, and then making your way along your civilization of choice's tech tree. The tech trees are interesting, because of the excellent balancing between higher-tier units. Similarly, all of the civilizations have strong attractions and differing play styles, though I believe there are clear leaders (The Undead and the Empire). Economy management is also made simple, as varying nodes, towns, and mana stones are acquired through a system of gradual "influence expansion," as I'll call it. Your capital, and other cities, will turn the land to your element a certain amount every turn, and once your element reaches these objects, you'll get resources (gold and mana) in return. So in other words, this is not at all a city or economic management type game. It's a build, upgrade and destroy type game. Building an army is not quite an "army," but more of a party. Parties are comprised of a leader and a few troops, at first these parties are just 2 or 3 troops, but as your leader upgrades you'll be able to create parties with up to 5. You can also make more leaders and upgrade them as well. The battle system is similar to the older Final Fantasy games, but there is much more strategy involved due to the variety of opponents you'll face, and the fact your troops are often underleveled. There are some problems with the game, namely the fact that taking enemy capitals is made out to be near impossible, and that the game is much more scenario-oriented than campaign-oriented, and most crucially that there is no decent random map editor. All of the expansions for the game are stand-alone (meaning you don't need the original to play), and offer some extra goodies in some cases, and just more of the same in others.

Sorry if the quality took a turn around the 3/4 point, I got a bit tired. Hopefully this was helpful, if not, feel free to drop me a line, and again, if you have any problems with the games, you can comment below.

Note: As of this writing Amazon has this product listed multiple times under a few different titles. If they have the case "Fantasy 6 Pack" and are red/white, it's probably the same thing, regardless of whether or not Amazon thinks 2K, THQ, or Strategy First published it.